Yinka, Where is your Huzband – Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Published By: Penguin/Fig Tree
Pages: 352
Released On: 31/03/2022

Meet Yinka: a thirty-something, Oxford-educated, British Nigerian woman with a well-paid job, good friends, and a mother whose constant refrain is ”Yinka, where is your huzband?”

Yinka’s Nigerian aunties frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, her work friends think she’s too traditional (she’s saving herself for marriage), her girlfriends think she needs to get over her ex already, and the men in her life…well, that’s a whole other story. But Yinka herself has always believed that true love will find her when the time is right. Still, when her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find-A-Date for Rachel’s Wedding. Aided by a spreadsheet and her best friend, Yinka is determined to succeed. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs to find is herself?

*****

Thanks to Penguin for the advanced proof of this title in return for an honest review.

And I thought MY mother was desperate for me to find a man to settle down with; at least she didn’t pray for me at a public gathering for all to hear…yet.

I love reading books written by, and written about, people from different backgrounds and cultures to my own – in this case, Nigerian. It really opens my mind to new characters and new ways of life. There was almost a sense of Bridget Jones’s Diary with this book, but with extra spice. Lizzie has written a love story for the modern age. A love story between a man and a woman, between mothers and daughters, between friends, and with ourselves.

I love Yinka and really feel a kinship with her; there’s a lot about her that is true for my own life too. She is hilarious and isn’t perfect by any means. She works hard and she tries, but that doesn’t mean she succeeds at everything. She’s a human being, and humans make mistakes, and that’s what makes life fun.

The writing is so clear and concise, not rambling at all. Everything and everyone is meant to be there. I think some authors, when writing comedy, end up struggling to portray the desired humour and it becomes a bit stilted. But Lizzie has found the right balance and the humour leaps off the page. The writing is so rich that Yinka instantly becomes your best friend and you walk alongside her every step of the way.

It’s hard to believe this is Lizzie’s debut novel as everything about it is so accomplished it feels like it’s been honed by many years of experience.