I know I say this about a lot of romance books but I honestly think everyone needs to read this book. I literally had to message @shirlywhirlwindmd as soon as I finished it to tell her how wonderful I thought it was because WOW.

On Rotation follows the life of Angie, a Ghanaian-American medical student who till now has been “the perfect daughter”. But when things start to tip off course and Angie meets kind, compassionate Ricky, her perspective on life shifts and everything changes.

Sadly, even today, working in the world of medicine is rife with discrimination and hierarchy. Racism and sexism are still very much prevalent, even within medical teaching.

What I loved the most about On Rotation, was that by telling Angie’s story these issues were bought to light and we saw how if these issues are resolved, both healthcare professionals and patients benefit greatly. Angie’s determination and ability to stand up for herself was so empowering and her approach to her studies and the challenges she faced during medical school was truly admirable!

Angie’s story was incredibly enlightening and educating. As a black female medical student Angie faced barriers that her white female and male counterparts did not encounter. By bringing this to light through characters such as Angie, On Rotation bought so much awareness to these barriers.

Aside from her medical career, Angie was a truly vibrant powerhouse of a character and the way her story ebbed and flowed as her relationships with her family, friends and love interests broke down and were built back up again gripped me from the first page.

I was so invested in Angie and Ricky’s story and I thought the bittersweet way in which their lives became entangled was an absolute masterpiece and gave the book real depth! And Ricky had absolutely stolen my heart by the end of the book - what a man 😍

Of course, a romcom wouldn’t be a romcom without some AMAZING supporting character action, and Angie’s “Sanity Circle” was a thing of beauty! I also loved the way the two differing cultures of Angie and Ricky’s families were bought alive by their family members was wonderful and I learnt so much myself about both these cultures.

Something I also really appreciated was the footnotes - whether it was explanations of medical jargon, more detail on specific cultural references or simply injections of @shirlywhirlwindMDs personality - I loved them and felt they really added to the book’s charm!

I will absolutely be recommending this to all of my medical student friends and to everyone else too because this book is wonderful and one I will treasure! Thank you so much @quercusbooks for sending my a finished copy of On Rotation and for letting me be a part of the virtual book tour!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

#onrotation #onrotationbook #medstudent #medicine #romance #romcom #romcombooks #bookstagram #bookish #bookstagramexplore #bookstagramuk #adpr #fivestarread

I struggled to get into On Rotation from the get go. It took a few attempts for me to get really invested in it and even then it just wasn’t really my cuppa tea, but I can see why it would be popular with so many.

I really appreciate being gifted this copy by the publisher and netgalley to read and review.

This book was very descriptive which was stealing my attention for more than once during reading. Overall it was a nice read, definitely something new, but I had to take months to continue reading it. Lost interest several times and had to wait for the right mood to continue reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free ARC in exchange for a review!

This was a really fun book with a lot of medical know-how, cultural context, and humour packed in. First of all, the author wrote this WHILE DOING A CARDIOLOGY FELLOWSHIP. That is insanely impressive.

A lot of what Angie goes through is some mid-twenties growing up, and it's portrayed incredibly honestly with lots of compassion but also realization that sometimes we are stupid and silly. People make dumb mistakes and do weird things, but we move on and we grow up.

The one character I found difficult was Angie's sister, Tabatha. She was incredibly awful to Ricky for little to no reason, and even Angie recognized that she was a "mean girl". I just didn't vibe with her, and I thought she'd get some development or realize the mistake, but nah. She's just like that, I guess?

The first half was slow paced but picked up towards the end, and was enjoyable overall. I liked Angie a lot and really felt for her.

Four stars.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This title feels less like a romance and more of an adult coming of age story following a Black woman in medicine. While I loved the main character, the insight into her family life and culture, and the journey to success in her field, the romance felt secondary. Nevertheless, it's well worth the read, with a great balance of drama, cute interactions, and hilarity.

