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Work For It, by Talia Hibbert
Jun. 4th, 2020 07:54 pmWhen I recently came across a twitter thread recommending Black romance authors, I was immediately like, SIGN ME UP. I'd been thinking anyway that if I'm going to be profligately buying romance ebooks to get me through the hellscape of 2020 (as I apparently am) then I would like to work harder at prioritising marginalised romance authors. And in this particular historic moment prioritising Black voices feels especially important to me.
The twitter thread starts with Talia Hibbert and HOLY HECK what a way to start. Having now read this single book by her: I am dying, I am in a glass case of emotion, I want to read every book this author has written. Hibbert is SO GOOD. And she doesn't even write historicals, my usual preference!
This particular Hibbert book is a small-town M/M romance. (I gather that "small town" is like. A whole sub-genre in romance? I keep learning new things.) Featuring! Griff, who has lived his whole life in the small town but never fit in because nearly everyone thinks he's weird and possibly stupid. (He may be weird but he's definitely not stupid.) And Olu, who's a posh world-traveller trying to escape from his mental health issues by experiencing small-town charms.
Anyway then they learn how to be vulnerable with each other about the things in their lives that are hard, and support each other, and make it clear they see each other's value, and everything is so lovely. (But also: doesn't brush things off as "easy", things are complicated and difficult and they have to make multiple goes at figuring out how to not set things off badly between them! But they both (eventually) KEEP TRYING and it pays off.)
And I dunno, it just....these people felt so real to me and I cared about them a lot and was cheering for them so hard and it was great. One thousand percent excited to read more books by Hibbert because it's clear her writing clicks with me!
(Hibbert also did a great twitter thread today about the importance of not just reading romances by black writers, but black romances, ie romances featuring black people. And she included recs! So I'll be taking a look at that list too.)
The twitter thread starts with Talia Hibbert and HOLY HECK what a way to start. Having now read this single book by her: I am dying, I am in a glass case of emotion, I want to read every book this author has written. Hibbert is SO GOOD. And she doesn't even write historicals, my usual preference!
This particular Hibbert book is a small-town M/M romance. (I gather that "small town" is like. A whole sub-genre in romance? I keep learning new things.) Featuring! Griff, who has lived his whole life in the small town but never fit in because nearly everyone thinks he's weird and possibly stupid. (He may be weird but he's definitely not stupid.) And Olu, who's a posh world-traveller trying to escape from his mental health issues by experiencing small-town charms.
Anyway then they learn how to be vulnerable with each other about the things in their lives that are hard, and support each other, and make it clear they see each other's value, and everything is so lovely. (But also: doesn't brush things off as "easy", things are complicated and difficult and they have to make multiple goes at figuring out how to not set things off badly between them! But they both (eventually) KEEP TRYING and it pays off.)
And I dunno, it just....these people felt so real to me and I cared about them a lot and was cheering for them so hard and it was great. One thousand percent excited to read more books by Hibbert because it's clear her writing clicks with me!
(Hibbert also did a great twitter thread today about the importance of not just reading romances by black writers, but black romances, ie romances featuring black people. And she included recs! So I'll be taking a look at that list too.)
