Bolu Babalola is a literary Renaissance woman with a penchant for cultural observation, a romance author whose bio states that “women can be both ‘Beauty and the beast,’ ” and who wrote her masters thesis on Beyoncé. When a storyteller with that pedigree comes along, readers take note. Babalola definitely struck a chord with her acclaimed debut, Honey and Spice, and its sequel, Sweet Heat, is just as insightful.
College sweethearts Kiki Banjo and Malakai Korede, the main couple in Honey and Spice, are now in their late 20s—and they’ve been broken up for two and a half years. Kiki has become a podcast host and draws on her personal experiences to help listeners cure what ails them. Her success has brought challenges and she recently broke up with her boyfriend, but she still has meaningful friendships and, like her listeners, is hopeful about love.
Malakai is a filmmaker on the rise, a fact that exacerbates the despair Kiki feels at the loss of their relationship due to her current career struggles. When the story opens, Malakai is preparing to be the best man at the same wedding where Kiki will be the maid of honor. So instead of being able to gracefully lick their wounds separately, in private, they’re forced to work together in the service of their friends’ happiness.
Despite the deep heartache experienced by both Kiki and Malakai, this is a rom-com—and Babalola is funny. Beneath the repartee, her striking sentences are packed with details about this couple’s past and present, slowly revealing the history of a relationship that started happily, then ran them through the wringer in the interim. It’s a fabulous example of showing instead of telling, and readers will truly root for a second chance that seems just out of reach, but visible on the horizon. For two people whose lives rest on excellent professional communication (a podcast host and director), Kiki and Malakai are admittedly pretty lousy at personal communication. There’s a lot of “will they, won’t they,” but stick with it because in the end, this second chance is beautifully fulfilled.