On Rotation is a roller coaster romance of Angie and the mysterious stranger that she just can’t help but running into. Everywhere! This is a beautiful story that delves into all the heartbreak of family, both blood and chosen, exploring all the ways we self-sabotage, and how to regain our sense of self no matter the trauma we’ve suffered. This book was hard to put down and kept me interested from start to finish.

On Rotation features Angie Appiah, a Ghanaian American medical student living in Chicago, trying to balance her life and happiness all while meeting parental expectations as the oldest daughter. After a surprising break up, Angie meets Ricky, and they have instant chemistry.

This book is a mix of both romance and comedy, but also character growth and coming of age. Angie has trials and tribulations along the way, some of her own making on both personal and professional fronts. Her friends and family both support and guide her and also challenge her, and I enjoyed seeing how she grew and stood up to each test. The epilogue was a little delight as well.

I think On Rotation is a perfect entry into summer reading, for someone who wants a little fluff but some substance as well.

Thank you to Book Club Girl, Avon Books, and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

4.25⭐
PG-13 for a low-almost-no-steam romance/contemporary fiction

Shirlene Obuobi wrote this book while she was also busy becoming a real life doctor?! I don't know how she found the time but clearly I need to evaluate how to be more productive!

This book had so much good stuff in it: a medical student trying to survive third year rotations, a first generation immigrant family from Ghana with all of the traditions and foods, navigating how friendships change as adults, dealing with the racist microaggresions, and falling in love. I loved the representation in this book--particularly the intersection of being a Black medical student from an immigrant family. I want to see more of this in books!

Angie was so strong and funny and smart even if sometimes she got in her own way. I loved her so much!! Ricky was so sweet and kind and they were perfect for each other. This book did have a lot of well developed side characters and side plots, but that is where the book got a little muddy for me. The pacing was a bit off because the romance was not always driving the story.

Overall, this book felt like both a romance and a contemporary fiction book to me because there was a huge focus on family, friendship, culture and school. I really enjoyed this book (including the footnotes!) and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good STEM romance that truly represents working in a STEM field!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Here's the thing, I really enjoyed so much about this book, and had it ended differently it would've been an easy 4 stars. But I was actively rooting against the romance, so when Angie got back together with Ricky, my enjoyment completely plummetted.

The writing in this is so wonderful, and the author is clearly so talented. Angie is so well-rounded and well-written, and I related to her immensely. The side characters, too, all felt very real and human. Ricky, too, felt very realistic--as an incredibly toxic man. What I found most unrealistic was everyone encouraging her to go back to him, because, oh my god, if one of my friends went back to him after the FIRST emotional gaslighting, I would've been pissed.

I'll readily admit that I'm projecting a bit here. I've been in relationships with people like Ricky: they act one way, then when you dare mention it they gaslight you all to hell, just to spontaneously pull a 180 and tell you they didn't mean it and you'd been interpreting their actions correctly all along. Men who are selfish, and expect the woman to always just accept him immediately at their word, no matter what their actions indicate, no matter how those words change. He never grovels, because he never feels like he's done anything wrong. Maybe I just wanted her to be better than me, but god was I disappointed when this strong, powerful woman went back to this man.

Everything else about this story was so lovely. The medical drama aspects, Angie finding herself and working towards her future, the ups and downs of her relationships with her friends--all of these were so great. I loved how the big, sad moment existed outside of their relationship, too; I like some of the drama to come extrinsically and I felt this book did that very well. I just wish one of the major aspects of this book hadn't made my blood boil.

3/5 stars because this is well-written and has great representation--although my own personal enjoyment would put this more at a 2/5.

Angie is in med school, which is understandably stressful enough by itself. But add in boy problems, a family with ridiculously high expectations, and friend drama, and it’s quite the mess!

I really enjoyed this book! It’s a romance, but it’s so much more than that - this book discusses family, friends, and different cultures as well. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the footnotes! They made me feel like Angie was a friend filling me in on little details in her life.

Other reasons I liked this book:
Medical setting
Strong female lead
Diverse characters

I’d definitely recommend this one! I can’t wait to read more by Shirlene Obuobi.

I really enjoyed this one! I thought it was a great debut. I especially loved that our main character, Angie, was in medical school. I thought she was a very relatable character. The setting was also fun. I did find it hard to really like Ricky the way I liked Angie. I liked him more by the end and really liked how the story wrapped up. I was so happy to learn more about our character's culture. I also thought the footnoted added a fun touch! You can tell that the author has a funny sense of humor.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this one early!

