A Second Harvest (Men of Lancaster County #1) – Eli Easton

“I mean, are you going to allow your life to be defined by a two-thousand-year old book or by other people’s opinions? Or are you going to listen to your own heart?”

 

In a word: Read the thing. I absolutely loved this. So. Much. David and Christie are from worlds almost as opposite as you can get, but that doesn’t stop them from forming a connection with each other and then building on it to get to their happily ever after. David is a closeted widowed Mennonite farmer with two grown children, while Christie is an out and proud party boy from New York City. They’re an odd pair to be sure. Christie is out in Lancaster County because his recently deceased aunt left him her house, and he needs a change of scenery after a traumatic experience had him re-evaluating his life choices. His aunt’s house just happens to be next door to David’s farm, which is how he meets David. They start off as casual neighbours, then become friends, and then something more. And though their relationship is easy when they’re alone, things get more complicated in public, mostly on David’s end due to his religion and family. What I really loved about this story was all the emotions, especially Christie and David’s emotions towards each other. They’re both attracted to each other and very sexually compatible, but the main core of their relationship is their emotional connection. Even before David even considered them being together like that, he was already enamored with Christie. He was basically falling in love with Christie without even realizing it. And David has been repressing his true desires his whole life, so now they’re just pouring out of him with this outlet, and it’s both sad and freeing. I really loved the two main characters and their relationship, and I loved the depth of feelings they both had. The main monkey wrench in their romantic plans revolve around David’s family, and I will say that I wasn’t expecting it all to blow up in the way that it did. But this was a good, emotional read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

The Summary: (from Goodreads) David Fisher has lived by the rules all his life. Born to a Mennonite family, he obeyed his father and took over the family farm, married, and had two children. Now with both his kids in college and his wife deceased, he runs his farm alone and without joy, counting off the days of a life half-lived.

Christie Landon, graphic designer, Manhattanite, and fierce gay party boy, needs a change. Now thirty, he figures it’s time to grow up and think about his future. When his best friend overdoses, Christie resolves to take a break from the city. He heads to a small house in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to rest, recoup, and reflect.

But life in the country is boring despite glimpses of the hunky silver fox next door. When Christie’s creativity latches on to cooking, he decides to approach his widower neighbor with a plan to share meals and grocery expenses. David agrees, and soon the odd couple finds they really enjoy spending time together.

Christie challenges the boundaries of David’s closed world and brings out feelings he buried long ago. If he can break free of the past, he might find a second chance at happiness.

 

[available for purchase at Dreamspinner Press, Amazon.ca, Book Depository, Chapters, and Barnes & Noble]

 

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

 

The Series: This is the first of two books in the Men of Lancaster County series. Both books feature m/m romances that take place in the same part of Pennsylvania, with at least one person in the relationship being current or former Mennonite or Amish. The plots of each book are standalone and they do not have to be read in order.

 

The Trigger Warning: This books contains homophobia, a violent hate crime, drug overdose, suicidal ideation, and some homophobic language.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

• David Fisher is a widowed Mennonite farmer who is basically just waiting to die, at this point. He’s 41 years old with two college-aged children who no longer live at home. He’s alone out on his farm, doing his day-to-day chores and fending off well-meaning members of his church. He’s also 100% gay and has been repressing it his whole life because of his religion and duty to his family. David absolutely broke my heart because he’s been dealt a shit hand in life and it’s all beaten him down so much that he has no idea how to even begin to change things. Enter Christie Landon, who temporarily moves into the house next door to David’s farm. Christie is 30 and has spent his 20s partying it up in New York City. After a traumatic experience during a typical night of dancing, drinking, and drugs, Christie realizes that he’s tired of the superficial club scene and he needs to make significant changes in his life or he’ll go down in flames. Lancaster County is basically a whole new world for Christie, but the slower pace is probably just what he needs at the moment. He doesn’t expect to find love out there; just like David certainly didn’t expect to. David and Christie together are everything. They start off as awkward strangers with Christie finding David sexy but off-limits, and David finding Christie new and intriguing but not wanting to look too closely at why. Their relationship develops naturally and has very little to do with physical attraction at first. David is drawn in by Christie’s energy and friendliness, and Christie is drawn to David’s calm stability. They slowly become friends, and then transition into something more. And it’s quite beautiful to see.

 

• It’s clear very early on that David is quite a tortured character. He is not a happy man. He’s still working on the farm he’s lived on his whole life, the wife he’s been married to since he was 18 has been dead for a few years so now he’s alone, and his children are both grown up and away at college. David’s 41 now and feels like there’s nothing else for him in life. He’s kept his desires for men secret his entire life and forced himself to live as a straight man all this time, and he can’t bring himself to marry another woman (and he obviously can’t marry a man while he’s so deep in the closet) so he’s convinced he’ll be alone forever now. He doesn’t feel like he can change anything; that he’ll be alone for the rest of his life on his farm, living a half-life until he dies. He’s basically just going through the motions until he finally either dies or kills himself, which is no way to live. And it’s not like he even particularly likes being on the farm, it’s just that it’s all he’s ever known and he thinks he’s too old to do anything else. I live for this kind of angst, and it makes for a compelling conflict for David. And it’s such a contrast to his life once Christie arrives and David finds himself opening up to him in new and wonderful ways. David literally comes alive when he’s with Christie, and he soon learns that he deserves to live in ways that let him be happy.

