cover image The Re-write

The Re-write

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn. Penguin Books, $19 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-59329-90-50

Blackburn (Yinka, Where Is Your Husband?) delivers a strained second-chance romance following struggling Nigerian British romance author Temiloluwa “Temi” Ojo. Publishers aren’t biting on her manuscript and she keeps lying to her agent about her progress on her next book. She does have another finished project sitting in a drawer, but it’s a hit piece on her ex-boyfriend Wale Bandele, who dumped her to go on a Love Island–style reality dating show, and she’s not planning on it ever seeing the light of day. So when her agent sets her up with a freelance gig to ghostwrite a celebrity memoir, Temi is thrilled—until she learns the celebrity is Wale. His time on the show earned him a bad boy reputation and now he’s looking to rehabilitate his image. As the pair struggle to keep things professional, old tensions resurface and Wale reexamines his past bad behavior. But will his soul-searching (and soulful eyes) be enough to earn Temi’s forgiveness? For many readers, the answer will be no. Frequent miscommunications, betrayals, and lies mar the rekindling romance between the leads, leaving both feeling frustratingly immature. This misses the mark. (Aug.)