--- description: Find out why 'Honey & Spice' made the list. title: 'Honey & Spice' Is on TIME’s List of the 50 Best Romance Novels image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b91495be56a8898/698a5941011682dbf19860e8/Honey-and-Spice-Bolu-Babalola.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 01, 2024 # Honey & Spice by [Meg Zukin](/author/meg-zukin/) ## Meg Zukin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Bolu Babalola, a self-professed “[romcomoisseur](https://time.com/5938521/best-teen-rom-coms/ "undefined"),” has been endorsed by everyone from Meg Cabot to Reese Witherspoon. Armed with an audience that follows her pop-culture commentary with fervor, Babalola, who started her career as a screenwriter at BBC Comedy, did not disappoint with her 2022 debut novel. In [_Honey & Spice_](https://time.com/6189585/honey-and-spice-bolu-babalola-review/ "undefined"), Babalola takes the fake dating trope and gives it a modern-day makeover. Whitewell College student Kikiola “Kiki” Banjo has no time for the f-ckboy plagueon campus—she’s too busy running her student radio show, where she warns against “wastemen” and offers advice for the lovesick. Kiki has her sights set on a competitive summer pop-media program at New York University and is focused on staying in the fast lane when she meets Malakai Korede, a transfer film student who has the women of Blackwell, the university’s African-Caribbean society, abuzz. Kiki warned the female student body against coupling up with Malakai, but soon finds herself locking lips with him—without realizing he’s the guy she’s been disparaging.Driven by a mutual desire to salvage their reputations after hooking up, Kiki and Malakai form an alliance and hard launch a fake relationship. Before long, the faux romance starts to have very real repercussions. **Buy Now:** _Honey & Spice_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780063141513 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3y09QMq "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-romance-books/6996649/honey-and-spice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-romance-books/6996649/honey-and-spice/"},"headline":"Honey & Spice","datePublished":"2024-08-01T12:10:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:28:24.488Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-romance-books/6996649/honey-and-spice/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","Special Project"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b91495be56a8898/698a5941011682dbf19860e8/Honey-and-Spice-Bolu-Babalola.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Meg Zukin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/meg-zukin/"}],"creator":"Meg Zukin","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b91495be56a8898/698a5941011682dbf19860e8/Honey-and-Spice-Bolu-Babalola.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-romance-books/6996649/honey-and-spice/","name":"Honey & Spice"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Romance Authors Share the Steamiest Book They've Ever Read","description":"Romance authors like Emily Henry and Beverly Jenkins talk about the steamiest book they've ever read.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jXMACfdW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-07-30T10:00:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jXMACfdW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-romance-books/6996649/honey-and-spice/","duration":"PT1M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-romance-books/6996649/honey-and-spice/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```