"I wouldn't have done it before," Jules said, after a moment. If he owed Ari the truth, he owed him all of it. "I wouldn't have cared enough about the Bill, or climate change, or anything. But doing it, caring about it, despite the personal consequences?"
"Yes?" Ari said again, when Jules didn't go on.
Jules breathed in, and out. "I learned that from you." [loc. 984]
It's winter 2021 in post-Brexit London, and senior civil servant Ari has been burdened with a spad ("Special adviser, please"). The spad is Jules, whose father (Lord Elwin) has shunted him into politics, and who is somewhat out of his depth -- not helped by Ari's abrasive manner.
There is very little in Ari's life except his work: he's pulling long hours on a clean energy Bill, and he's close to burning out. Gradually, though, he finds that he does have time for Jules, and possibly even for love.
Iona Datt Sharma (co-author of one of my favourite reads last year, Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night) combines likeable and realistic characters and a soft, slow romance into something that is quietly life-affirming. I love the descriptions of London in winter, and the little details of parliamentary life (Ari not being allowed to set foot on the carpet in the 1922 Committee Room), and the minister who 'was there for the glory days of One Direction fandom'. I found the political / legal / administrative detail obscure, but that didn't matter: what did matter was that the setting was not just background, but an integral part of the plot. Part of Ari's burnout is that he cares too much: Jules, quite blase and detached at the opening of the novella, comes to care too.
from a Goodreads review: ...honestly anyone who doesn't enjoy melodramatic queers bickering over the finer points of clean energy regulation doesn't know how to live.
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