I thought the writing in this book was truly beautiful. The landscape, character, and emotional descriptions were so lush. At first I felt some of the characters were two dimensional but as the book progressed they became more full and real. Although I hadn't read the precursor to this book, I am now considering checking it out.
Thank you Netgalley and the Author/Publisher for this ARC!

Sweet Heat belongs in the second chance romance hall of fame, and I really enjoyed it. It’s on another level. I think it’s safe to say we have a new reigning queen of romantic contemporary fiction.

Let’s get the basics out of the way: while this is technically a sequel to Honey & Spice, it absolutely holds its own. You can start here. But be warned: once you meet Kiki and Malakai, you'll need to go back to see how it all began. Their chemistry is that magnetic.

Second chance romance is one of my favorite tropes, but also one of the hardest to nail. It requires not only building a believable love story, but doing so on the ashes of a breakup. And Babalola handles it with the grace, heat, and humor of a seasoned pro.

Kiki and Malakai are a couple you yearn for. You ache through every tension filled glance, every charged conversation, every “almost” moment. Their breakup doesn’t feel like a plot device, but it feels real, grounded in their personal growth and emotional baggage. And when they come back together? It sings. The dual timeline structure, which is set as present day tension interspersed with glimpses into their past, works beautifully in this book. We get just enough of their history to understand the stakes without ever losing the forward momentum of the story.

But this book is more than a romance. It’s about growing into yourself. About family, friendship, identity, ambition, and navigating love when you’re still figuring out who you are. Kiki’s inner voice is sharp, funny, and full of vulnerability. Her fears, her fire, her insecurities are all so achingly human. And Malakai? He’s the perfect match: steady, sincere, hot as hell.

Also, let’s talk about the spice. These scenes are so well done not just because they’re steamy (and they ARE), but because they say something about who these characters are and what they’re working through. It’s storytelling, not just titillation, and it’s so well done.

Babalola’s prose is electric; it is funny, poetic, grounded in culture and emotion. The themes of Black identity, sisterhood, and finding your path are woven in with elegance and heart. There are moments of joy and heartbreak, laughter and longing, and through it all, a romance that will stay with me for a long time.

Sweet Heat is a masterpiece. One of the best books of 2025, full stop.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bolu Babalola, and William Morrow for the eARC of this book.

The story flowed well and the characters were well developed.  I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.



****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

What you can expect to find in Sweet Heat:
-forced proximity
-gut wrenching, angsty & emotional scenes
-second chance romance
-lots of quirky/sarcastic humor
-the swooniest romance
-heartbreak & love

I picked up Sweet Heat without knowing anything about it. I literally got an early copy and immediatley started reading and fell in love with the writing. So imagine when I was like close to 50% of the way in only to realize that this was a sequel 🫢 and maybe I should go back and read Honey & Spice? But I couldn't stop reading...so if you're like me and haven't read the first book it's totally ok to go into this one without reading Honey & Spice - but I think you'd probably have a better experience if you read them in order.

That being said...THIS BOOK 😭 I loved loved loved the writing and especially loved Kai + Kiki. These two had so much history and every interaction between them had so much chemistry. I kept thinking what happened between them to fracture such a solid relationship? Why weren't they together? Were they going to get back together? I have passages after passages highlighted and literally had to sit with those passages before moving on because they were so beautiful 🥲.

I feel like I inhaled this book and need to go back to savor all of the pieces. If you love a second chance angsty romance that will have you crying into your pillow but also laughing at the laugh out loud scenes definitely add this one to your tbr. Easily one of my favorite books of the year.

Put Sweet Heat in the second-chance romance hall of fame with Persuasion because this blew me away.

I really enjoyed Babalola’s previous work, including this novel’s prequel Honey & Spice, but she has really stepped up her game here. Dare I say we have a new queen of romance/romantic contemporary fiction on our hands?

First, I should clarify that while this book does indeed follow the characters from Honey & Spice, it can absolutely work as a standalone if you want to start with this one (though I guarantee you’ll want to go back and read more about Kiki and Malakai if you do that). This is a completely contained story, though Honey and Spice does provide extra context to the earlier stages of their relationship.

