Finish up the summer with Sweet Heat! We are psyched to host Bolu Babalola in conversation with Hannah Giorgis Yohannes to celebrate Bolu's latest and greatest novel yet!
Sep
4
10:00pm
Loyalty Bookstores Presents Bolu Babalola & Hannah Giorgis Yohannes for Sweet Heat
By Loyalty Bookstores
This virtual event is free to attend and will take place via Crowdcast. Please email us at [email protected] with any questions.
Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during this event.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick Honey & Spice returns with a standalone novel starring Kiki Banjo, a young woman who hosts a podcast about modern love, even though her own love life is a hot mess. When her ex comes back into the
picture, Kiki must decide whether she’s ready to risk it all—or let her heart burn again. Twenty-eight-year-old Kiki Banjo hosts the popular podcast The HeartBeat, solving romantic conundrums and dishing out life advice. Behind the scenes, though, career setbacks and a devastating breakup have left her hanging on by a thread. As she’s preparing to be the Maid of Honor in her best friend’s wedding, everything starts to unravel, and Kiki is left wondering if she ever had the answers.
Then Kiki finds herself face-to-face with the Best Man, her ex-boyfriend, Malakai—the smooth-talking, absurdly handsome, annoyingly perceptive man who stole her heart and then shattered it. While Kiki’s approaching rock bottom, Malakai’s been on the rise as a filmmaker, and now they have no choice but to play nice until the wedding is over. Both are hell-bent on ignoring the smoldering chemistry between them, but as they navigate the chaos of wedding plans, career ambitions, and Kiki’s growing fears about the future, they can’t ignore the spark that’s only getting hotter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bolu Babalola is the bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick Honey & Spice and the short story collection Love in Color. She has worked as a writer for books, TV, and press, and as a cultural commentator. She lives in London, England.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Hannah Giorgis Yohannes is a journalist, cultural critic, and fiction writer based in New York. During her seven years as a staff writer at The Atlantic, she reported on subjects such as the history of Black television in the United States, the global significance of Barbados becoming a republic, and the expansive visions of African artists working across several disciplines. Her cultural criticism, essays, and reporting have also appeared in media outlets including the New York Times magazine, the LA Times, The Guardian, Travel + Leisure, Pitchfork, as well as books such as Lasagna: A Baked Pasta Cookbook, which included the Ethiopian lasagna recipe she wrote for TASTE Cooking in 2018.
Hannah’s fiction has appeared in publications including The Lifted Brow literary journal, SPOOK magazine, and Addis Ababa Noir, a collection of short stories set in Ethiopia’s capital city. Her contribution to that anthology, titled "A Double-Edged Inheritance," was short-listed for the 2022 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. And since 2022, Hannah has also been a juror for the George Foster Peabody Awards.
hosted by
Loyalty Bookstores
share