 

• Actually, David learning to put himself first for once was great character development for him. His whole life he’s been doing things because other people have wanted him to: he pretended to be straight because people told him that was the only way he could be, he got married young because he was told he needed a wife, he took over the farm because he was told that’s what he had to do, and so on. There are some very real and very valid reasons as to why David can’t just let go and live freely as an out gay man, and he’s going to have to make some tough decisions about his future one way or the other.

 

• I loved Christie and David’s interactions with each other. Even when they first meet you can tell that there’s something there drawing the two of them together (beyond them just finding each other attractive). Christie initially assumes that David is straight, and David is too scared to come out of the closet, so neither of them are really expecting anything more than friendship (although Christie has hope for more). And they do become good friends. They spend more and more time together hanging out, getting to know each other, and sharing things about their lives. They really do develop a very deep friendship between them, which then transfers easily to a romantic one once they’re ready. It was really beautiful to read because it was such an emotional process for the two of them. Also it seems like Christie is genuinely David’s only friend at the moment, and very possibly his first love.

 

• David has two grown children: Amy, 21 and in college to become a nurse; and Joe, 19 and in college to become a minister. I was very wary of them at first, because they seem to have been raised strictly Mennonite, and David was very concerned about what their reactions would be if they ever learned the truth about him. They don’t show up often, but they are at the farm for the major holidays and that’s when we finally get a good picture of them. Amy is a timid girl, while Joe is more take-charge and outspoken. Joe is also a raging homophobe and is very hateful for a large part of his scenes in the book. I was really sad for David about this because he loves his children so much, and it seemed like they would be willing to turn on him if he ever came out to them. Luckily, both the kids redeem themselves during the book’s climax, and David doesn’t have to force himself to choose between them and Christie.

 

• I really liked Christie’s friend Kyle, even though he’s absent for a large part of the book. Christie and Kyle have been best friends for years, and spent their 20s partying it up in New York City. Christie, now 30, is really getting tired of the scene and really just longs for a long-term commitment and some stability. Kyle doesn’t really seem to be on that same wavelength, until one night when he ODs on some mystery pills and almost dies. It’s a wakeup call for both of them and they both decide to make some major changes. Christie heads out to Lancaster County and Kyle gets himself hitched to his sort of lover Billy and stays in New York. Kyle was always so supportive of Christie and was always there on the other end of the phone line to offer advice, encouragement, and reality checks. I wish he could’ve been in the story more.

 

• That epilogue. Love it.

 

UGH:

• I’m not a huge fan of religion in general. I’m especially not a fan of religions that have ridiculously strict rules or constrictive expectations for the people in it. I don’t know a whole lot about Mennonites (I refer to them as ‘Amish Lite’ in my head, but I don’t know how accurate that is), but I gather that they’re one of the more restrictive groups. They’re definitely one of the groups that demonize homosexuality, which is definitely a problem for David. David is a man who believes in God, but he struggles with the particular religion he’s found himself in due to his own personal feelings. I basically hated it every time David was forced to deal with other Mennonites because they (unintentionally) just chipped away at his spirit. Aside from David and his kids (and a very brief scene with his mother and aunt), the only other people we see from his church are his pastor and a woman named Evelyn Robeson. The pastor just shows up once or twice and is really just stock pastor guy. David tries to bring up why considering homosexuality a sin is just hurting people, and the pastor just reiterates hateful shit and offers to pray for David. Standard garbage. But Evelyn really annoyed me. She’s a woman from David’s church who is obviously angling to become the next Mrs Fisher. Too bad for her that David isn’t interested, and he does tell her that he doesn’t want to marry again but she just won’t take no for an answer. She got on my nerves even though she didn’t really show up a whole lot. Also she accidentally saw David and Christie hugging in the barn and then went off on Amy about it at one point, which was just not on. (Like, even if this were a different story and David had been straight, she still would’ve annoyed the shit out of me and I would’ve rather David be with anyone else.)

 

THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY:

• Given how the story was going, I really wasn’t expecting Christie to get the shit kicked out of him by a roaming pack of homophobes. We were obviously headed for a confrontation with David’s children about David and Christie’s relationship, and it went about how I’d been expecting. A lot of emotions and tears and shouting. Good stuff. What I wasn’t expecting out of all that, was Christie getting attacked. So Christie and David spend New Years Eve together having A Moment that is then rudely interrupted by Joe and Amy. David goes back to the farm to deal with them, leaving Christie alone. And then suddenly his door gets kicked in and he’s suddenly being beaten up. It comes way out of left field and I’m still not sure how to take the whole thing. It certainly made for a thrilling climax because the beating is rough and Christie gets absolutely messed up. It’s a pretty jarring tonal shift, to be sure.

 

[A Second Harvest was published July 1, 2016, by Dreamspinner Press; it is available in print and audio formats]