It’s no secret I love second chance. And I think it’s one of the hardest tropes to write well. Writing a good romance is already a delicate balance of chemistry, humor, background, and spice. Writing a second chance requires the same but TWICE and with a breakup in between somewhere. A breakup that makes us love our characters more and not less.

Kiki and Malakai are a couple you YEARN for. You wait for their every interaction, their stolen glances, their hands brushing, even their inevitable sniping and fights because you just know it’s all building to such a delicious conclusion in Babalola’s capable hands.

The balance is perfect here between past and present. We are firmly grounded in the present story, while the occasional chapters in the past give us the context we need to understand what happened to this couple. And their breakup, while devastating, feels relatable and raw. We ache for these characters as they hurt, but we know the story Babalola is weaving together requires that they go through this to grow.

This book captures what makes a second-chance romance so special: it’s not about toxic love or one person being forced to change for the other. It’s rooted in the understanding that we grow through the challenges life throws at us, and that the same twists and turns taking us away from a relationship, may one day bring us back, when we’re ready.

And the writing??? Babalola is FUNNY. The spice is also fantastic, in its own right and because it’s telling the story of Kiki and Malakai’s relationship as much as any deep conversation or flashback scene. She just gets it.

And all of this while also exploring themes of coming of age, sisterhood, family, and finding purpose.

This book is a masterpiece. Undoubtedly one of the best books of 2025, of any genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love Bolu’s storytelling, but this time around it did take me a bit to get into the story. It felt a bit wordy, but other than that as true to Bolu her characters shined! I loved being introduced to a more mature version of the gang. Kiki and Kai’s love still shined and was so sweet even when they tried to hate one another. One thing about Kiki and Kai their banter is gonna be off the chain! I love their playfulness and how quick witted they are with one another. As always, the female friendship did NOT take a back seat, but played beautifully along side the love story, even in conflict.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO NETGALLEY AND THE PUBLISHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys, when I say I am in love with Bolu Babalola's writing. I just could not put this book down. I was eating every word. This book is so good and full of yearning. It really reminds me how much I want to be in love like that. Anyways, this book follows Ms. Kiki Banjo as she navigates work, friendship and love. When Babalola announced she was going to do a sequel to Honey and Spice. I was shocked and SICK when she said Kiki and Malakai broke up. However, I appreciate their journey back together. I love the way the author uses pepper in this book. I thought plantain would be used more. I just love Kiki's personality and I relate so deeply to her fears and aspiriations. I have so much to say about this book, but I feel like words are not enough right now. I will return to this review. However, I need everyone who loves Honey and Spice to read this book. I need more people to pick Honey and Spice and jump directly into the sequel. I pray that Honey and Spice get picked up to be a show or movie. I just need an adaptation QUICKLYYYYYYYY. I love the author's note.

A wedding setting is one of my favorite parts of a story. Sweet Heat is that book, and it is filled with two main characters that bring the spice and drama. I was hooked from the beginning. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was okay, another situation where I thought it sounded better than it ended up being. But it wasn't bad by any means! I can still see a bunch of people loving this, it just wasn't quite what I like in a romance book.

This story follows Kiki. And Kiki's life is kind of becoming a mess right now. She is having to deal with some romance troubles as well as her family (the family business is struggling and she is trying to deal with that whole situation).

I just couldn't connect to these characters, they had background and depth but something about these characters still didn't feel as real to me as they could've. I am very particular about characters in romance books, so I do know that is a thing with me. I can't always connect with them.

If you're looking for a second chance romance that has a whole lot more than just romance to the story, definitely check this out. This book does touch on a lot of different topics and I did really like that. I like when there's always something going on in a book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

This was my first read by Bolu Babalola which is a mistake I will be rectifying as soon as my library can get me a copy of "Honey and Spice.” I loved this so much and I absolutely love Babalola’s writing style, which is so funny and friendly and incisive. Sweet Heat is a sequel to “Honey and Spice” and picks up three years later, with Kiki and Malakai again being the romantic interests. The author is great at writing sexy, playful romance, but I think she’s even better at writing female friendships and how grounding and important they are to the women in them. I love the pop culture references she includes and I so enjoyed being in the head of Kiki, maybe my favorite fmc in a romance I’ve read in the past decade. The romantic journey and the yearning are on point. The cover for this one is also stunning. WIn after win after win.

