Yinka is a 31-year-old English-Nigerian woman who despite her success in her work life, has been single for over 3 years and is now feeling the pressure from her family, friends and society in general to couple up. When her friend/cousin gets engaged, Yinka decides that in six months time, she will have a plus one for the wedding, and so operation find husband begins.

This was fun, vibrant and contained so many bits and pieces I love in a story. It gave me "Queenie" vibes which is also a very good book!

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Oh I wanted to like this so badly but I just didn't. Yinka is 31 but is quite immature, with feuds and disagreements over nothing really.

After all these brilliant reviews on here I expected something more, maybe something more akin to Queenie. But... this was not it.

I think it could be a fun read for someone looking for something lighthearted and fun. Unfortunately though I lost interest half way through.

This is a brilliant book about friendship, family and finding yourself and I loved it.. Ylinka is 31 years old and still single much to her mother’s and wider family’s dismay. She sets herself the goal of finding a boyfriend by the time her cousin Rachel gets married and plans exactly how she is going to do that.
The book is deeply rooted in Nigerian culture with lots of details about food, language and clothing which I found fascinating. It is also full of brilliant characters. Ylinka’s friends are a very mixed bunch but they all have her best interests at heart. Her family are like everyone’s family, some who you love and get on with and others who irritate you but are still family and despite the irritation, the love is always there.
For me, the book had everything. It was both funny and moving and Ylinka’s story will remain in my head for a long while to come.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest review.

Hmmmm, I don’t think this book was for me. After reading such amazing reviews that made this sound like a sharp, witty, and vibrant. To be honest I thought that it was a little lacklustre. Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but I lost interest half way through.

There are points in the book that I would applaud. It was heart-warming to watch Yinka as she went on a journey of self-discovery and learnt to love herself. However, some of her actions in the book are immature and selfish and left me feeling chagrined and annoyed. Her treatment of her best friends was something that irked me. I was left thinking how are these people friends? This seems to be a recurring theme in many books at the moment, and I would rather it not. Having said that, I loved Nana. Her friendship with Yinka highlighted supportive female friendships, and I just wanted more of this.

I think what made me lose interest was the romantic element. After a point Yinka’s intense focus on finding a boyfriend grew tiresome, and the reader realised that what she needed was time to discover what she wanted with her life. I would have enjoyed the book much more if this had been the ending (sorry to give anything away). I would love if this became more of a theme throughout these books, characters taking time to love themselves and acknowledge that this should come before getting in to a relationship.

If I could give this more than 5 stars I would loved this book, felt like I was reading about an old friend. Related to the characters as if there were my own aunties an amazing book would highly recommend. Thank you for the chance to read this book.

This was not what I was expecting. At first I was put off by stereotypes the first few chapters displayed and as a Nigerian I did worry whether this would be the rep I wanted out in the world but ultimately it was refreshing, funny and full of warm/cute moments.

Thank you to netgalley for allowing me to read books ad give critical feedback to authors and publishers. Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me to read the eARC of this book.

Apologies for the late review of this book.

This is a book based on Nigerian culture and I loved the snapshot of the culture. This was beautiful a mesh between romance, 21st-century antics and the progression with this culture. Yinka is a beautiful strong female finding her way in her life dealing with the pressures of the Nigerian culture and the pressures of the family for children.

Yinka has a fantastic job, is Oxford educated and has a good set of friends. But with Yinka in her early 30's, this is not enough for her mother, who is determined she also needs a husband. With Yinka's cousin's wedding looming, Yinka decides she needs to find a date for the nuptials. If she's lucky, maybe she'll find her forever after too. ⁣
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I've seen mixed reviews about this book but I honestly loved it! I went through a range of emotions while reading - humour, anger, surprise, embarrassment and warmth. I loved following Yinka on her journey, which ultimately was more "self love" than finding love. The snippets of Nigerian culture were also really interesting!

Yinka is an Oxford graduate, with a job in an investment bank (but NOT an investment banker), a nice flat with a mortgage in a good flat in a nice part of London, so far so successful but when, at her younger sisters baby shower, her aunt makes the whole family pray to God for Yinka to please,please, please let her find a husband and offers to set her up with a nice man from her church, Yinka decides to take matters in to her own hands and creates the find a date for her cousins wedding plan. It’s at this point that the rest of Yinka’s life begins to fall apart but that can all wait, getting a boyfriend is the important thing.
I liked this, it had shades of Queenie about it. Yinka is the every woman dealing with difficult relationships and trying to find her own voice when everyone around her is trying to tell her what to do and who to be and we see how that takes it’s toll on her. She contorts herself to fit various moulds of what others say she should be and forgets herself along the way when all really wants is chicken and chips with burger sauce,

Actual rating 3.5⭐️

If you’ve ever suffered from a crisis of confidence, felt like you’ve lost your identity, failed to live up to family, societal or cultural expectations, simply never felt good enough or just looking for a funny read then Yinka Where’s Your Huzband? has been written with you in mind. Gloriously steeped in Nigerian culture, language, cuisine and religion, this novel is vibrant and colourful, giving you a fabulous flavour of a way of life that may differ widely from your own. The characters, especially the never ending stream of Aunties who have a great deal to say for themselves, are loud and exuberant and terrific company. This is both an entertaining, enjoyable read but has a surprising depth to it contrary to first impressions. It is a novel bursting at the seams with love and friendship, at the heart of which lies Yinka’s search for a huzband and more importantly her search for her true self.

