I loved this. It's warm, funny and charming, almost like Bridget Jones brought bang up to date - all the single girl problems, all the fantastic female relationships and work pressures but minus the dated diet talk and with a great, heaping portion of jollof rice.

I found the characters all felt very real and I felt invested in the lives of Yinka’s friends and family just an much as Yinka herself.

I’ll absolutely be recommending this to all my friends when it comes out in March, and I can't wait to see what is next from Lizzie Damilola Blackburn.

I loved everything about this book. It had strong vibes of a modern day Rachel’s Holiday, with Yinka’s attempts to find love not being quite what they seem. A richly drawn community of people, with Yinka and her family at the centre, this book is a really welcome addition to the canon. Yinka is a fabulous character, finding her way to be herself within the confines of cultural and familial expectation. Can’t wait to see what this author does next.

3.5 STARS
I enjoyed this from Lizzie Damilola Blackburn and the acknowledgements made her seem like such a genuinely lovely person. The story itself lacked pace. Within the first 5 chapters, I knew how it was going to end. It was predictable but still I went along for the journey. Yinka seemed very real and personable which kept me reading. I wasn't eager to pick it back up but not all stories demand that. Overall, a good read.
I would not recommend reading this on a Kindle - the messages and post-it notes did not translate and instead where very difficult to understand/read.

Thanks so much to Penguin for letting me read Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? in advance! This is a classic commercial women's novel: female protagonist in their early 30s, living in a big city (in this case, Peckham and Denmark Hill), dealing with issues surrounding love, friendship, family and work. Yinka is a black Christian British-Nigerian woman, and she's faced with pressure from her traditionally minded family: to find a husband. This was a pretty standard and formulaic commercial novel, which isn't a bad thing – with these kinds of books, you know what you're expecting, and you get it! The characters were all well-drawn, it had a lot of personality (reason #1 why British commercial fiction is superior to American), and I mostly enjoyed reading about Yinka's life and the people in it. A few issues, though: the ending was rushed and tied up way too neatly; it did that expositional thing I hate where characters who have known each other for years explain things to each other that they clearly already know; and Yinka was incredibly judgemental at times in a way I found quite off-putting. I'm all for protagonists being unlikeable and making bad decisions, but her terrible choices and judgements were backed by her (seemingly sensible) friends in a way that I found infuriating. Do not let your friends behave that way! Please! 3.5 🌟

It’s been compared with Bridget Jones. To quote “The spiritual heir to Bridget Jones’s Diary” – Emily Henry, author, and others are saying it too. It has similarities in that Yinka is looking for love and at 31, …well, time is marching on. However Yinka is an altogether brighter, not so dizzy 30-something with a good career, an Oxford education behind her and her own place. Now if only she could find some romance, someone special to share her life with.

Yinka is constantly being reminded by her mum, her friends and her family that she still isn’t married and has it pointed out to her with annoying regularity that her younger sister has children as well as a huzband and her cousin Rachel is preparing for her wedding too.

Yinka is UK born Nigerian. The Nigerian culture is very much a part of Yinka’s life and that of her family. As the reader you get a wonderful insight into Nigerian ways of life, what is important to them with the church and Christianity being central to family life.

It was a bit of a doubtful start to the book for me, in that when I first started reading I thought maybe I was a bit too old and long in the tooth to be reading about wedding planning, baby showers and dating apps. Being twice the age of the main character, I’m perhaps a little bit past all that. However I really began to warm to Yinka and all the situations she finds herself in. Once I started to get into the book and some of the characters had faded into the background for the time being, I really started to enjoy Yinka’s story very much. It’s funny, but with an underlying feeling of what it’s like to never feel like you quite fit in. Trying to live your life to how you perceive others to want you to be rather than being true to yourself.

It is very topical of today’s issues but told with a wonderful humour and warmth. There are some great supporting characters, Nana, Yinka’s best friend and house mate who always has wise words for Yinka, not that she always takes notice. Aunty Blessing was a fantastic character and though she didn’t feature that much through the book, she came into her own towards the end. She was always the example Yinka’s family held up when warning her of what would happen if she didn’t marry. “You don’t want to end up like Aunty Blessing”, was the dire warning. Aunty Blessing was very happy with her life actually.

A really good read, which I enjoyed very much in the end and I’m so glad I didn’t let my initial doubts put me off reading this funny, insightful and sometimes touching book.

