Work for It

Work for It (2019) Talia Hibbert

The story begins with Olu, who is pretty clearly damaged, and doesn’t know how to fix himself. After a failed pick-up, he decides to run off for awhile.

I can’t remember what it’s like to be happy.

It’s not as though I didn’t see this coming. I have been slightly… distant all my life, so these recent changes are a natural escalation. I don’t feel the things I used to, can’t catch the cold echoes of emotion I was raised on or the flashes of intensity I used to hunt down and leech like a vampire. Which means it’s finally happened; after thirty-eight years of fighting it, I have become an alien species.

Then we meet Griff, who manages the local farm and helps create the cordials that have put the farm on the map in recent years. Griff has always been seen as an outcast–first for not having a father and then for growing into a giant, and finally for the death of his mother.

Live now, Griff, not in the past or future. It’s no use being a phantom citizen of the present.

Griff and Olu meet and things go badly, and then it’s worse when Olu shows up at the farm.

If the story didn’t open with Olu, I probably would have abandoned it. Because Olu is pretty harsh to Griff, who already has enough problems of his own. But then Griff at least has Bex, who looks out for him when no one else does.

Olu has a sister he does his best to protect, so he fears letting her know what is happening in his life.

and yes, I have a pregnancy journal, and no, I don’t think I’m overdoing it. My sister is diabetic. I am keeping an eye on this.

That protectiveness makes it absolutely clear that Olu isn’t bad, he’s just very broken.

There is a LOT of angst in this story. And a lot of terrible history that has hurt both Griff and Olu, which meant I was really rooting for BOTH of them to start to put their demons in the past and live for themselves and stand up for themselves.

It also means that once they start to get past their pasts, it’s beautiful and lovely and really damned happy.

Publisher: Nixon House
Rating: 8.5/10

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