Grow Something is a perfect novella. In a few pages Jones introduces us to two characters, puts them in the context of their families and community, and gets us invested in their relationship. This is a novella in the Equilibrium series, centered around the Mahogany Heights neighborhood, where a Black community and Black businesses thrive.
When Hudson’s fiancé texts him to say she won’t be at their wedding, he takes himself to the door of Summer’s produce store and community garden, Grown. Summer has been crushing on him, calling him, Always Pays Extra. She gets him drunk and then assigns him a garden plot and has him plant spinach.
“I need… to know my time and attention and care… mean something. I need to know I can nurture something without it… withering and dying in front of me.”
Okay. I had to take a deep breath myself after that one, but I wasn’t no punk so I tucked my little emotions away. “You ain’t said nothin’ but a word,” I told him, standing up and extending a hand to him. “You need to grow something. And you’re in just the right place for that.”
One of my favorite starting points for a romance is when one or both characters have had the shit kicked out of them by life. Hudson was willing to drift along is a relationship his mother approved of even though he and his fiancé were clearly unhappy. Summer has already had her life upended and has rebuilt it. She feels safe enough that she can let Hudson in, but she’s cautious. The novella leaves them in a place where they are getting to know each other and working together to make Grown grow.
Grow Something has some of my favorite lines and passages in anything I read this year. I’m making my way through the rest of the Equilibrium series, and looking forward to diving into more of Jones’s backlist.