Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Honey & Spice

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola

31 reviews

amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

5.0

This book has so much amazing dialogue that came across perfectly as a audiobook. I really felt like I was listening to a bonus season of Dear White People set in the UK.

I love how witty the characters are with each other and the romance was perfect. It was a slow burn with the characters developing over time, slowly realizing that there is no such thing as fake dating. I also enjoyed all of the black culture pop references. The focus on friendship was wonderful as well. This book had me smiling and laughing all the way through.

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hjb_128's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing 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

4.25

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weelasswithabook's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

CW: Racial microaggressions, racism, colourism, misogyny, revenge porn, sexual content, cancer, sick parent, police brutality

🌟 Fake Dating

🌈 Black MCs

This. Was. Perfection. Everything you could possibly need from a romance, this had it in spades.

Fake dating is my ultimate all-time favourite trope. I don't think I've ever read a fake dating romance that I didn't love. So I'm basically already biased, but I promise you it's worth reading. There's just something about those moments when we, the readers, get to see through the fake and into the real. And that light bulb moment when the characters realise it *chefs kiss* I cannot and will not tire of it.

This book is set at a university, and alongside the romance itself, the book explores the existence of systemic racism within the educational system and how communities adversely affected by it overcome, band together, and push back against.

Kiki and Kai were just a match made in heaven. Totally rubbed up the wrong way in the beginning, Kiki hasn't had the best first impression, so this alienation from the start makes the fake dating to lovers so much tastier when it happens. There's never any real beef between the two, but they both have their own hang ups to work through and walls built up to knock down.

I like how their romance unfolded so subtly to them that their realisations were just so pure. And the declarations of love, ugh, I love love loved the ending. 10/10.

The female friendships in H&S were also huge standout aspects of the book. Especially when Kiki had a lot of baggage around female friendships so she sort of sequestered herself away from socialising and actually having a wider friendship group.

My only quibble, and it’s very slight, but the ending felt quite abrupt. Maybe it's just because I wanted the story to continue to see them further down the line, I'm not sure.

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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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carseatwarmers's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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

the audiobook is top tier! anyway

we need to abolish the third act breakup 😫 that setup was so weird but i’m a sucker for grand gestures so i’ll try to let it slide 😇

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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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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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