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thenovelmaura'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
4.0
I enjoyed this one and thought it was especially delightful to listen to! Maybe this is because I got to experience all of the narrator's lovely accents; it made me feel more immersed in the story. Overall, I liked the focus on remaining true to your values and refusing to acquiesce to societal, familial, and peer pressures. This book was at times hilarious but often poignant, particularly when Yinka's insecurities about her appearance came up. Colorism is a thing, y'all!
Although Yinka's goal is romance, the true outcome of the book is her character growth and the relationships she builds along the way. I'm only docking a star because it was a bit too long and I could feel myself growing impatient in some of the middle sections. Overall, this is a solid debut novel and I hope Damilola Blackburn is already working on her next one!
Although Yinka's goal is romance, the true outcome of the book is her character growth and the relationships she builds along the way. I'm only docking a star because it was a bit too long and I could feel myself growing impatient in some of the middle sections. Overall, this is a solid debut novel and I hope Damilola Blackburn is already working on her next one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Body shaming
Moderate: Death of parent
Colorismserendipitysbooks's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
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
4.0
Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? is a lighthearted read featuring a lovable but flawed protagonist. Yinka is a 31 year old British woman of Nigerian descent whose family is putting pressure on her to marry. To get them off her back she commits to finding a boyfriend to accompany her to an upcoming wedding. But things do not go according to plan. She loses her job, fixates on the wrong man, and makes many questionable choices. But eventually she finds the courage to be true to herself, tell her family how their constant pressure makes her feel, seeks out a job she’s passionate about even if it is in a less prestigious field that her previous one, and maybe, just maybe, finds a guy who might be worth dating.
Despite its overall lighthearted tone this tackled some serious topics including the pressure on women to marry and the problems with family pressure, judgement and comparison in general. Racism and colourism were also tackled, as was the issue of whether people were obligated to be proud of their cultural heritage and what this might look like. This story gets high marks for depicting therapy as a normal part of emotional and mental well-being. I also liked that Yinka was a strong Christian, determined to retain her virginity until marriage, and that she was not interested in imposing her values on others or judging those who believed differently. Such characteristics seem out of the ordinary in contemporary fiction so I found it a refreshing point of difference. I loved the inclusion of an aromantic character, a nice balance to the pressure to marry message. I also liked the inclusion of text messages, post-it notes, computer search histories and planning charts with KPIs. They added a little fun but also provided a quick insight into Yinka’s mind.
Despite its overall lighthearted tone this tackled some serious topics including the pressure on women to marry and the problems with family pressure, judgement and comparison in general. Racism and colourism were also tackled, as was the issue of whether people were obligated to be proud of their cultural heritage and what this might look like. This story gets high marks for depicting therapy as a normal part of emotional and mental well-being. I also liked that Yinka was a strong Christian, determined to retain her virginity until marriage, and that she was not interested in imposing her values on others or judging those who believed differently. Such characteristics seem out of the ordinary in contemporary fiction so I found it a refreshing point of difference. I loved the inclusion of an aromantic character, a nice balance to the pressure to marry message. I also liked the inclusion of text messages, post-it notes, computer search histories and planning charts with KPIs. They added a little fun but also provided a quick insight into Yinka’s mind.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Body shaming, and Racism
vaniavela's review against another edition
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
Yinka, a 30-year-old British Nigerian, has a good job, a big close-knit family and stable friendships. Everything is perfect, isn't it? The only catch is that she is single, and people (including her family) don't seem to let her forget it.
This story covers many topics, such as people's expectations and the pressure our family and culture put on us. It will also highlight some important themes such as colorism, and how it unfortunately influences the way relationships of all kinds (especially romantic ones) are sought and formed.
Yinka feels a lot of pressure from her family, all her friends seem to be getting married or having babies, which leads her to suffer constant comments. It was interesting to read a protagnist who saves her virginity for marriage and tries to be a light drinker.
Now on to negative aspects, I think this book is in the wrong genre. It's fine that there are mentions of religion, but since it covers so many aspects (there's praying, going to mass, even a non-believer character ends up getting into Christianity after making them reflect on it) I think the genre should have been Christian fiction, or at least something other than romantic comedy. It's not even a romance book, it's more of a self-love book. I also didn't like the pop culture references. And lastly, our main character has poor decision making skills, which made me angry at times.
Overall, I think it's a good book.
tw: death of a parent, death of a sibling, racism, mention of dieting, body shaming, cancer, fatphobia, grief.
