Angie is a Ghanian-American third year medical student trying to balance her career, friends, family and a boyfriend. That is, until said boyfriend dumps her. And she does poorly on a super important test. And her best friend starts pulling away from her. Then one day she meets Ricky, who very much seems like trouble, and suddenly he is everywhere.

I enjoyed the medical twist on this romcom! You can tell the author is a doctor because she goes into the intricacies of the process that medical students face in their third year and beyond. Angie's friend group was great, I would've loved to see more of their dynamic but understandably didn't because Angie is busy as hell! I also loved Angie and Ricky's friendship dynamic and as the relationship is bit more slow burn we get quite a lot of that.

I did think Angie and Ricky were far too messy and there was too much conflict and miscommunication to believe in them as a couple. Great friends though! Now Nia and Shae - that is a couple I would love to see more of!

Overall I thought this was well paced with a good cast of characters and a great insight into what it is like to be a black woman trying to forge a medical career in the US.

Content warnings: death of a parent, gun violence, general medical content

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the opportunity to review this book!

Thank you to #NetGalley, #QuercusBooks, and #ShirleneObuobi for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Spoiler alert - I loved it!

On Rotation follows Angie, an American-Ghanaian med student, studying in Chicago. She just got dumped by her boyfriend, but doesn't see him as a great loss. Her little sister is about to get engaged & her parents are piling on the pressure. It's not enough that she's a medical student, she needs to be pulling top grades!

I'm a big fan of medical drama, and to have this well written novel exploring the challenges of balancing friendships and romance alongside the intensive studying and the expectations of family is an absolute treat!

This wasn't just a contemporary romance with hearts and flowers, Obuobi tackles topics such as immigrant familial background and the hardships of studying medicine.

The two MCs are very likeable, flawed characters that have chemistry from the beginning.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was an empowering book following Angie, a Black medical student in Chicago. It explores her family, friends, boyfriends, and balancing all that with the amount of work it takes to become a Doctor.

There were many things I loved about this book. Angie was a great main character; smart, caring, scathingly honest, sensitive and very relatable! I also loved learning more about her culture coming from Ghana, and loved that the author added footnotes explaining cultural references (and medical terms) further. Despite the fact that I don't have what it takes to be a doctor, I love learning about medicine and what it's really like to become a Doctor, so I loved learning more about this through Angie's experience, and i assume real life experience from the author! Angie was very capable and also determined to stand up to the racism that still exists in hospital care and I liked how hard she worked to research what she thought mattered, despite people telling her otherwise.

Angie's group of friends were wonderful and it was awesome how they all supported each other so much. Her best friend, Nia, was a great character, but I really felt for Angie when they fought because it felt like Nia was leaving her behind for no reason. I liked how they resolved it and could understand Nia's side, but it was still a brutal moment.

To say Angie's relationship with Ricky got off to a rocky start would be an understatement! It took me a little while to come around to Ricky because I saw him the way Angie did initially and I didn't trust him, but I'm glad we were both wrong! He was so soft and sweet and loved so deeply, whether it be his grandparents who raised him or his estranged father. I thought Angie and Ricky had great chemistry and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. I think their initial friendship helped build up their connection before they started dating. They had a few fights and the last one was quite emotional. I could really understand Angie's lack of trust, but hearing Ricky's side was just as devastaing. By the end I absolutely loved them both and I think when they resolved their fights they became stronger together.

An absolutely wonderful read overall and I loved the story as well as learning a bit about a different culture! If you like romance but are after something with a little more breadth to the story than just the main relationship, then this is for you!

There is no amount of praise I can give this book. it has everything and I couldn't put it down. Once I got into the swing of it I read it in 2 days. I wish I had an ounce of Shirlene's talent and this is a story that people need to read. Not only for romance but for the struggles she's going through to become a doctor.

Well... when I first started this book, the first couple of pages were not very promising. It basically seemd like a fact book on Ghanain customs and definitely not like the cute romcom I was promised. I was very close to DNF'ing, but decided to persist! After all, all those 5 star reviews couldn't have been lying?
And yes, it got exponentially better! I liked seeing Angie go through some character progression and Ricky, who was so patient and waited for her to get herself together. The feels were crazy and I definitely got emotional occasionally. By which I mean that I screamed at the characters when they were doing stupid things.
I did think that the little post script things were unnecessary as most of the information they gave was either unnecessary or could have been integrated into the main text, but I liked their quirky feel.
I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes rom coms, learning more about other cultures and medical dramas.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Quercus Books, for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Loved this. Laugh out loud moments but everything is so true and real life. I love anything to do with hospitals etc (greys obsessssed!) so I had to request. Definitely one to be read.

