Review: Work Song by Danielle Allen
Work Song by Danielle Allen Published by Amazon Digital Services LLC on September 27, 2015
Genres: African American, Contemporary, Contemporary Women, Love & Romance, Romance
Pages: 433
Format: eBook
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When society tries to put you in a box, knock the walls down. –Tati Green
“You have a pretty face” is such a back-handed compliment. It’s like telling me that my face is beautiful, but the rest of me is not.
Despite what society says, my curves are hot.
My love life, on the other hand, is not.My mom says I’ll never find love because of my weight.
My sister says I’ll never find love because of my personality.
My almost-fiancé says I’ll never find love because I’m incapable of loving anyone.My mom and sister are full of it, but my ex kind of has a point.
At twenty-seven years old, I’ve never been in love. I date a lot, yet sparks never fly. But when I experienced the heart-pounding, skin tingling feeling for the first time, I didn’t think it would be caused by a guy I’ve never met. And I damn sure didn't think he would end up holding my future in his hands in more ways than one.
Work Song is the second book that I’ve read from Danielle Allen and I need to know why I hadn’t discovered her earlier.
Work Song begins with Tatiana Green receiving a marriage proposal from her boyfriend of three years. Sounds great right? Not so much as Tatiana isn’t in love with him and therefore rejected the proposal. He got angry, said some really mean things, and left. One of the things that stuck with Tatiana after this argument? The fact that her would-be fiance told her that she is incapable of loving anyone. She believes it may be true.
The opening immediately drew me in and I found myself absorbed in the novel after the first few pages. Tatiana is currently a receptionist/assistant at a huge sports company but has dreams of becoming one of their sports writers. To help break up the sometimes mundane aspects of her day, she has formed an e-friendship with her co-worker on the West Coast, Wesley Barnes. With their texts, emails, and phone calls, readers are quickly able to see that there is more than friendship budding between these two. Tatiana is obviously smitten.
Things take a turn, however, when Wes moves to the NYC office and is now close to Tatiana.
Their relationship turns into something more and while you would think that would be good, it isn’t for Tatiana. She doesn’t want to be involved with someone at work. She’s in a male-dominated industry and is determine to make sure everyone takes her seriously,
Tatiana has to choose: the career and position with the company she’s coveted for so long or the man she’s always wanted but didn’t dream she would ever get.
A few things worked in this book’s favor. I liked the sports and fashion industry/blog angle. I also really appreciated the fact that Tatiana wasn’t regulated to being a size 4 fashionista, she was a very confident and beautiful size 14 and I loved it. She was likable, focused and independent. She had to be in a lot of ways, though she irritated me at times because she constantly used her career as an excuse for why she continually pushed Wes away.
I do have to give major props to Wes. He was exactly what Tatiana needed; he was smart, funny, FINE AS HELL, and appreciated both her mind and body.
Oh did I mention that Wes and Tatiana were movie buffs? They quoted movie lines to each other all the time. Tatiana, marry that man!
This novel had it all; body shamers, sexism and misogyny, a mother from hell and an ex you’d love to forget. Work Song was an enjoyable book I look forward to reading more of her work.
Any Danielle Allen fans out there? Let me know which book of hers I should pick up next!
Natalya is the author of All The Things I Never Said, a soul-stirring collection of short stories, prose and love letters for the soulful wanderers, the brokenhearted and the hopeless romantics.
You can follow her rantings and occasional sparks of brilliance on Twitter @NatalyaMuncuff.
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