Loved, loved, loved this!

it's quite a feat to write a sequel to a romance story fans loved and to make it a second chance romance at that, but Bolu pulled it off phenomenally, in my opinion.

This book places you in a timeline 3 years after Kiki and Malakai have broken up and seemingly moved on, helped by the fact that they haven't seen each other since that fateful nite at a hotel. But now, with their best friends Aminah and Kofi getting married, they will be in each other's orbits again and must navigate hard discussions and still present feelings.

As someone who loves second chance romances, this book perfected the very hard balance of still having all the tension and build up of a standard romance while presenting the real dilemmas that caused a breakup and demonstrating why it things would be different now.

The chemistry between Kiki and Kai is at an all-time high, and you as a reader feel it, but so too are the disconnect and unresolved feelings about the breakup.

I ate this up! Literally didn't want to put my Kindle down! It's spicy, it's tense, it's beautifully written, and most of all, it feels authentic both to me as a reader and to the characters themselves.

I think I've come to realize (and begrudgingly love) that Bolu is a master of BANTER. The intro to this novel took awhile for me to get into because it felt too wordy, but the more I got comfy with the amount of words, the more it started to flow. Kiki and Malaki's continued love story accomplished something I love which was having two well fleshed out main characters that can exist and exhibit character growth outside of their relationship. The angst, the dialog, the SPICE was very well crafted, well paced, and written with a lot of LOVE. I hate that my brain equates the dialogue and side characters to Issa Rae's "Insecure" but I'm beyond grateful that it has spurned more high quality BLACK LOVE STORIES in this genre.

An AMAZING follow-up!!

I adored honey and spice, and I first assumed this would follow a side-character finding love. But I was SO happy to have Kiki and Malachi back in my life. I want to read 82 more books about them. Writing was witty and quick while also cutting right to the heart.

ARC review!
Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow books!

The romantic journey of my dreams. An easy, emotional, emphatic 5 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We are here and we are here. Well I was there and I was there! I screeched when I saw the announcement for this book, I screamed when I got the ARC and now I’m borderline depressed it’s over.

💫 The follow up to (a personal favorite of mine) Honey & Spice is every thing I could have wanted. The story follows all of our favorites from book one (Kiki, Malakai, Aminah, Kofi, and more) as they navigate their late 20’s and all of the changes, difficult dynamics and heartbreaks that come with growing and finding yourself.

💫To say I loved this book would be an understatement. While I typically fly through books in just a day or two, this took me 4/5 days. Why? Because I kept rereading paragraphs. I kept highlighting and annotating (my most highlighted book of the year so far). I kept stopping to think and feel. There were many moments I had to physically stop reading because I was overwhelmed with giddiness, hurt or the tension was just SO tense. The writing never failed to absolutely wrap me up and bring me to a different place (I could never tire of living in Kiki’s mind). The characters are so bone-achingly lovable that I’m sad to have finished their journeys. The premise of the book is nostalgic yet relevant to the here and now, it made me reflect on my own life and also look forward. It was swoon and tear worthy and I had an insane amount of fun the entire way.

💫Some key characteristics of the book:

- A very character driven story. This book dives even deeper into the souls of the characters. We get more depth, more growth, more reasoning, more roots. We watch them grow and discover all through Kiki’s brilliant and colorful lense. Being back in Kiki’s mind was like coming home after a long day away while simultaneously going somewhere new and exciting for the very first time.
- A second chance romance with forced proximity elements. The romantic plot was executed perfectly in my opinion. Every set up and timeline was reasonable and both Malakai and Kiki were worthy of a second chance.
- Dual timeline / flash back chapters. This kept the book moving at a good pace. I really enjoyed going into the book not knowing exactly what happened between Malakai and Kiki from the ending of Honey & Spice to the beginning of Sweet Heat. Getting bits and pieces of it throughout the story was emotionally impactful.
- Friendship and family dynamics. These dynamics were raw and relatable. They lended to the history and reasoning of each character.
- Poetic, fun and unique prose. I love the way Ms. Bolu writes. There isn’t another author I can think of that writes in a way that actually sings to my soul. The simplest sentence can make me feel so viscerally. I will never tire of the writing style. This is what makes so special.
- Cultural / Racial themes. This part I love and appreciate almost above all else. It is so refreshing to see Black culture represented in such a light. You can feel how proud the characters are to be Black in world that doesn’t always want them to feel that way. You can feel the way the characters navigate life (both professional and personal) blending their cultures with pride and respect. As someone who is half Nigerian but never had the privilege of knowing that culture up close, I am thankful for the joyous, loud and proud representation.
- Steamy and spicy (open door romance). As the characters matured from Honey & Spice so did the… well spice! I’ll leave it clean even though I was SWEATING but I will say that these were some of my favorite spice scenes ever. They were built up well with lots of tension and the emotional aspect made every thing pop.


✨✨ Overall, this was pretty flawless for me. You’ll find me hard pressed to love a couple more than I love Kiki and Malakai and even harder pressed to love a main character to this level. I can’t wait for my physical copy to add to my favorites shelf!

A love that burns so hot that it takes on different lives and forms. Kiki and Malaki were all grown up after their college love story and life had done a number on the both of them. We find that they are broken up, but don’t quickly find out why. Both are back in London for their best friends’ Amania and Kofi’s wedding. They soon find that the wedding is not the only thing they will be working on together. Having the chance to further both of their careers by working with a music artist on a cultural video album. The back and forth between the two at times felt a little drawn out, and took over too much of the book. I wish there was more time of them being together. There was beauty in the struggle of them both trying to work around their hurt, but the miscommunication of it all was kind of grating.

Kiki as a woman was beautiful, and painful all at the same time. The girl that she was in Honey & Spice, you could tell had been beaten down by life that it left her guessing her power. I loved that everyone around her reaffirmed her power - even Kai. The way he spoke about her and showed up for her even when she was not supposed to know, shows just how much he loved her. These two loved each other even when it hurt, the way they both had to both believe the other person hated them, to help them pretend to move on. The person that they were with each other is so much better than without the other. There was no guess that they were each other’s person. Good follow up to Honey & Spice, wish we got to see them together more.

What a love story? What a story of growth and trying to figure shit out?? This book was so beautifully written and its such a touching tale of two people who found each other, lost themselves and then found each other again. When I started this book I had no idea what was happening. After Honey and Spice I hated to see how far the main characters strayed from the plan but I loved experiencing Kiki and Kai’s growth. I think the author does an incredible job of developing the characters from young adults to grown-ups. I love how Kiki communicates her feelings more effectively and I appreciate the vulnerability we see in her friendships. If there’s a third book I’d love so see Kiki in a position where her friends pour into her more. I love how we can see the rawness of figuring out your purpose or your place in your ecosystem and it’s always a pleasure to know that Kiki Banjo doesn’t compromise herself or what she deserves for anything. Between learning to switch gears in the midst of grief and imposter syndrome the two MC’s figured out how to fit their pieces back together and it made all the slow burns embers and fizzles so worthh it! I love how Kai loves Ki! I want more of Kai loving Ki!
I wish the chapters weren’t as long as they are but I love the chapter titles.

This book offers a breezy, heartwarming escape, filled with witty banter, endearing mishaps, and just enough chemistry to keep the pages turning. The love interest is suitably charming, with enough depth to make their dynamic engaging, even if some of their conflicts feel a bit predictable.

While the book excels in humor and sweet moments, the protagonist’s personal growth occasionally takes a backseat to the romantic plot. A deeper exploration of their emotional journey could have added more weight to their happily-ever-after.

That said, the supporting cast adds plenty of fun, and the romantic tension is well-paced, making it easy to root for the central couple. The writing is light and engaging, perfect for readers looking for a feel-good story with a few laughs along the way. If you don’t mind a little predictability and enjoy banter-filled romance, this book is a charming pick—just don’t expect too much introspection between the meet-cutes and grand gestures.