<b>Thank you to NetGalley, Quercus Books, and Shirlene Obuobi for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review</b> 💛

<i>"But today, there was only me. And that was okay, because I was excellent company".</i>

This was SO good! Aaah, I enjoyed reading it so much!

On Rotation features Angie, an own voices American-Ghanaian med student who is navigating matters of the world as well as matters of the heart. I can only describe the writing as ridiculously immersive and charming; Angie’s inner dialogue and narration sucking you in right away.

The story in itself is quite immersing but I believe the way in which it is told makes me that much different from other similar novels. Reading this, one could greatly appreciate how dialogues between characters read very natural and are distinct to the speaker.

Obuobi also does a WONDERFUL job at balancing out the romance, friendship, and working life aspects of Angie’s life and the pace in which they are told to us. And even if you might not go into it looking, you will still be able to find yourself scattered in all the characters’ relatable and realistic personality.

At first, I wasn’t too keen on the pop reference (something which I tend to dislike across the board) but I also grew to enjoy this throughout the story.

All in all, a great and must read! I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to read this book, and cannot recommend it enough :)

hank you for the opportunity to review this book.

This was an interesting reading experience! The quality of the writing was excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed the level of detail we got about life as a med student and Ghanaian culture. The footnotes were so fun!

I felt the intelligence in the writing, and loved how strong Angie was. She spoke her mind, stood up for herself, and took charge. I love that this was an own voices story.

The book felt a little genre confused - probably less “romance” and more “women’s fiction” (don’t get me started on how much I hate that label). I thought Angie’s experiences in med school and as the child of migrants were the larger focus, more than the romance.

The book also felt a little long - Ricky and Angie went through two very similar complications. One was probably enough for them to learn and grow - it made me frustrated with the romance element of the book.

In short: an enjoyable read, with some great messages on personal strength, racism, migration, the medical profession and more. Maybe slightly too long and missing more elements to fit it in the romance genre.

My expectations before reading this book was that it was a romance from my perspective it’s more of just a contemporary book. I still really enjoyed it. The protagonists voice was really vivid. Highly recommend.

3.5 stars.
This was definitely a mixed bag for me - some parts were lovely and some I struggled to get into.

The friendship groups and the family dynamics were lovely to read and felt authentic which I really loved. Ricky was a lovely love interest, sweet and interesting and I enjoyed him more than most of the bully/mean trope that have been popular lately. Angie was a hilarious narrator and I liked her development throughout. The insertions through the book about Ghanian culture was fantastic and didn't feel forced - it was seamless. (The asterisks were really informative however I wish that they were a glossary or something as random explanations in the middle of the page were quite distracting).

The main obstacle was trying to figure out what the genre/purpose of the book was. At first it felt like a meet-cute romcom, before moving onto more of an angsty contemporary fiction, and then more into a women's fiction medical novel.
The arguments and tension between Angie and Ricky felt forced at times and I felt we were going through a revolving door with the same feelings just coming up over and over again. It felt less like a slow burn and more of a ploy to extend the book pages.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book!! I always look for books that make me feel something, and when I tell you this book made me cry and then smile because of Angie and Ricky.

Angie is such a relatable character, I obviously will never experience what she goes through as a POC. But it was such an insight seeing how stereotypes effect Angie, the family stereotypes and the amazing friendships that she has supporting her. It was amazing to read characters who felt real with insecurities etc.

I also absolutely loved Ricky, new favourite book boyfriend?

This was amazing! Didn’t think I would enjoy it but I did. I couldn’t put the book down and tackled a lot of issues. It had me laughing out loud with a great love story.

This was such a perfect read!

'On Rotation' for me was the book that made life feel so real through the pages!

I had this feeling of understanding for the characters and the way they navigated life in their twenties!

The writing was exceptionally beautiful and incredibly funny! They were many moments throughout the novel where I had to stop reading because I was enjoying it so much and because I was on the floor laughing!

I loved the fact that our wonderful main character was a woman in medicine and the book portrayed the reality of being a woman of color in that field.

On that note, I have to say that I adore Angie and I would do anything to be her friend! She was so realistic and honest, a total badass! I love her so much!

Lastly, I would like to say that the romance subplot was phenomenal, perfect, stunning and excellent! The chemistry the characters shared was intense! I loved reading about them!

I can't wait for the release of 'On Rotation' and I will definitely will be reading again in the future!

I was drawn to this book due to the cover and it was really entertaining. I loved that it felt like a more serious romance with the hospital setting. I would recommend reading this book if you enjoy medical tv shows. 4/5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, it was a quick and easy read that was well written with a compelling romcom storyline and well developed characters that I fell in love with. I loved the romance side of it alomngside the medical side of it - im finding that is a trope I am really liking romances set in hospitals or medical settings - who knew.
A gripping and enjoyable read