Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?: ‘A big hearted story about friendship, family and love’ Beth O’Leary

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Mar 2022 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Meet Yinka. And Yinka's mum. And Yinka's aunties. Who are all asking . . . YINKA, WHERE IS YOUR HUZBAND?

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'Your bookself needs this . . . full of heart' Jendella Benson, Hope and Glory
'Love story? Nah, more of a self-love story!' Reader *****

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

She also has too many aunties who frequently pray for her delivery from singledom. Plus there's her 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 thirty-one and doesn't believe in sex before marriage might be a bit of an obstacle too . . .

So 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?

Hilarious and wildly entertaining, this tale of love, culture, family and friendship will have you rooting hard for Yinka! THE TIMES bestseller and MARIE CLAIRE 'BEST BOOKS OF 2022'

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'The most loveable character you'll meet' Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström, In Every Mirror She's Black

'Glorious debut! Read it over two nights and loved it!' Nikki May, Wahala

'Hilarious, insightful and so uplifting' Beth O'Leary, The Roadtrip

'Yinka's world is both hilarious and poignant' Irenosen Okojie MBE, Butterfly Fish

'The spiritual heir to Bridget Jones's Diary' Emily Henry, Book Lovers

'Warm and fun and sweet' Marian Keyes, Again, Rachel

'More than a book about a woman looking for a man. It addresses female friendships, black beauty standards and religion' Mail on Sunday

'A story about friendship, family, romance, and the most important quest of all - loving and accepting yourself' Lauren Ho, Last Tang Standing

'Peckham's Bridget Jones' Evening Standard

Ratings and reviews

4.5★s Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? is the first novel by British-Nigerian author, Lizzie Damilola Blackburn. After a humiliation at her sister’s baby shower, where her youngest aunt led a prayer for her to find a husband, Yinka Olajedi decides a plan is necessary: Operation Wedding Date will ensure she has a date for her cousin Rachel’s wedding. And prove to all the Nigerian aunties and cousins that she won’t still be single at sixty. Her job as operations manager at Godfrey and Jackson investment bank gives her the perfect skills to set out her Objective, Task Deadlines and KPIs. If she doesn’t meet someone at Rachel’s engagement party, she might go to her mother’s All Welcome Church to meet Alex, the man her Aunt Debbie has singled out; online dating will be her absolute last resort. At the party, though, she discovers that there is no chance of reviving her relationship with Femi Ajaye, the man who broke her heart three years earlier by going to a job in New York City; she’s too upset to interact with any other man by then. So the church it is. Meanwhile, having bragged about a coming promotion, she’s lost her job, so is reluctant to share that news, hoping she’ll have another job before her mother finds out. Pressure from this Nigerian mother to achieve, to utilise her education, is legend, almost as heavy as the weight of finding a husband. Alex looks to be perfect, says and does the right things, and Yinka wants to impress. But will he want her, as black as she is? And changing herself to win his attention, is that wise, long term? Or should she stick to her best friend, Nana’s tattooed motto: “I am who I say I am.” As well as the straight first-person narrative, the story is told with emails, Whats-App messages, internet search history and voicemail transcripts. It looks at values and self-worth, being true to oneself as well as achieving balance between tradition and contemporary attitudes. Blackburn’s depiction of the London Nigerian community certainly feels authentic. Her characters have depth and appeal, quickly endearing themselves to the reader. There’s plenty of humour in the banter between the characters, and even if the astute reader has Yinka’s ultimate hook-up figured out early on, the journey to that reveal is lots of fun. A very entertaining debut. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Penguin UK.

Hilariously fun read. Very Nigerian, enjoyed it

very relatable and succinctly written

About 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.