Love in Color

In insolation each story is lightweight if unremarkable, but collected together, the repetition and simplicity becomes an annoyance. “A misunderstood, not-like-other-girls girl feels seen by the sensitive stud she mistook as a douche.” A bit too uncharitable to call it Wattpad-core, but certainly working from a similar base.

Thank you to the publishers, William Morrow, for an advanced reader's edition of this book.

I received not that long ago and finished it this morning. At first, I wasn't sure I liked it. The first story didn't grab me, felt a little unfinished. The second story, Scheherazade, got better. And then I discovered that each story got better as I went along. Babalola is at her best when she's doing a contemporary romance with an HEA, rather than something that has an element of speculative fiction. That being said, there is one story in here, “Attem,” that feels more like the folktale from which it was derived, and that one is quite good. But the most complete stories are the modern ones. And her three original stories at the end are chef's kiss. Especially the last one, a simple, beautifully told tale about her parents. That was actually my favorite piece. It is just wonderful. And relatable, since I married not a childhood friend, but a college friend whom I'd known for twenty years and with whom I find myself creating a life. The story of her parents is just perfectly handled. Ugh, so precious!

Anyway, I digress. My only real complaint is honestly purely subjective. It was too het for me. There is one queer story, and I could have used more. But honestly, I'm queer, and that's what I prefer. I'm also not entirely into het love at first sight, but again, that's me.

On the whole, this was a good collection of stories capped off by a perfect, true tale. I'll be excited to see what Babalola does next.