Reading: Division Bells (30/365)

[white_hart]

Iona Datt Sharma's Division Bells is a m/m romance set in a government department, between a cynical civil servant and a special advisor. I'd only read Datt Sharma's SFF before, but this is near-contemporary (set in late 2021, after a slightly different Brexit has been finalised, and in a world without COVID, where people still work in offices and go to pubs and buy lattes and sit in close proximity to colleagues*). Ari, the civil servant, is on the verge of burnout after years of relentless hard work, and the last thing he needs is to have to work with a spad who only got his job because of who his father was and clearly hasn't got a clue about how Parliament actually works; Jules knows he's all at sea but is nonetheless eager to do what he can, and as autumn turns to winter, working together on renewable energy legislation brings them closer together.

Division Bells is a gentle, slightly melancholic winter love story about second chances and being damaged and learning to move on and keep striving to make things better rather than giving up; it's charming and funny and the parliamentary procedure is really quite interesting, and I absolutely loved it. If it was a drink, this book would be a chai latte; sweet and warm and comforting and gently spicy**.

* the one moment that really threw me out was when one character was unwell and another took them to a chemist's to buy paracetamol and I was screaming YOU CAN'T TAKE A SICK PERSON INTO A SHOP because apparently I forgot that that used to be absolutely normal.

** I MISS CHAI LATTE. Last year, I got into the habit of buying a chai latte (and often a piece of pumpkin bread, which went really well with chai latte) from the café in our building on a Friday afternoon after my last meeting, which was just a nice nearly-the-weekend pick-me-up. And now I haven't had a chai latte for nearly a year (my last one was on 13 March, not that I knew then that it would be the last one) and I miss it.

Comments

[mountainkiss]

This is probably really obvious and annoying but you know you can buy chai latte mix, right?

[white_hart]

Yes, but I don't think it would be the same. And I'd have to accept that I'm mostly drinking warm milk rather than just assuming it's some kind of mystical ambrosia.

[mountainkiss]

I am not the world’s most sophisticated gourmet but I was surprised by how good it was.

[white_hart]

I do have actual chai, but I drink it as black tea rather than brewing it with milk.

[mountainkiss]

I also drink and like chai tea but I find it really different.

[el_staplador]

Oh, I like the sound of that.

[white_hart]

I suspect you'd like it.

[hilarita]

It is a lovely book, isn't it? I read it a few months ago, when pre-pandemic life didn't seem so screamingly unrealistic. And Ari is just adorable.

[white_hart]

It's just delightful. And Ari is adorable, I can completely understand Jules's instinct to look after him. And I love Eilidh and Diggory as supporting cast, too.

[oracne]

I read the solstice one by Sharma; this sounds good, too.