Work For It

Author: Talia Hibbert
Publisher: Nixon House (September 3, 2019)
Kindle edition, 237 pages
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Summary
For men like us, trust doesn’t come easy.

In this village, I’m an outcast: Griffin Everett, the scowling giant who prefers plants to people. Then I meet Keynes, a stranger from the city who’s everything I’m not: sharp-tongued, sophisticated, beautiful. Free. For a few precious moments in a dark alleyway, he’s also mine, hot and sweet under the stars… until he crushes me like dirt beneath his designer boot.

When the prettiest man I’ve ever hated shows up at my job the next day, I’m not sure if I want to strangle him or drag him into bed. Actually—I think I want both. But Keynes isn’t here for the likes of me: he makes that painfully clear. With everyone else at work, he’s all gorgeous, glittering charm—but when I get too close, he turns vicious.

And yet, I can’t stay away. Because there’s something about this ice king that sets me on fire, a secret vulnerability that makes my chest ache. I’ll do whatever it takes to sneak past his walls and see the real man again.

The last thing I expect is for that man to ruin me.

Work for It is 80,000 words of hot, angst-filled, M/M romance featuring a cynical city boy, a gruff, soft-hearted farmer, and a guaranteed happy-ever-after. No cheating, no cliff-hangers, just love. (Eventually.)

Review
CW: mentions of depression, anxiety, parental death by suicide, past sexual trauma, forced outing, and intimate photographs being shared without consent

THIS REVIEW talks about some of these items in the content warning, so if they’re triggering for you maybe skip this review. Thanks!

Review to come when I find some tape or glue or something to put my heart back together.

OK, I’m back. I don’t even have words for how much I love this book. I already knew Talia Hibbert is a goddess after reading Get A Life, Chloe Brown, and I saw a lot of people basically bleeding out on Twitter because of this book, but I was not prepared for the devastation that is Work For It.

As someone who has struggled with my own mental health for 15+ years, I can’t say enough how wonderful the mental illness rep is in this book. And 5,000 huzzahs to Talia Hibbert for NOT having Olu’s issues be cured by Griff’s magic peen. I used to self-harm and, while I haven’t in many years and while my husband has been a big supporter, it’s still something I think about and struggle with. It’s not something that’s magically cured by love, it’s just a part of me that thankfully my partner tries to understand and do what he can to help me through rough patches when I’m tempted to turn back to that path. Books that have problems like this being “cured by love” are really problematic, and they make real people who struggle with real issues feel like they aren’t enough, and people who love mentally ill people feel like somehow their love isn’t “enough.”

I am pretty sure I literally elt my heart break while reading this, book only it was sort of on the rightish side of my chest instead of the leftish. Is there a phantom emotional heart over there as a counterpart to the physical one? This is why I hate when people use the work literally incorrectly, because when I say I LITERALLY felt something break in my chest, I mean it. There was a physical sort of tearing pain in my chest as I gasped in a tear-choked breath and tried to remind myself that these men aren’t real, it’s OK, I’m OK, it’s alllll gonna be oooookaaaaaay. …Good lord, I’m about to start crying just trying to write this review.

BUT THE BEST PART, guys! The best part is, this is a romance novel so you KNOW there’s a happy-ever-after at the end! So while this book positively destroyed me, it also lifted me up, made my smile, made me laugh through my tears a time or two, and the sex scenes are HOT. My BFF Ari said it best: “It’s hurty and wonderful.”

I can’t even describe how good this book is, you’re just going to have to go read it. Bring some tissues and probably a solid chunk of time because you’re not going to want to put it down. Now excuse me while I go read everything Talia Hibbert has ever written.