3.5 stars
I expected to love this book, based on the blurb and the reviews. But for me, it was just okay.
I did like the idea of this book and the representation. But it took me a while to truly get into it and I feel like it took some time to really get going.
I also found the footnotes, that didn't really appear at the end of a page or chapter like I expected, quite distracting. Most of the time they added a little to my understanding but I feel like those explanations could have been integrated better than the way that they were.
Having to keep flipping back and forth was pretty annoying.
The pacing also felt quite off for me too.
I wasn't quite rooting for them as a couple either and again, the miscommunication trope cropped up, which always annoys me.
I wish there had been more medical/Greys Anatomy vibes like I was hoping for but sadly this just didn't quite work for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fun story, an interesting romance, and an interesting introduction to the Ghanian culture.
I found it compelling and highly entertaining, rooted for the characters, and love the style of writing.
I hope to read other books by this author soon.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I received a copy of 'On Rotation' in exchange for an honest review.

First off - love a clever book name.

At 25, Angela 'Angie' Appiah has a lot going for her. Great career prospects, loyal friends, a successful and handsome boyfriend. But when her boyfriend unexpectedly dumps her, this sets off a chain of events for Angie that make her feel like she's well into her quarter life crisis. Her best friend retreats, and she scores poorly in the most important exam of her medical career to date. Her parents are openly frustrated and disappointed with her.

How and when will Angie bounce back? When will she worry less about what people think?

This was a fun read and I'd recommend to anybody who likes a rom com.

Just finished reading On Rotation by Shirlene and wow , I was not expecting this. There was so much representation in this book. I got to learn all about Ghanaian culture, which is something I’ve never had the opportunity to do. The love story between Angie and Ricky was beautiful.

This book showed the reality of relationships and how they are not always the easiest. Ricky’s character traits were so accurate for a Hispanic man (coming form me a Hispanic woman) it was refreshing. I loved Angie’s friend group and how close they were but also allowed each other to grow. Angie and Ricky tension was immaculate sometimes I just wanted to scream at him to get his thoughts together and be with her.

I wouldn’t say this is a slow burn but it would be more of a strangers, to friends ,to lovers trope with a tad bit of miscommunication. I gave this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


I received this as an ARC to review from the publisher and netgalley in return for my true honest thoughts after reading this book :).

This book was so fun! From the characters to the settings to the descriptions...It was great!

It felt more of a coming of age story than a romance but it still had enough romance in it. Angie is a Ghanaian American struggling to balance her friendships, medical school, family and love life. Actually her love life has been quite bad and then she meets Ricky... but he's taken.

Overall I really enjoyed this book even though I would have loved to be inside's Ricky's mind a bit more. Also, there's an absurd amount of footnotes that were really hard to navigate on ebook format (also I'm not sure they work in the audiobook aswell).

Other than that I would still recommend this book.

📌 Thank you to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

On Rotation is THE cutest little friends to romance i've ever read. You'll find yourself rooting for them throughout the entire book from the time they meet -despite their being many obstacles in their way (including him being in a relationship, but we have to move over that part). Who knew a relationship could blossom from being found crying in a garden, followed by bumping into each other again ay a beyonce gig, to literally feeling like you can't be without that person.

I was in an incredible reading slump and this helped me get right out of it! I liked that it felt like a realistic romance and also i learnt about medical school and how bust life actually is as a medical student which i knew was busy but i didnt know it was THAT busy. No wonder she struggled balancing a dating life on top of that (but we all would for Ricky lets be honest).

I also liked the focus on adult friendships and how difficult it is to navigate friendships growing up when new people are introduced and priorities are changed - a reality which is rarely shown in books and the stressed importance that being alone is also fine and you can be happy not being in a relationship.

I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a feel good read that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I did enjoy this book, in particular the references to Ghanian culture and traditions, many of which I was not aware of before. However, I found the footnotes very distracting, as they disrupted the flow of reading. I also did not become invested in Angie and Ricky, as the constant communication issues made it feel like we never got to see them working well together. On the whole, I did enjoy the book, and would be interested in reading more of Obuobi's work in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC.

What a great story of relationships, not just romantic but family relationships and friendships. I really loved the main character, Angie, struggling as a medical student under lots of pressure from her parents she starts advocating for what she wants for herself and her life.
The miscommunication in this book could get incredibly frustrating but the story was good enough to move past it.

Oh, I really liked this book!

Angie is a girl who is a high achiever but somehow, for her immigrant parents, she still isn't achieving quite enough. They have ideas about what sort of life she is supposed to lead; from her career to her choice of partner but Angie follows her own path. Yes, she is becoming a doctor but she fails an important exam and this then puts her career trajectory in jeopardy. She also falls for Ricky, and since he is not of Ghanaian descent, he isn't likely to get the nod of approval from her parents either.

