Bolu Babalola, a self-professed “romcomoisseur,” has been endorsed by everyone from Meg Cabot to Reese Witherspoon. Armed with an audience that follows her pop-culture commentary with fervor, Babalola, who started her career as a screenwriter at BBC Comedy, did not disappoint with her 2022 debut novel. In Honey & Spice, Babalola takes the fake dating trope and gives it a modern-day makeover. Whitewell College student Kikiola “Kiki” Banjo has no time for the f-ckboy plague on campus—she’s too busy running her student radio show, where she warns against “wastemen” and offers advice for the lovesick. Kiki has her sights set on a competitive summer pop-media program at New York University and is focused on staying in the fast lane when she meets Malakai Korede, a transfer film student who has the women of Blackwell, the university’s African-Caribbean society, abuzz. Kiki warned the female student body against coupling up with Malakai, but soon finds herself locking lips with him—without realizing he’s the guy she’s been disparaging. Driven by a mutual desire to salvage their reputations after hooking up, Kiki and Malakai form an alliance and hard launch a fake relationship. Before long, the faux romance starts to have very real repercussions.
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