HONEY & SPICE by Bolu Babalola

Kiki, the first person narrator, is in her second year at Whitewell, a fictional English university, where she has a campus radio program called “Brown Sugar” that provides women with empowering advice on dating.  Her audience becomes incensed when she is seen kissing Malakai, a new student whom she dubbed “Wasteman” on one of her recent broadcasts.  The purpose of the kiss was actually to scare off a guy that Kiki was trying to ditch.  She and Malakai then create a plan that involves pretending to date one another in order for her to rebuild respect among the other Black women on campus and keep her viewership intact.  Malakai is something of a player, and Kiki keeps her social interactions to a minimum, but they are both relationship-avoidant in different ways.  They both have to move out of their comfort zone in order to keep up appearances for the sake of their ruse—Kiki becoming more open to social activities and Malakai limiting himself to one woman.  These two predictably fall in love, but their insecurities don’t allow them to admit it, as each is concerned that the other is just faking it.  The plot does not really offer any big surprises, but the two characters have a certain charm that keeps the book from becoming too much of a cliché.  I will warn readers that there is some Yoruba dialog—all translated—and quite a bit of slang that I did not understand—not translated.  Also, the repeated use of “I” where “me” is grammatically correct really grated on me.  Constantly having to read “between Malakai and I” or “leaving Malakai and I” and the like sounded like fingernails on a blackboard to my ears.