Thank you to the publisher and the author for an ARC through Net Galley. On Rotation is a story of a medical student from a Ghanaian immigrant family. Angie, our main character is intelligent, motivated, and doing her best to tick all the boxes and meet the high expectations set by her family. She is the perfect daughter and now she has to find her perfect match who also has ticked the right boxes. This story is representative of many migrants where parents have endured hardship and separation from their families just so their children can have better lives. However, as a consequence of this, children feel pressured at times to meet their parents' expectations and feel a sense of guilt if they fail to do so. I felt this was the backbone of this story and whilst there is romance, it is Angie's journey to discover who she is and what she really wants stepping away from the conditioning and expectations. I enjoyed reading about the medical world and life as a medical student, it is no surprise that the author has a true insight into this with her background. This is a strong debut with strong characters and I look forward to what she writes next!

I wanted to love this one, but it fell short for me. I think A LOT of people will love it, however I sadly didn't connect with the writing style. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read early!

I went into this book excited because i loved the cover and the premise of the story. Unfortunately the writing style and male lead just werent hitting the spot with me and i had to force my way through it.

From the start I loved Angie, shes an incredibly strong, humerous character. And when Ricky was origninally introduced i liked him. But then when he has spent the whole afternoon flirting with Angie only to tell her at the end he was in a relationship it just all felt wrong to me. Maybe its because i already loved Angie and felt like she deserved better than a man who would openly flirt and buy gifts for another woman whilst in a relationship. Maybe its a me thing, i dont know but from then on I struggled to like Ricky.


Thank you to Net-Galley for the E-ARC

I can see that this book would appeal to many. Especially Grey’s fans.
However, it wasn’t really for me. The footnotes put me off a bit, if they were just educational, I would have been all for them. Unfortunately some of the footnotes are jokes/sarcasm that didn’t quite land for me.
Please give the book a go and see if you like it. I made it approx 40% through and decided not to continue on.

“Possessiveness wasn’t the same as love. It wasn’t the same as commitment”

On Rotation follows main character Angela as everything in her life falls apart, her boyfriend dups her, she receives a lower score on one of the most important medical exams on her life, her best friend and roommate suddenly isn’t around anymore, and with her own lowered self-confidence she just doesn’t feel worthy enough when she meets Ricky, the man that will turn her life on its heels.

I loved Angie, her character was so well written and the inclusions of everything that she was going through during her medical training, learning everything she can physically as well as from textbooks, whilst still trying to juggle a social life and her parents expectations was handled so delicately and felt completely realistic! Plus, the presentation that Angie researched and held felt completely valid and I would have loved more on that in all honestly, but I must remember this is labelled as a contemporary romance, which it exactly was. Watching Angie and Ricky’s friendship/relationship develop and change over the course of the book was fantastic and again completely realistic, with Angie’s insecurities really playing a part in certain situations, but her being grown enough to notice and realise that. I love the fact that this is a realistic romance novel, the characters were both swoon worthy, but it wasn’t instalove!

The side characters were all fantastic too, I especially loved Nia, plus the representation in this book is great with lesbian and non-binary characters all being a member of the complete squad goal vibes this book gives, I would love to have my own sanity circle just saying. The way that the girls were all there for Angie during her break-up was fantastic! I really liked all the pop references too, from the Beyonce concert to the mention of anime.

My only negative thing about this novel was the asterisks throughout the chapters that I would then have to swipe to the end to chapter to see the additional content which is kind of annoying in the end to be honest, but that does not take away just how fantastically written this book is, and how engrossing the plot and characters are. This is the first novel by this author that I have read, and I am keen to pick up more!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Avon books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

4.5

3,75 stars - This was very good!

I kind of went into this book, thinking that this was a full-on contemporary romance. And it was, but it also leaned towards the contemporary/women's fiction side more. I loved the representation and the footnotes, how aspects of Ghanaian culture were mixed in together, as well as the medical facts.

I wasn't a big fan of the romance itself, but it also felt REAL. But again, I think that conflicted feeling stems from my expectations of a swoon-worthy romance book. The romance also took a bit of a back seat in Angie's life, but hey. That was the part that was realistic af. The friend break up (I felt that), med school, Ricky's hurdles, family: it was about so much more than just the romance.

The characters were great and I loved the exploration of the different relationships. I also have nothing to complain about as far as the writing goes. It was good.

Conclusion: On Rotation is a really good romance book with a lot of great and relatable events throughout. Definitely would recommend picking it up if the synopsis intrigues you.

I read this book in one sitting and absolutely loved it!

Overall I like how the plot deals with Angie's struggles surrounding her future, family, friends, and romance, and really liked how the book balanced these issues and had her work through each of them and really see her develop in all these aspects. I was expecting mostly a romance book but was happy to find that it was definitely more than that, with a journey of self-discovery and growth for the main character.

One feature of the book that really stood out to me was the footnotes and I absolutely loved them. The way there were used to elaborate on medical terms and Ghanian customs helped me understand things I otherwise would have glossed over or misunderstood.