ON ROTATION - SHIRLENE OBUOBI
4.5⭐
PLOT -
Ghanaian American Angela Appiah studying medicine..has always been an ideal immigrant daughter surrounded by a suitable boyfriend, loyal friends but it falls apart when her BF dumps her , she bombs her exams falls out with her bestie and pulls away from her over bearing parents. Suddenly Angie is questioning herself and her life choices untill she meets Ricky Gutierriez who gets along with her like nobody else but he also got out of a long relationship . How will Angie deal with matter of her heart.
MY THOUGHTS
Being a doctor myself ..I love books based on doctor's and medicine in general..so I had to request it and I enjoyed it esp Angie's journey, her character development throughout the book..though a couple of times i wanted to shake her .
The whole culture, lifestyle , experiences and expectations of immigrant African American has been explained so well.
I enjoyed Ricky and Angie's banter ..they were cute together.
Thank you Netgalley and Avon books for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book automatically made me think of Grey’s Anatomy. Another reason why I was super excited to read it.

I loved the mention about the pressures of being a child of immigrant parents and all of the pressure behind it,

Great Book! Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review,

I was really looking forward to this book but unfortunately it was a DNF for me. I may eventually pick it up again but I struggled with the characters and plot. It felt slow and dragged out. It did not grab my attention. I did enjoy learning at aspects of the culture and appreciated the representation. There was too much drama right from the beginning. Not for me not to say someone else wouldn’t love it. Definitely give it a chance if you enjoy Grey’s or any other medical drama

This was a wonderful book. It took me until the end to fully appreciate the whole thing, but that was the point I think.

Angie seemingly has it together. She’s a medical student, has a fantastic group of friends, a super great boyfriend - what else does she need? Apparently a lot. She starts struggling with school to find her place after she doesn’t do well on an important exam. Her friends think she’s too involved in her own personal stuff. Her parents are way too demanding of her even though she’s always gone above and beyond for them.

I appreciate how much Angie talked about her being the oldest daughter of immigrant parents. Her whole life she’s had all this pressure on her. Her parents say they are proud her, they want the best for her. But Angie never actually hears that truthfully from them. And that is so hard, and Angie eventually stops talking to them for a while so she can have some real space.

Angie and her family are from Ghana. Her sister, Tabatha, gets engaged in the beginning of the book. At the very beginning they are on their way to the Knocking. Which is a tradition to see if the man is good enough for the daughter, for the man in question to formally ask to marry the woman. Angie explains to Ricky that is not like a dowry, it’s more than that, it shows that the woman has value and the man has to earn her. I love the inclusion of this.

The love story was written so cleverly. I was SO unsure of Ricky the entire time. But Angie was too, and that’s why it was so easy to see Ricky only through her eyes and not really seeing HIM. She didn’t think that it was possible that someone could really love her for her. At the drop of a hat she would decide that a small insignificant action meant the world was ending, that he didn’t care about her. It was SO frustrating. But until she reconciled with her mom and her mom told her that she was acting foolish, that from what Angie had told her, Ricky was in fact very clear in what he wanted the whole time. That Angie’s friends has spoiled her and openly and easily told her that they loved her; anything differently was too difficult for her accept. It was amazing to see the two of them bonding when it had been so difficult throughout the book.

There was so much more than just the love story! Angie is a Black doctor who ends up working on a project about ‘Physician Communication Practices with Black Inpatient Populations’. She has very prestigious Black, female mentor - who eventually essentially tells Angie she shouldn’t make herself stick out at this stage of her career talking about race, that she should work harder on other things. She of course does not like that because her project is important to her and to so many others.

Angie also goes through a lot of growing pains in her friendships. Her best friend, Nia, is finding herself and I’m doing so she starts to blame Angie for things; that I thought were valid and so did Angie eventually but Nia took some of the blamed because she was struggling and was hoping for more support from Angie. They grew apart a little but their reconciliation, and even their time apart, was good for their friendship in the end.

I hope Shirlene Oboubi writes so many more books in between being a doctor because I will read anything she writes!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This story does a great job of covering many topics, including friendship dynamics, familial relationships, strained parental bonds, the experience of Black women in medicine, and grief. The place where I found it lacking the most was the romance, as I found the relationship to be confusing and slightly toxic at times. However, the rest of the story was extremely well done, and that made up for the romance falling flat. The main character's journey resonated with me, as a woman of color who would like to enter the healthcare field, and I am so glad I picked this book up.
3.5 stars; ARC from NetGalley

I really wanted to love this book more than I did. I do really enjoy the characters individually. I loved getting to know more about Ghanaian culture, because I didn't know about several things discussed in the book. I think Angie is going through a lot with trying to find love, being in medical school, making her parents proud, dealing with being in the generation after her parents had immigrated to American and feeling the pressure to succeed for them and herself, and honestly just trying to find her place in the world. The author mentions this is more women's fiction than romance and more coming of age instead of a medical drama and I really loved her insight to that, because it makes the book easier to understand. I did not like the romance in this book. Sometimes it felt a little toxic to me, maybe because in real life I would have never given Ricky a second chance after how they met. So to me I felt like she just stayed with him or tried to stay with him. I do enjoy she honestly tried the friend route first, but even after that they just kept making a lot of rash decisions. Which this group is mid-twenties and that's expected so I had to remind myself of that as well. Overall it was enjoyable, i loved the medical aspect of it as a nurse, and I would definitely recommend it to others.

