Thought it would be fun to write a post about our most memorable reviews this year.

1. First review:

Written – A Tailor-Made Romance by Oyindamola Affinnih. We cut our teeth in the book review world with this romance novel published by Ankara Press. It was a good book to start with, we enjoyed reading and writing our first review together.

Audio – Memoirs of a Lagos Wedding Planner by Tolulope Popoola. I don’t remember what exactly made me suggest audio reviews to Mo but I’m glad I did as we’ve had fun recording them this year. We both love music and have to choose a piece of music to go with the book. Initially, we were only going to review short stories and novelettes in this section but we eventually added books to it. You can find all our audio reviews in the Books and Music Collide section.

2. Highest rated review:

Nonfiction– Longthroat Memoirs by Yemisi Aribisala. This is a really engaging and witty book to read if you are interested in food and the stories behind them.

Fiction – Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle. The storytelling is compelling in this fictional crime thriller about the Lagos underworld of prostitution and the sale of body parts.

Poetry – Edwardsville by Heart by Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún. This was a very readable collection of poems and travelogue. I think our review may have been a bit gushy but that’s because we both enjoyed reading and reviewing this book very much.

3. Most challenging review(s) – Poetry and Kasali’s Africa by Feyisayo Anjorin. We both find writing reviews for poetry challenging and Mo would usually issue a disclaimer when reviewing poetry. Sadly, she stopped doing that. Asides from poetry, we found Kasali’s Africa the most challenging review to write. The book is a mix of different literary styles; poetry, short stories and interviews. It’s written like the Bible; it’s about the enigmatic Kasali but from the perspectives of different people and events.

4. Most fun review to write – Wine and Water by Hannah Onoguwe. We both looooooved this collection of fictional romance short stories so so much! It was a pleasure to review it for the blog. We were a little creative with the review using the titles of each story to explain the stories in one sentence each.

5. Easiest review to write – The Seeing Place by Aziza Eden Walker. We had to move this book up by a week on our schedule and read and review it last minute as there was an issue with the book we were supposed to review. This book literally saved the day!

6. Most unusual review to write – Golibe by The Fertile Chick. We tried something different with this review and wrote it in Pidgin English with a short summary in English at the end.

7. Most controversial review – Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. This is the only review on our blog where our opinions on the book are opposite to each other’s. We had to write two separate reviews in one.

8. Most popular reviews:

Written– Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. This book is unsurprisingly, the most popular review on our blog. There was a lot of hype around this book and with the recent controversy involving Nora Roberts, more people are looking up the title and finding our blog post!

Audio- Memoirs of a Lagos Wedding Planner by Tolulope Popoola. Our first audio review is also our most popular one. Perhaps, the law of diminishing returns set in!

9. First pre-release review and cover reveal –Afonja – the Rise by Tunde Leye. This was our first pre-release book review and cover reveal. It was a pleasure to create some hype around this well-written historical fiction novel. Our review was a guest review written by my friend, author – Abigail Anaba.

It’s a wrap. Happy New Year in advance. See you on the other side!