Review by Booklist Review
After Angie Appiah's boyfriend dumps her on the way to meet her parents for the first time, she finds a quiet place to cry in a public garden. There she meets the incredibly handsome Ricky, who sketches a portrait of her and flirts with her, only to tell her he has a girlfriend. The mixed signals continue when she runs into him at a Beyoncé concert, and then when her best friend starts dating his best friend. Angie barely has time to date--she's juggling a punishing medical school schedule, the demands of her Ghanaian American family, and drama with her friends--but then Ricky breaks up with his girlfriend. Obuobi's debut features a winning cast of characters who alternatively help and hinder Angie, whose first-person narration is warm and relatable. She uses footnotes to explain cultural or medical terms, or just to insert a snarky aside. The will-they-won't-they with Ricky and Angie quickly becomes will-they-get-out-of-their-own-way, even as their friendship deepens. With a strongly depicted Chicago setting, Obuobi ably navigates plot twists and emotional turns while addressing millennial angst and issues facing Black women (working twice as hard to get half as far). A funny, emotional page-turner that will have readers rooting for Angie.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This engrossing debut from ShirlyWhirl cartoonist and cardiology fellow Obuobi captures the life of a third-year Ghanaian American medical student in Chicago. Shortly after Angie Appiah's first boyfriend, Frederick, leaves her, she meets graphic designer Ricky Gutiérrez. He's handsome and thoughtful, and they connect over indie music and anime, but she's not ready to let her guard down, even if he already has a girlfriend and just wants to be friends. Angie tries to shake him off, only to have him pop up again when his friend starts dating a friend of Angie's. Once Ricky's single, Angie frets that a relationship might be a distraction from her goals and worries her overbearing parents wouldn't accept Ricky for not being Ghanaian and for his lower economic status. At work, Angie's research about the medical industry's inequitable treatment of Black people is stymied by her adviser, though she remains determined to see it through. She also tries to set some much-needed boundaries with her parents, and is drawn deeper into Ricky's life during a crisis in his own family. Obuobi is particularly talented at articulating her characters' difficult feelings (Angie's take on Frederick's breakup strategy: "He'd been mean, when all he had to do was be honest"), as Angie tries to make the best decisions for her life. This effervescent story is a treat. (June)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Chicago medical student is disillusioned by love until she meets a passionate artist in this debut novel. As a third-year medical student, Ghanaian American narrator Angela Appiah practically wrote the textbook on firstborn-daughter expectations. At 25, Angie still has little room for failure under the watchful eyes of her parents, who expect nothing less than perfection. Unfortunately, perfection is sorely lacking in Angie's personal life; for starters, she just got dumped by her boyfriend of six months. Her sister, Tabatha, insists that Angie's constant heartbreak is due to her choosing to date the "low-hanging fruit" who label her an "ethnic, erudite fling." That said, Angie can't help but dream of white coats more than white weddings when there are future-defining tests to study for. Enter Ricky Gutiérrez, a handsome young graphic designer she meets in a public garden. She's immediately smitten: He's flirtatious, kind, and way too good to be true--which Angie finds out is not a metaphor when he reveals he has a girlfriend. While Angie would like nothing more than to forget her chance meeting with Ricky, fate keeps bringing them together. He volunteers at the pediatric ward in the hospital where she performs her rotations; his best friend, Shae, is in love with her best friend, Nia; and he even has tickets to the same Beyoncé concert. The more time Angie spends with Ricky, the less she can fight her overwhelming attraction toward him, but is she willing to let herself get hurt by him again? Author Obuobi, a physician and cartoonist, is in her wheelhouse chronicling the hectic, and sometimes solitary, life of a medical student. The often witty footnotes, frequently describing medical jargon or Ghanaian traditions, add an amusing flair to Angie's personality, but the novel's true strength shines in its more serious moments. Encounters with Ricky's father, who's overdosing on heroin, and a 15-year-old gunshot victim powerfully depict the heartbreaking realities that are commonplace in Angie's line of work and how her passion for helping people is where her true success lies. Guaranteed to make your heart beat faster. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