**To be posted to my blog around publication date** Shared on Goodreads today.

I enjoyed reading this book and I can definitely see the similarities to Bridget Jones. I liked the fact it covered a lot of pertinent social issues but I found the pacing of the story quite quick towards the end so it felt quite rushed for the story to be 'wrapped up'.

A brilliant book set in London. Yinka is always being asked by her mum and aunties when will she meet a man and get married. She must find her own way through the dating game. It doesn't always go how she wants it to and she loses herself along the way trying to please everyone. See if she gets there at the end? A thoroughly enjoyable book with relatable characters.

Yinka, here is MY huzband? Yinka, thirty one year old single woman who's spent the last few years focused on her career while her family focuses on her singleness? Hmm, why does that sound so familiar?


I really identified with many aspects of Yinka's life. Granted no one has ever very loudly and publicly prayed for me to find a husband but I have been made to feel that my other successes aren't as successful as finding a man would be. Does that make sense?

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn does an excellent job of bringing us into Yinka's world and making us care about her, cry with her and cringe with her. I said "Oh, Yinka" out loud several times and that's a very good sign. I really loved these characters and so many of the issues Yinka deals with feel real. And the ending is brilliantly done, I put the book down feeling happy and satisfied.



I 100% recommend this book for literally everyone but especially those trying to balance friendships, work and dating.

I absolutely loved this book, for the colour, the cultural insights and the food descriptions as well as the very emotive tale of Yinka and the pressure she is under to conform to societies requirement for a "huzband".
On the whole the book is very lighthearted although some of Yinka's friends and relatives sail a bit close to the wind in their commentaries and very public and humiliating prayers for her future. However, the last quarter of the book is actually incredibly heartfelt and moving (in parts in move me to tears as Yinka finds her voice). Many of us, from a cross section of cultures and societies, will have been right there with pressure to marry or settle down, have children and create the perfect future as according to our elders expectations and the author captures beautifully the emotional rollercoaster of wanting to please everyone and as a result never being happy yourself.

A great read chock full of wonderful characters.

I really enjoyed this. Yinka - a 31 year old Nigerian living in London, single and surrounded by aunties who know the best for her and regularly tell her! She feels that she must find a date before her cousin’s wedding - her hunt changes her and makes those around her question her choices and decisions. Yinka has to learn to respect herself again and make decisions for her well-being rather than conforming to the expectations of those around her.

She is surrounded by larger than life members of the local Nigerian community and is trying to balance their influence against her work colleagues. It is interesting to see her trying to work between two cultures and be true to herself. All done with humour.

A delightful read which I will be recommending.

This book is hilarious! Yinka is a successful, accomplished woman but she is not married and as a woman in her 30's this seems to be a cause of great distress and shame to her many 'Aunties'! I honestly laughed so much. When the Aunties pray for her at her sisters baby shower, I honestly laughed out loud so many times!! Its a funny, sweet and uplifting book. Yinka thinks she needs to change herself to bag a man but does she????

Steeped in culture, I really enjoyed this book so much. A fun, funny and uplifting read. Highly recommend

I spotted this book on Netgalley and requested it straight away. Chicklit, but Nigerian. Brilliant.
Yinka is single and this is not acceptable to her mother... or most of the aunties. Her cousin is getting married and she needs to find a date before the wedding, or she'll never hear the end of it. And then, just to make things worse, she gets made redundant.

Yinka is relatable as a young woman whose life straddles two cultures. I loved the scene where Yinka's friends from her two 'worlds' meet and get on. She's also relatable as someone who is navigating that tricky space between your first career and your second. Being made redundant is horrible and the way Yinka reacts is so similar to how I felt when I was made redundant.
I loved the complexity of her friendships with Nana, Rachel and Ola. Family friendships are a thing and they are always complicated.
Most of all, I loved that this was a book about a character navigating life and she just happened to be Black. The book is not about racism (apart from the way it pervades everyday life), but about Yinka. Which is exactly as it should be.

This book was charming and funny. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Despite the fact that I am a sixty-one year old white woman and Yinka is a thirty-one year old British-Nigerian woman, I could not only sympathise, but also identify with her on a number of levels.

The pressure is on from her mum and many aunties to get herself married. A failed relationship which had looked like it was heading in that direction, has left her heart-broken and her confidence low. When she bumps into her ex and his new fiancée at her cousin’s engagement party, she adds to the pressure on herself, determined to find a date for the wedding.