I think this is a very strong debut novel for sure!

Beautifully written, insightful, and joyful! The main character is relatable and her struggles really endear her to us. It’s more women a fiction than a contemporary romance but it absolutely works!

A great debut

Special thanks to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyage, and Shirlene Obuobi for proving me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Angie is Ghanaian-American Med student, and her life is not going to plan. Another relationship ended with a boy who won’t commit, her parents won’t get off her ass, and she’s just barely passed an exam necessary to match with Residency programs.

This book was excellent. Angie is a wonderful protagonist, her voice comes through sharp and witty throughout. Her struggles as a black woman, trying to find her way through medical school while dating, and living up to the expectations of her immigrant parents. She is an excellent heroine and I thoroughly enjoyed her journey.

The romance is melt your heart lovely. The chemistry between Angie and Rich jumps off the page. They are flawed, without being (too) frustrating. Beyond being an excellent medical school novel, is such a truthful story of love and friendship and work in your mid twenties. It also tackles big issues well. Even when touching on the immigrant experience, challenging families, distrust of the medical profession, it never distracts from the overall story being told and everything furthers Angie’s journey.

The plot is complex enough to be interesting, but doesn’t get bogged down in details. Shirlene Obuobi clearly knows her way around medical jargon, but she doesn’t get bogged down in the details.The writing style is conversational in a way that made it so easy for me to get into and reading.

My only criticism is of the asterisks peppered through the text. Some of these could have easily been included in the main body of the text, but I do see it as a formatting choice in line with the conversational style of the narration. I think in a print book it will look better through footnoting, but jumping around when reading on my kindle was a little frustrating.

Formatting niggles this book has a massive heart at its centre — a wonderful, fun swoon worthy novel, that doest shy away from the messy issues.

Thanks to NetGalley UK and Quercus for letting me read this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start this review by saying that I could not put this book down from the moment I got the copy. 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. Ricky's family also adds another layer to the immigrant position, with the struggles that the language imposes. But this book is about Angie, so let's come back to her.
Angie struggles with all the pressure that young women do when deciding about her future, feeling the impostor syndrome, and society's pressure on women to settle down and find a husband. Her story is so relatable that you can identify yourself in many moments. Add to this, because she is a black woman, every pressure is twice as hard. Her constant sense of not being enough undergoes throughout the story, making this novel even more fantastic to see how she develops from chapter 1 to the end.
Beautifully written, insightful, and joyful, this novel is a great woman's fiction, full of layers and so relatable to today's society. It is amazing to get a book that takes you out of your bubble and shows you a side that, as a white woman, I am not used to seeing or feeling. The beauty of books is to give readers a glimpse of different lives and makes us more empathic and understandable, which this book absolutely did to me.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy of this!
I really enjoyed this book once I got into it. A little slow to start but that’s fine.
I loved the complex friendships and family dynamics and liked that our MC is messy and imperfect. Loved the woman in STEM aspect also!
The romance aspect was frustrating at times but such is life, and I felt like the narrative needed smoothing out at times but this is an early copy so totally understandable!

The cover and the description immediately drew me to this book and it was on my list of most anticipated reads of 2022.
I thoroughly enjoyed the family dynamics, particularly the exploration of navigating life as the child of an immigrant. It is something that many people deal with and can be extremely hard to communicate, specifically in the Black community.


Unfortunately, I really wanted to love this one but something felt off. The narrative voice was all over the place and seemed to do a lot more telling than showing. I had to fight off the urge to DNF several times during the book.

I rated it 2.5 stars overall but I would still be interested to see what this author comes up with. I believe this is their debut novel so I am hoping to love some of their upcoming works.

Thank you NetGalley, Quercus Books and Dr Shirlene Obuobi for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such an easy and enjoyable read!

From the start I was in love with Angie’s character, following her journey of self growth within her career and family life was such a joy. Ricky was also such a feel good character that made me unable to put down this book for even a minute.

On rotation is a cute friends-lovers romance packed with a lot of cute and funny moments and I will definitely read again.

On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi - 4/5

An extremely relatable story of Angela Appiah.

I don’t think it can get more realistic than this. It is a great insight into what’s it like to be a first born in an African, well in this case a Ghanaian family.

What does African parent want from their child? To follow and do exactly as they say with no questions asked. To be a doctor, lawyer or engineer or really whatever pays the most. To take every of their opinion as your own despite how you truly feel.

This is the case for the protagonist Angela Appiah, however in her case she wants to be a doctor. She wants the good grades and the best opportunities to get there. Especially after witnessing first hand how black people are treated by them.

She also wants to make her parents proud but most of all she wants a love that puts her first…However, that’s easier in theory than reality.

We follow Angela push through her studies, family, friends and love with the artist Ricky.

Obuobi’s writing style is refreshing throughout and throwing every single relatable emotion our way. She even blesses us readers with a glossary with extra information alongside the story

A sweet read, it showed that even at 25 people are still trying to figure out who they are meant to be and what they are meant to do.