Thank-you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the chance to review this ARC!

I don't know where to put this novel. It's pretty outside the box. But even so I really enjoyed it!
This was a lovely novel!
Enjoyable characters and I loved the mix of romance and the medical drama.
Shirlene Obuobi's character's feel real and relatable and it makes them all the more enjoyable!

I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait to read more from this author!

This book in 3 words: Unique. Fresh. Excellent. 
On Rotation is all about Angie as she navigates medical school, friends, family, her Ghanian culture, and overall identity. 
I was sucked in by the cover and synopsis. I love all things medical drama and felt this story had a unique spin, before I even got into it. What I liked most about this book is how complex it is; this is a combination of coming-of-age, romance, medical drama, and women's fiction. On Rotation is satisfying in so many different ways. 

I love reading books from non-white authors, where their culture is represented. I love when authors put such big pieces of themselves into their work and Shirlene Obuobi does just that. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's a charming read with realistic and funny characters and checks a lot of boxes.

I took a chance on this book, knowing it was a first effort by a debut author and I’m thoroughly impressed at how well the author absolutely nailed it. She confidently balances Angie’s challenges trying to navigate her demanding third year med school schedule, while juggling her Ghanaian immigrant parents’ expectations, her own personal growth and relationships as she navigates her twenties, and a love life that has never been particularly satisfactory due to her inability to fit into the narrow box that “conventional” society wants to slot her into.

This is both a romance and a wonderful new adult coming of age story. Sometimes I wanted to shake Angie, but then I’d remember what it was like to be that age. The world is your oyster, but you haven’t quite figured out how to open it up. You are excited to get on with your career but are filled with self-doubt, not yet truly comfortable in your own skin and trying on different attitudes and personas to see if they fit. On top of all that, Angie is trying to navigate an old friendship that seems to be falling apart and a new romance with a guy who acts like the perfect boyfriend yet gives off confusingly mixed signals over whether he even wants to be in a relationship. It’s a lot, but somehow, In the end, she handles it all with grace.

My only niggle was the use of asterisks In the text to give little notes and asides that Angie was thinking. The first few were helpful as they explained medical jargon, but by the end, this device took away from the story’s flow. Still that’s pretty minor.and is more than balanced out by how well the author dealt with such heavy topics as racial bias in medicine, ethnic health disparities, heavy parental expectations, and mental health issues, without ever letting those issues overwhelm her main story. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

4.5⭐️s!! I just knew this book was gonna be good when the first chapter was dedicated to talking about how big Angie’s ass is. I thought “yes I like this character already”. In the book, Angie has to navigate med school, family drama, friendship drama, and of course romance drama. I loved it all and I loved her friends and Ricky of course. The only thing I really didn’t appreciate about Angie was how selfish she could be sometimes and she was so insecure when initially dating Ricky and it was really annoying. I enjoyed the romance and it was a different take on it because of her being in med school. I enjoyed the whole storyline of it! I almost did pre med in college and thank god I didn’t. Seems like a nightmare. Highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This book was part romance, part women’s fiction, part coming of age story. It starts off slow, which I found it hard to get into because of this, but it definitely does pick up. The story definitely tackles some heavy issues, but I think the author did a good job of addressing them in a really genuine way. I actually really liked Angie and Ricky’s relationship, it just seemed realistic to me, not too “perfect”.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this e-ARC!

This book does a great job with diversity in terms of race, culture, gender identity and sexuality.

If you like medical dramas then you’re most likely going to enjoy this book. I have to say that I felt the book was too long and certain areas could have been edited out. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for this book but it wasn’t a good fit for me.

I didn’t think Ricky was a well developed character or boyfriend. The romance felt like more of an after thought instead of a main plot point.

On Rotation
by Shirlene Obuobi
Pub Date: June 21, 2022
Avon
Thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. A spectacular novel of family, friendship, and finding your way in life...and in love.
* Romance *Contemporary
What a fantastic story! This book is about Angie, a Ghanaian American black woman struggling with medical studies, family pressure, and finding love. First, as an immigrant myself, I felt so related to the in-between that her parents felt, with the need to keep traditions as a way not to forget where you are coming from.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to live up to family pressures.
5 Stars

Working as a nurse, I have met individuals who find themselves in situations just like Angie - catastrophic unraveling of their life. Trying to please her parents led her to lead a warped view of the perfect life and she finds herself questioning what SHE actually wants from life. Ricky is so perfect in many ways, but he's not exactly someone she can introduce to her parents. He's not what everyone wants from her.

Watching Angie figure herself out and finding someone so well suited for her is such a joy. I really found myself rooting for Angie and thinking of her as a friend. Her personal growth is fabulous!