Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola: Second Chances, Wedding Chaos, and Fiery Chemistry

Kikiola “Kiki” Banjo has always made her own rules: radio star turned podcast producer, fiercely proud of her creative goals. After being pushed out of her podcast and facing pressure from her billionaire boyfriend to join his business, she chooses herself and takes a step back. Cue wedding-season duties for her best friend Aminah and the awkward reappearance of Malakai Korede-the college sweetheart who broke her heart three years ago and is now a Hollywood director. When Kiki and Kai are thrown together professionally on a high-profile documentary, old sparks flare and buried feelings come roaring back. Expect Lagos-to-London glamour, wedding hijinks, and a delicious slow-burn of “can we make this work?” energy.

My Review

I picked this up hungry for lush prose and a romance that felt earned, and Babalola delivered both. Kiki’s voice is sharp, warm, and very alive-she’s the kind of heroine you want on your group chat: witty, stubborn, and impossibly loyal. Watching her juggle maid-of-honor chaos, career sabotage, and Kai’s awkward attempts at adulting kept me grinning and occasionally tearing up. The wedding subplot gives the book steady momentum-there’s food, fashion, and cringe-worthy planning drama that lands perfectly between comic relief and emotional stakes.

Why I loved it: the book balances heat with heart. Malakai’s return is handled with nuance-he isn’t a cartoon villain nor an instant saint; instead, the novel lets both of them mess up and then do the work, which makes the reunion scenes feel earned rather than manufactured. Babalola’s language is a treat-lyrical when it needs to be, punchy in the bedrooms and the boardrooms-and the supporting cast (especially Kiki’s friends) adds flavor without stealing the main course. If you love second-chance romances that take the slow route to forgiveness and mix in wedding chaos, you’ll finish this smiling.

You’ll shut this one with a satisfied grin and the kind of warm ache that means you just watched two people rewrite their past into something kinder and hotter.

You can get a copy of Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola on Amazon or Bookshop.

If this has you intrigued, read an excerpt from Sweet Heat below.

Excerpt Preview

With Bakari, everything was simple, cut and dry, not so much an enchanted forest of romance, but a neatly manicured national park, clean paths, trimmed hedges, no messes. I liked that. I needed that. 

It was kind of funny how I was able to joke about us having a kid together within the first ten minutes of us meeting when now, a year or so on, the idea of us getting married is sending me into a conniption. 

Bakari clears his throat. He looks softly nervous and his thumb presses into the back of my hand with purpose. ‘Look, you’ve been stressed about what you’re going to do when you wind up The Heartbeat’s tour. MelaninMatch has just been acquired by Cypher and, like, not to be weird about it, I’m doing really well right now because of that.’ 

He’s talking about the huge business acquisition that saw the successful dating app he’d created when he was twenty- three blow and become international. It’s odd how little Bakari and I discuss money despite the fact that he’s a tech founder who was on the Forbes list by twenty- five, and I always scan Ready To Eat avocados as unripe avocados at self- check- out because they’re 20p cheaper. He started with a dating app created for Black people looking to find love, then created an app called ShortCutz that would pool all the barbers in your vicinity – this led to him creating Onyx, an umbrella company that would serve underrepresented communities. It had a team of twenty that was fast- growing and whose merch was responsible for everything from the giant T-shirt I wear while spooning peanut butter directly from the jar when I’m Going Through It to my stationery, with which I journal when I’m Going Through It. Both things have been put to use recently. While my boyfriend was doing Well, I was doing Fine. Technically Fine. As fine as an overachieving eldest Nigerian daughter could be after quitting their job out of nowhere. I’m down to browsing graduate courses only once a day now rather than once every hour of every day. 

I slowly nod, although I’m not sure what I’m agreeing to or with. The fact that his career’s soaring whilst mine is plummeting? Bakari isn’t the most romantic guy in the classic way (he once called holding hands down the street ‘a bit inefficient for our purposes. What is it for? You know I care about you, and it’s not great for optimised walking’), but, still, I didn’t think a proposal would involve him talking about how marriage might make the most financial sense like I’m in a Regency romance, and my family are struggling gentry with a crumbling manor, having to retrench. Although, I guess a Nigerian restaurant that has gone into decline because more of a certain kind of person who’s willing to pay £10 for a cakepop at the ‘artisan bake shop’ has moved into the area may count. (They’re called Fat & Flour. Their bagels are very dry.)

From the book SWEET HEAT by Bolu Babalola. Copyright © 2025 by Bolu Babalola. Published on September 2, 2025 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission. 

Ready for More?

If Kiki and Kai’s messy, irresistible reunion sounds like your kind of escape, grab your copy of Sweet Heat and settle in. When you finish, come back and tell me in the comments-what wedding disaster would you survive for a second chance at love?

You can get a copy of Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola on Amazon or Bookshop.