Now, I am not a young woman, nor do my parents come from Ghana. But I DO have migrant parents and they put the same sorts of pressures on me when I was the same age as the character in this book. I had quite a few chuckles at the similarities between Angie's parents and my own, although I am sure if the two sets of parents were to meet, they would probably not think they had much in common. It is the ingrained attitude kind of thing though, that I recognised. Not easy, at all.

I know that Angie is a character in a book, but when I read about the pressures that junior doctors go through it struck me anew that it is really ridiculous to put SO much pressure on these young people, for no particular reason. Does anyone REALLY think that making someone work very long hours without much of a break for anything is going to lead to great decision making?? The mindset needs to change, in the medical world.

Anyway, this is a lovely book, clearly written for a younger demographic, but this old girl learned some new things too! Love the tradition of Knocking :)

4.5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus.

What a fun read so brilliantly funny and so so brilliantly real! I found myself on an emotional rollercoaster falling in love with the book a page at a time! Loved the pacing and writing everything was great!

I so enjoyed this book about Angela the super smart, commitment phobe medical student who's carefully curated life starts to unravel. The characters in this book were really well written - you can tell a lot of thought and research went into developing them to be realistic and there are so many details you can really imagine what they are like.

I also really appreciated all of the extra information/reference points throughout even though it is a pain in the bum flicking back and forth to find them at the end of each chapter.

Mostly I enjoyed the will they/won't they relationship of Angie and Ricky who have such great chemistry you can't help but root for them.

A really great romance read that is informative as well as entertaining.

With thanks to Avon/Netgalley for the ARC

We follow Angie, a Ghanaian American. Who has reached the pinnacle of many African parents' dream...She is in medical school! But things aren't going that smoothly. After 'failing' an important test, being dumped by her boyfriend, she begins questioning everything. In swoops Ricky, who is everything she should not want.

This book is immediately very funny and relatable. it perfectly depicts how complicated families can be and we're clearly all living the same life where parents' pine their hopes on the eldest sibling to have the 'responsible' careers, letting the younger siblings live young, wild and free. There is a lot of emphasis on the relationship Angie has with her parents. The anxiety the the judgements of the choices she makes; the frustration of their continued misunderstanding but unrelenting pressure on her to do well. The pushback she receives when tries to communicate her issues. As well as this, the author explores friendships, how they are a cornerstone to our well-being and having that safe-space. But also how we can get complacent, underestimating the impact our individual growth can have when sustaining longstanding friendships.

Onto the romance! Not going to lie, the first interaction threw me. it picked me up and dropped me back to the ground. but i enjoyed how their friendship and relationship grew. it is definitely slow burn. Ricky was imperfect and sometimes I honestly didn't like him, but nobody is perfect and by the end I loved him. I would say that this book isn't as romance focused as I anticipated but I had a good time reading it.

Overall, the book was good, it wasn’t a delight to read because right now some of Angie’s worries are my own. There was empathy for the character and the story was good, believable and not at all delusional.

Angie and Ricky romance was a bit exhausting. But the novel gained life when it came to Angie’s personal development. The effort she put into her career, friendships and family relationships was admirable to watch and a reflection of the modern days struggles.

Owing to its endearing heroine, this novel took me on an emotional rollercoaster as my emotions kept on mirroring Angie’s. It was heartwarming to watch her friends rally around her but I also sympathised with her whenever she faced a career setback. Most frequently, I found myself utterly perplexed, just like Angie, by Ricky’s intentions towards her. To me, this was a mark of a great heroine as she was relatable and open to the reader, making it easy for me to want to see her succeed. Angie harboured many understandable insecurities, in both her professional and personal life, but she never let them beat her. She was characterised by her strength, but if that ever wavered, she luckily had such an encouraging and uplifting group of friends surrounding her.

Angie’s romance with Ricky was the novel’s main source of drama. From the very beginning, Ricky was depicted as almost too perfect – kind, thoughtful and attentive – which made Angie (and myself) skeptical of his advances. I found the couple's will-they/won’t-they dynamic a bit exhausting, specifically towards the end when I felt like I was getting whiplash.

While the romance was a key element driving the plot, I think the novel really shone when it focused on Angie’s personal development. The effort she put into her career, friendships and family relationships was admirable to watch.