Yinka’s lack of a huzband is a matter of great concern within her family, particularly for her mother who regards marriage and children as the epitome of success. Immediately you find yourself slap bang in the middle of a noisy, colourful family gathering and you recognise Yinka for the woman she is, a square peg in a round hole, wearing her frustration around her neck like a hangman’s noose. A baby shower is being held for Yinka’s younger sister Kemi, all the Aunties and cousins are present and poor Yinka cannot escape yet another interrogation concerning her (non existent) love life. This is like Groundhog Day for Yinka. No wonder she tries to avoid these situations like the plague, has stopped attending the family church and has started to become rather economical with the truth. You can sense how bored and fed up she is with it all, being compared to her sister and found wanting, with the invitations to match make and the never ending pressure to find the perfect huzband. It is Cousin Rachel’s engagement announcement that truly shatters her already fragile self confidence, confirming her belief that she’s a complete failure but unfortunately that isn’t the sum total of Yinka’s troubles. When her career takes an unexpected nosedive and she’s confronted with the heartbreaking sight of her ex boyfriend Femi with his gorgeous fiancée she sinks to new levels of despair. Operation Wedding Date is Yinka’s solution to finding a partner for the big day( and with a bit of luck the rest of her life!) and it’s her attempts to reverse her single status that forms the backbone of this novel.

Incredibly funny in places, Yinka’s journey from unlucky in love singleton to a woman who embraces her uniqueness will make you smile, laugh and possibly swear in frustration. But not all at the same time! Her close knit family is both a blessing and a curse providing her with cousins Rachel and Ola to both confide in and compete against and an unmarried (gasp shock horror!) but successful barrister Auntie Blessing to help keep things in perspective. Her best friend Nana who seems wise beyond her years and already very comfortable in her own skin thank you very much is Yinka’s biggest cheerleader. She is my favourite character. As Yinka treads her own path towards her vision of happiness and success, growing in self confidence you’re introduced to a few potential suitors who add to the general air of mayhem and mirth but will any of them turn out to be huzband material? I loved all the chaos and drama within this close knit family unit but felt grateful I wasn’t the one whose life was under intense scrutiny. Many of Yinka’s dilemmas are highly recognisable irrespective of who you are and there are some real nuggets of wisdom buried in amongst the humour which the author conveys well. Even though I can’t pretend to understand Yinka’s obsession with the shape of other womens bottoms or with her skin tone I could identify with that feeling of being the odd one out, not measuring up to a perceived ideal. Being comfortable in your own skin and gauging success in terms of your own happiness rather than someone else’s resonate loud and clear.

If like me you’ve already enjoyed Nikki May’s Wahala for its taste of Nigerian culture then I think you’ll find this aspect of the novel most appealing. It was wonderful to immerse myself fully into someone else’s world that is unfamiliar and so unlike my own. Up until a certain point this was a 4⭐️read for me but unfortunately part way through the dialogue lost its humorous edge. I didn’t find the content as lighthearted and funny as I imagined it would be which is a shame as the novel starts off so well. Although I initially viewed Yinka in a sympathetic, favourable light she became someone I didn’t always like, her constant lying and disregard for others feelings a real turn off. In the process of learning to love herself for who she is rather than who others think she should be Yinka treads on an awful lot of toes and I ended up feeling thoroughly frustrated with her! I particularly loathed the way she treats her best friend Nana.

I’m glad I was a mere spectator in Yinka’s eventful search for a huzband. Overall her experiences made me feel relieved I gave up my search years ago!! This is a good, at times hilarious and entertaining read and worth checking out when you get the chance.

My thanks as always to the publisher Penguin and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

“The midnight sky is just as beautiful as the sunrise”

CW: racism, cancer.

In this novel we follow Yinka, who is yet to find a “huzband” much to her family’s dismay. In a panic, wanting her mother and aunties to stop praying for her love life at family functions, Yinka decides to find herself a husband and changes her looks and personality to become “more desirable”.

This book was SO much fun, Yinka Oladeji was such a funny and relatable character who I really connected to at times, and her meddling aunties were a treat! I fell in love with the closeness of Yinka’s family, and their ups and downs had me gripped.

I loved the mixed media in the shape of letters and text messages, it made the reading experience so much more fun to read. I’m always a fan of a good text message thread in a book.

I will also say that this is not just a fun, cute little rom-com. Lizzie Damilola Blackburn also delves into what it’s like growing up as a Black woman in England, and even going so far as to looking in to skin bleaching products, so please check the trigger warnings before reading.

