Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Honey & Spice

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola

100 reviews

shaynicole's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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hannahs_library__'s review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Not only did this man read her favorite romantasy series, he also fully DRESSED UP AS ONE OF THE MMCs SO SHE WOULDN’T HAVE TO GO TO A CONVENTION ALONE. 😭🧡 If he wanted to, he would!

Read this if you like:

- College (uni) romance

- Fake dating

- Found family/ friendships

- Banter!!!

- Multimedia (radio show)

- Amazing writing

Honey & Spice was my favorite kind of romance; the subplot had so much depth and there was sooo much character development. While Kiki and Malakai were everything, the focus was equally on their individual character arcs and growth, and it was amazing!

Set at the heart of British Uni, main character Kiki is the host of a popular student run radio show, Brown Sugar, where she provides situationship advice for her fellow students (and really cool playlists). However, as we can expect she quickly finds herself entangled in a situation of her own that may or may not involve fake dating. 😉

I’ve seen a lot of reviews that critique the book for being too college-centric. Personally, I thought it was nostalgic and loved it! It is a story about college students and their college friends at college so do with that what you will. 🤷 I loved being wrapped up in the college social drama and atmosphere, so it really worked for me. Bolu does an amazing job at setting the vibe, I felt like I was on campus with them. If that’s not your thing, maybe stay away from the New Adult genre. ☕

I had such a great time listening to this as an audiobook! Weruche Opla was an amazing narrator. The radio show elements really took the experience up a notch and made it really fun to listen to. Overall, highly HIGHLY recommend this book. (Plus, I heard that a sequel is in the works. 👀)

Edit: changing this to 5 ⭐s because it's been months and I still think about it frequently

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dylan_tomorrow's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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gellyreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“No one else distracts me from plantain.” This is the exact type of romance stuff I eat up!! Enemies to friends to lovers?! With woke characters? Cheesy AF romantic gestures? Character development? Yes, please!

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daenerystargaryen's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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revoli's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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gerlinen's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I still genuinely don't know why its a prerequisite in the genre that the couple must always admit that they started off as a 'fake relationship' — like seriously, whose business is it?! Always do love when it's actually the woman in the wrong in these hetero set-ups but I do feel like Malakai needed a bit more characterisation — just a bit more edge.

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abigalelouise12's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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nenaveenstra's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is a beautiful representation of what being a woman in her early twenties can be like. It’s a story of community, of abuse and of finding yourself after you’ve been hurt. It’s also a fake dating romance.

Judging this book as a romance would be unfair, because, no, it didn’t make my stomach flutter like other romance novels have, and it’s not quite as sexy as other romances, and I couldn’t quite get on board with the fake dating side of things. However, the romance in this story was an important part of the character arc of our main character, Kiki, and I appreciated it for that.

Kiki went from a person who’d rather be lonely than be hurt, to someone who collects an awesome group of friends who would die for her, and is capable of talking through conflict instead of avoiding it, and it was beautiful to watch. And the same went for a lot of the other characters in this book, like Aminah, Kofi, and, most importantly, Malakai, all of whom had dealt with painful relationship drama in the past. All of that character development happened in an environment that was like Black Mean Girls, with different cliques all around the university and gossip blogs detailing every student’s love life, and Black slang and Yoruba (and other languages) all around.

This book felt very raw, very real. And yet it didn’t really affect me in ways I would’ve liked it to. I wish I felt more invested in Kiki and Kai’s relationship, and I wish I could connect more to Kiki as a character overall, even though her closed-offness was kind of the point. Maybe it’s because I’m white, or because I’m queer, and neurodivergent. Either way, I felt kind of distanced from everything that was going on. But I still recommend this book for what it does achieve. And what it can achieve for people who don’t feel seen in other pieces of media.

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umsriracha's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Honey and Spice quickly jumped to my top 3 reads. The rhythm of the book is captivating. It’s clear that the author is insanely well-spoken and versed in literature. The way Bolu Babalola writes is honestly inspiring. After reading this book I want to download a word of the day app and really step my vocab game up. While advanced, her writing is not convoluted in any way. Babalola writes like… jazz. That’s the only way to describe it, honestly. It’s like music, at least to me. Anyway! Speaking of inspiring, Kiki Banjo is the perfect main character. She’s not without flaws but she is extremely intelligent, beautiful, and witty in a way that transcends the page. As a black girl myself, having a character like Kiki is touching, much appreciated, and way past due. Now, the romance in so few words: the progression is seamless and I’ll just leave it at this..

he read her favorite books. swoon.

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