I absolutely loved this story. I enjoyed the insights into British-Nigerian culture, the reflections of my own issues when I was a single thirty-something, the characters and tricky relationships and particularly witnessing Yinka’s growth in learning to accept and value herself. I just wish it had been around thirty years ago.

I have no hesitation in awarding five big fat gorgeous stars!

I enjoyed this book; its refreshing to read a chick lit book where the central character is a young, black woman. It's an insight into finding a balance between two cultures as well as usual female fiction themes of friendship, love and jobs. I liked the characters and the writing style is great- it's an easy read but detailed. The characters are well developed as realistic. I'd read more by this author!!

I started this book not knowing what to expect and finished it entirely grateful that I requested to read it. Going through the motions with Yinka as she finds her true self and learns to love her has been a rewarding experience and I feel I’ve come out of it understanding more of the struggles of those considered ‘dark’ in ethnic communities

This book was a breath of fresh air.

Comedic whilst meaningful.

Offering some lessons in love and providing some much needed humour at the same time.

Yinka and her friends and family are all quite frankly, brilliant characters. Each one with their own stand out personalities, giving a unique view on love, life and dating.

I smiled from start to finish.

I'd quite like to see another book featuring Yinka and the rest of the cast of loveable people.

Yinka, Where is Your Huzband is far from a bad read and I appreciated that the narrative is more focused on Yinka herself than her love life. However, the writing just struck me as very...shall we say debut-y. Some of the dialogue is clumsy, as are some transition scenes (with phrases like "i remember it like it was yesterday"). The secondary characters are fairly one-dimensional. Still, this will appeal to fans of chick-lit books that are less nit-picky than I am.

If you are after an upbeat and funny read, this is the perfect read for you. I have been reading quite a few thrillers and needed something light hearted and this was the perfect change I needed. It really shows the true meaning of extended families and female friendships. It such a great and easy read, I was laughing most of the time reading this. I loved Yinka, she is such a strong female character, I felt as though I went through every emotion with her. Now when I think of this book it will make me smile. I just want to read it again and again.

Yinka, Where is Your Husband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a great contemporary fiction that made me smile, laugh, and also endeared me towards this young woman and her larger than life extended family. I was definitely entertained.

This book is a bit out of my normal reading genres, but I am so glad I read it. I first of all loved the dialogue, witty banter, sarcasm, and cringe-worthy moments. All of this balanced perfectly with Yinka and the complicated relationships she has with her vibrant and fabulous family. My heart goes out to her and the push/pull relationship with the family that just wants her to find a suitable partner and marry already! She wants to make them happy, but she also wants to be herself, keep her independence, and also find her own happiness.
What reader cannot empathize with this conundrum?

I enjoyed the interplay and how it all came through as the book continued on. I also enjoyed the ending. It left me with a smile on my face for sure.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and Penguin General
Viking, Hamish Hamilton, Fig Tree
Penguin Random House UK for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 3/21/22.

I really loved this book. I like the way our cultures collide and finding out how families deal with differences on how we are brought up especially people from ethnic backgrounds thrown together and making the most of dealing with two worlds. I loved the characters and Yinka stood out for me. She loves her ethnicity but on the other hand she struggles with the fact that she should be married and have children as she is now 31. Yinka is clever, a degree from Oxford, has a good job in the city and her own home but as far as the “aunties” in her culture are concerned the one thing she is missing is a “huzband”. This sets Yinka on a downward spiral of trying to find a man for a wedding of a friend which is 6 months away. It does not help that her younger sister is married and expecting a baby which deep down she would love herself. On top of this pressure she is made redundant from her job which she keeps secret through shame. At every opportunity her mother and aunties pray for her to find a husband and she is always embarrassed by this and makes her feel unloved. One of her friends, Nana from Ghana, is totally comfortable her own skin and she tries to make Yinka comfortable in hers but it is an uphill battle. Yinka is rolling along unsure of herself when she attends an engagement party and who turns up but the “she thought” the love of her life with his new fiancé which she finds difficult to deal with. This makes her pursue even harder to find a date for the wedding. Mum and aunties get involved and push single men from their All Welcome Church in her direction and that proves a non starter for Yinka. Time evolves and Nana becomes very worried about Yinka and puts her on a path of “it does not matter attending weddings etc on your own” and is better than taking a man who your mum and aunties preen over and have you married before you can turn around. There are many twists, turns and men coming into Yinka’s life and I found the whole book enchanting and was sorry when it ended – great read