An all around 4⭐️ read. I will definitely pick up the next book this author writes!

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for the ARC!

I loved this book. Slipping into Yinka's narrative felt like soaking in a warm bath. It was comforting, funny and poignant just where you want it to be. I was expecting a romance, but it was a story about self-love and self-acceptance, family and friends more than anything else and I love that. There is romance too.

It was super refreshing to have a narrative woven with Nigerian culture and the Black British experience. I read to experience things I might not otherwise have access to, as well as wanting to relate to characters. Yinka's feeling of "imposter syndrome" and her journey to self-acceptance is something everyone can relate to, I'm sure.

If you're Nigerian-British, read this book. If you're a woman, read this book. If you eat food, read this book!

I think this book is going to be the next Queenie, I absolutely loved it from the moment I sat down and had to will myself to put it down to go and make food!
We are introduced to Yinka and her family at her younger sister’s baby shower. Being from a Nigerian family, Yinka is feeling a lot of pressure from her family and especially her mother to find herself a husband and is constantly being asked why she is single as well as being prayed for at every opportunity.
Yinka is my age, and goes through the same thoughts that I do about being single which makes her extremely relatable to me and that could be what has made me love her character so much. Although I don’t have the pushy family, some of the thoughts that she has do resonate with me as a single woman. And I’m glad that towards the end of the book she started to embrace her singledom with both hands and decide to love herself.
I loved how this was written and how interspersed with the story there were whatsapp messages, voicemail messages, reminders, post it notes, status updates and googled questions littered throughout the pages, it felt like a real life and helped you to imagine Yinka as a real person with everything going on being presented to you in those forms. It also broke up the story slightly and helped to move things on when needed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be this years must read book, and I will definitely be recommending it to anyone that asks. Thank you to NetGalley and Lizzie Damilola Blackburn for the privilege of reading this book in return for an honest review, and I hope that this is not the last that I see of Yinka.

THIS BOOK WAS EVERYTHING!!!

I don't even know where to start from to explain what I liked.... sorry, what l LOVED about this book (okay, let me collect my thoughts).

PLOT - the story took me on one of the best journeys I have ever experienced with a book. From the family drama to her work issues and relationship problems (both friendships and romantic relationships). I enjoyed how all these themes were tied together to give such a rich story. We follow Yinka as she navigates being the single one who all the aunties (and her mum) are publicly trying to sort out her not having a huzband. Throw in an ex-boyfriend and a lot of lies and we watch her go through a lot..... ​and I do mean A LOT. Girl wasn't able to catch a break.... which I really enjoyed because it kept me flipping pages.

SETTING - London has never been described more beautifully. South London specifically. The authenticity made me smile numerous times.

This book was funny. Entertaining. Eye-opening and rich with interesting characters. Some you just want to smack and some you want to hug.

THEMES - I really enjoyed how the theme of colourism was addressed in this book with Yinka being a dark-skinned woman. Another theme I enjoyed reading was about her faith and how it navigated her love life. Her POV on these themes were really interesting to read and I wish I could experience reading this book for the first time again.

CW - grief of a loved one

Loved this story of Yinka very warm and funny especially her aunties trying to match her with a husband.
With her cousin getting married her aunties and her mum go into overdrive. Yinka decides enough is enough and starts operation find a husband.
Really enjoyable book with a lot of laughs and insight into the Nigerian culture.

This book perfectly highlights the emotional toll, our elders put on us to achieve some ideal idea of family, and marriage. It details also how parents comparing their children to each other (Yinka and Kemi and Yinka and Ola) is the type of relationship that can breed resentment and basically emotional damage, along with self-hatred, self-doubt, and a whole host of insecurities. And the only way we can get past that is self-love, personal happiness, and self-acceptance. We need more books like this. We really do.

Overall, this book was a great read. It had humour. It reminded me of a bit of Bridget Jones' Diary. The story held me the whole way through. It was relatable. It was a nice little introduction to some of Nigeria's culture and highlights a lot of issues and stories that need to be told. Thank you for allowing me to read this book, I related to Yinka a lot, I did a lot of things she did in this book when I was a teenager. Hindsight is always 20/.20 isn't it?

This wasn’t quite the book I was expecting, but I became drawn to the characters and ended up really enjoying it. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC

I was really drawn in by the title of this book but I ended up not enjoying it much. Yinka as a character really grated on me, as I felt that she was constantly causing issues but never accepting any blame. I also felt that she came across as much younger than she was meant to be, which made the conversations unrealistic.

Absolutely loved this book. Found it interesting to read about a different culture and the story was both comedic and emotional 8n equal measure

There are parallels with cultures everywhere where women are expected to find a partner and marry whilst still under 30 in order to be viewed as having a successful life, irrespective of how well they may be doing in their career. It's as though marriage is seen as a symbol of status.

8 thoroughly enjoyed this book and the characters in it and highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed reading about Yinka and her family. the ending was exactly what i expected...and wanted! a perfect pick me up.