BLOG TOUR: Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Published: March 31st 2022
Publisher: Viking
Genre: Contemporary Literature, Romance Novel, Humorous Fiction
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this spectacular debut. Thank you to Viking for the invitation to take part and gifted ARC.

********

SYNOPSIS:

Yinka wants to find love. Her mum wants to find it for her.

She also has too many aunties who frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, a preference for chicken and chips over traditional Nigerian food, and a bum she’s sure is far too small as a result. Oh, and the fact that she’s a thirty-one-year-old South-Londoner who doesn’t believe in sex before marriage is a bit of an obstacle too…

When her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences ‘Operation Find A Date for Rachel’s Wedding’. Armed with a totally flawless, incredibly specific plan, will Yinka find herself a huzband?

What if the thing she really needs to find is herself?

MARIE CLAIRE ‘BEST BOOKS OF 2022’ AND FEBRUARY PICK FOR MALALA’S LITERATI BOOKCLUB

********

MY REVIEW:

Let me just start by saying that everyone needs to read this book! Funny, heartwarming and addictive, Yina Where is Your Huzband? is feel-good fiction at its absolute best. This delightful debut is a balm for the soul and I inhaled it quickly, too hooked to put it down for long and unable to stop thinking about it whenever it wasn’t in my hands. Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a magnificent storyteller and I am an instant fan. I will pre-ordering anything she writes in future without hesitation.

The story centres around thirty-one year old Yinka. Yinka wants to find love but her interfering mum and aunties want to find it for her. They do this by attempting to set her up with any bachelor they come across that they deem suitable and publicly praying for God to deliver her from the curse of singledom. They see her love for chicken and chips over traditional Nigerian food as an obstacle and think she’s already over the hill.
When her cousin announces her engagement Yinka decides it’s time to take matters into her own hands and launches Operation Wedding Date. Will she find love in time for the wedding? Or does she need to find herself first?

Yinka is a single-woman’s heroine for the modern age. A kind of spiritual, 21st Century Bridget Jones. And I absolutely adored her. She was easy to relate to and root for and I was cheering for her every step of the way as she tries to navigate not only societal and cultural expectations of who she is and what her life should look like, but the expectations of her well meaning, but interfering, family. I also loved the author’s realistic portrayal of complex family dynamics and friendships and the effect they can have on our behaviours.
Just like Yinka, the other characters are fascinating, vibrant, memorable and leap from the pages. There is also a chaos and craziness to both the characters and the story that is part of their charm. It also helps to convey to the reader the feelings of mounting pressure that Yinka experiences, making my own heart pound with stress at times.

Yinka Where Is Your Huzband? was everything I’d hoped for and more. I never wanted it to end and actually hugged the book to my chest after reading. It is a story not only about the search for love, but also a journey of self-discovery and learning to love ourselves.
Yinka and her story are perfect for the big screen and I truly hope to see them there soon. Does anyone have Reese Witherspoon’s number?

READ THIS BOOK NOW!

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

********

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a British-Nigerian writer, born in Peckham, who wants to tell the stories that she and her friends have longed for but never seen – romcoms ‘where Cinderella is Black and no-one bats an eyelid’. In 2019 she won the Literary Consultancy Pen Factor Writing Competition with the early draft of Yinka, Where is your Huzband?, which she had been writing alongside juggling her job at Carers UK. She has been at the receiving end of the question in the title of her novel many times, and now lives with her husband in Milton Keynes.

********

BUY THE BOOK:

Waterstones* | Amazon* | Bookshop.org*
*These are affiliate links

********

Thanks for reading Bibliophiles Emma xxx