Complete transparency, I fully had to force myself to finish reading this(I very nearly DNF’d it many times). When I was looking at the cover, reading the description and first starting this book, I was super excited and thought I'd absolutely adore it. Quite sadly, I did not. That is not to say other people won't love it though! Because of that, I'm not going to talk a bunch of crap about this book. Long story short, it just wasn't for me. I felt like it dragged on quite a bit and the writing style just wasn't for me.

Despite the overall negative note to this review, you should go check it out! I think this is a book that a very large amount of people will love!

2.5 stars overall, but that's not without the complete appreciation and acknowledgment of how difficult it would be to write a book that everyone loves(it's literally impossible, trust me).

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

i LOVED this book. every single moment of it. i loved angie as the main character, her group of friends, and also ricky. this story was so charming and relatable, i loved reading about angie and her rotation period and her navigating the field of medicine (the annotations in the book were extremely useful in helping understand how the path to become a doctor works to someone like me, who knew next to nothing about it, i have to admit i'm still a little confused, but that's on me), one of my favourite scenes was angie just taking herself on a date ("But today, there was only me. And that was okay, because I was excellent company" is probably one of my favourite quotes). i loved reading all the scenes with nia, michelle, markus, and tabatha (especially them getting ready for the beyoncé concert), i loved reading about angie and ricky's story (i could feel the love between them and the multiple love confessions were insane). every character felt like a real person, fully fleshed out, and that is what i loved most about "on rotation". i really do recommend reading this book, and i can't wait for publication day.

arc provided by netgalley and quercus books in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this but it was such a fun read. We have a flawed main character, Angie, who is a Ghanaian-American medical student. We read about her working through medical school, struggling with relationships (boyfriends, friendships and family).

We have a really diverse cast of characters which I love! There is a character with they/them pronouns which made me so happy!

I did find myself getting bored midway through. I did not know where the plot was going, and it seemed all over the place with med school, friendships, romance. I thought certain conflict resolution bits could have been stronger too!

Thank you Netgalley, Quercus Books and Dr Shirlene Obuobi for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! ️

3.5 stars

This was nice, and I enjoyed the majority of the story. It had the perfect balance of inner monologue, dialogue and descriptions.

The edition I read seemed to be formatted very randomly though - there were some asterisks dispersed throughout the book, but the explanations didn't always seem to be included at the end of the page. Sometimes they came at the end of the chapter, and by then I had forgotten what the asterisk was in the first place. I also found a lot of them completely unnecessary - they could have just been incorporated into the text.

My favourite part was Angie's job and her overall dedication to medicine and education. As far as the romance goes, this was a real let down. I find miscommunication frustrating and annoying and overall there was too much drama for my liking.

I wasn't a fan of all the back and forth - Ricky not liking Angie like that, then they actually get together, then Angie is jealous when she sees him talking to another woman, they have a fight/break up because he doesn't want to define their relationship, then they get back together and love each other, then Angie gets jealous again because he leaves the room to take a phone call and thinks love shouldn't feel that way - after literally JUST saying how amazing he makes her feel. Then they break up again! Whiplash.com

I get that relationships can be tough and that it's difficult to work out what's best for yourself sometimes, but it was frustrating how selfish and immature Angie was and how she had no regard for other people's feelings - not the guy she supposedly loves and not her best friend. It's important to love yourself and do what's best for you, but not when your actions and words hurt other people.

Angie does eventually realise the errors in her ways and her character development and growth is wonderful, but this doesn't erase all the drama she put herself in to start with.

The ending was lovely and heartfelt but I didn't quite like how they got there. I mostly enjoyed the story until I hit about 75% in, then it just became too much.

It's definitely a book I'd recommend if you like strong female leads and if you enjoy the miscommunication trope when it comes to romance.

"And yeah, it was nice, but I couldn't just give him brownie points for, gasp, actually being interested in what I had to say."

ON ROTATION by SHIRLENE OBUOBI review
This book is about Angie, an almost-doctor doing her final rotations through each hospital department before matching to start her residency. Then there's Ricky, part-time love of her life, part-time boy who makes her cry.
Being in STEM and working at hospitals myself I did relate a lot to this story, and I liked how real it was. The romance part of it though was a little on the nose for me. Maybe in this topic, I related to Angie a little too much - all the fears of starting a new relationship, trusting, getting that trust broken, and then doubting when the person asks for that trust again. It felt like an all too real and vicious cycle. These guys got their HEA but, in my opinion, it was at the cost of Angie's personal progress and self-worth.
But Angie's friends - the Sanity circle - were amazing. I loved their support and the scenes around the Beyonce concert were so real and hilarious. Learning about Ghanaian culture was also really interesting and helped add depth to the story.
Thank you NetGalley and Quercus for giving me an eARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Loved the story and the pacing and just everything about it… A great story that I couldn't put down!