This story covers many topics, such as people's expectations and the pressure our family and culture put on us. It will also highlight some important themes such as colorism, and how it unfortunately influences the way relationships of all kinds (especially romantic ones) are sought and formed.
Yinka feels a lot of pressure from her family, all her friends seem to be getting married or having babies, which leads her to suffer constant comments. It was interesting to read a protagnist who saves her virginity for marriage and tries to be a light drinker.
Now on to negative aspects, I think this book is in the wrong genre. It's fine that there are mentions of religion, but since it covers so many aspects (there's praying, going to mass, even a non-believer character ends up getting into Christianity after making them reflect on it) I think the genre should have been Christian fiction, or at least something other than romantic comedy. It's not even a romance book, it's more of a self-love book. I also didn't like the pop culture references. And lastly, our main character has poor decision making skills, which made me angry at times.
Overall, I think it's a good book.
tw: death of a parent, death of a sibling, racism, mention of dieting, body shaming, cancer, fatphobia, grief.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Racism, and Sexism
Moderate: Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Grief
onemorepagecrew's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-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? No
5.0
Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a wonderful book that is so much more than a romance story. In it we meet Yinka, a British Nigerian woman with an Oxford education, a good career, a solid friend group, and the constant pressure from her family to get married. When her cousin gets engaged, she sets a personal goal to find a date for the wedding and the reader joins her as she awkwardly meets a few potential dates.
The author captures the insecure inner dialogue so well that it’s easy to be equal parts cringing for and rooting for Yinka. But this story has more depth than the dating scenes and that’s what made me love it. Yinka’s friend group is easy to fall in love with, too, and each of those characters are also going through their own situations. There’s a mom of three young kids questioning the loyalty in her marriage, there’s an aromantic best friend who tries to keep Yinka from changing who she is to attract a man, and there’s work colleagues who morph from surface-level support into deeper-level friends. Yinka is also surrounded by her Nigerian aunties and feeling their pressures in love and work, save for one auntie who she can speak with vulnerably.
This story is funny and serious at the same time – you’ll laugh with Yinka in one chapter and then yearn to hug her in another as she works through her self-love journey. If you haven’t read this one yet, I highly recommend it.
Bonus info: did you know that this book originally started as a short blog post by the author? It grew into this book as the author saw how many women were feeling the pressures of a relationship-obsessed society and she wanted to give a voice to these experiences.
Content warnings: Racism, Body shaming, Colorism, Texturism, Dysphoria, Death of Parent
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Racism, and Body shaming
Minor: Death of parent
amberinpieces's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Dysphoria, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Death of parent, Outing, Religious bigotry, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness
jdamae11's review
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a fun and breezy read, and it made me laugh out loud a few times. Many of the conversations with Yinka’s aunties hit a little too close to home LOL. Also tackles issues of colorism and featurism throughout 👏🏽, and integrates a far too underrepresented lgbtq identity (aromantic) in a really easy way. I found this book to be really familiar since I was raised in similar settings to Yinka and with similar cultural background, and even though I couldn’t directly relate to her age wise & with her life goals, I still found her to be someone I was invested in and rooting for. I’m US based and I felt the author did a great job painting the various neighborhoods of London and the culture of those neighborhoods that Yinka is in really well. It made me want to look up a lot of things and there was important commentary on gentrification happening there as well. Nana was my favorite character, it would be cool if there was a spin-off about her. At times the pacing felt a little disjointed but overall I really liked reading this. Gunna rec to my older sisters too :)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming and Racism
kdailyreads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Cancer, Grief, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Body shaming
Minor: Bullying
This isn’t an option in the content warnings for some reason, but this book discusses colorism at length.katiewhocanread's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Bullying
hkropp77's review
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? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
travelseatsreads's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? is a fun light hearted read that will be perfect to enjoy sitting by the beach or in your garden with a glass of wine. There are a multitude of reviews which compare the book to a Nigerian Bridget Jones's Diary and I can totally see the similarity. The characters are vibrant and it was great to see the snippets of traditional Nigerian culture mixed with everyday London life. For me it felt a little bit like read a YA novel rather than a book about someone in their thirties, so while I did enjoy it I didn't love it as much as I was expecting to.
Nevertheless I'd definitely recommend it for someone looking for an enjoyable easy summer read.
Nevertheless I'd definitely recommend it for someone looking for an enjoyable easy summer read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Racism
Minor: Sexual content