Title: Love Means…No Shame (Farm #1)
Author: Andrew Grey
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Buy Link: Amazon.com
Genre: M/M contemporary romance
Length: 230 Pages
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Jenre
THE BLURB
Geoff is in the city, living the gay life to the hilt, when his father’s death convinces him to return to the family farm. Discovering a young Amish man asleep in his barn, Geoff learns that Eli is spending a year away from the community before accepting baptism into the church. Despite their mutual attraction, Geoff is determined not to become involved with him, but Eli has discovered that Geoff shares his feelings and begins to court him, neatly capturing first Geoff’s attention and then his heart.
Their budding relationship is threatened by closed-minded, gossipy relatives and the society at large, a whole new world to Eli, and he must decide whether to return to the community, his family, and the world and future he knows or to stay with Geoff and have faith in the power of love.
THE REVIEW
This is a review where I get to eat my words! I’ve read several Andrew Grey books and stories in the past and had pretty much come to conclusion that whilst I appreciate that he’s a well loved author with a large, loyal fan base, his writing just doesn’t appeal to me and I wasn’t going to read his books any more. Then someone suggested that I read Love Means…No Shame, and so I decided to give the author one more chance. I’m glad I did because I really liked this book.
The story begins with our hero, Geoff, who works as an accountant in Chicago. He spends his days crunching numbers and his nights out on the town picking up anonymous men for one night stands. Then one day he gets a call from his father’s partner, Len, to say that his father has died. Geoff then comes back to the place where he was brought up to pick up the running of the farm. It’s a sad time for him and Len, but things get easier especially when Geoff finds a young Amish man, Eli, sleeping in his barn and offers him a job. As the two men get to know each other their feelings grow, but Geoff is not certain whether Eli will leave his Amish family and stay with him permanently.
If I was asked to describe this story it one word it would be ‘charming’. I was charmed by the whole book, the characters and the plot from start to finish. This was a book about a couple of good guys who find love with each other. There are a few potholes on their road to love, but mainly this was a gentle tale of meeting, falling in love and then settling into a HEA. The characters of Geoff and Eli are perfect for each other. Geoff has spent the last few years living it up in Chicago, sleeping around and looking for the next distraction. When he returns to the farm he is worried that he will find the pace of life dull, but instead settles into a hard working routine of learning about running a business. When Eli comes into his life, the gentle, peaceful man steals his heart with his naivety about the life of a ‘white man’ and his innocence when it comes to sex. This led to a number of tender and beautiful sex scenes between them, which were emotionally fulfilling for me as a reader, as well as hot.
Another part that I liked a great deal was in Geoff’s relationship with Len, his Dad’s partner. There’s a lot of respect between them and their shared grief over Cliff’s death helps both men through that difficult time. Cliff is never relegated to ‘the dead guy’ and forgotten after the first few page, but rather both Geoff and Len’s memories of Cliff are dealt with at different points in the story. This made Cliff just as real as a character as some of the other secondary characters in the book. The emotional intensity of some of the scenes between Len and Geoff brought tears to my eyes on a number of occasions, a sign that Andrew Grey has done his job well.
This was also a book which taught me a little of the Amish community, of which I am woefully ignorant. I liked that it was an important aspect of Eli’s personality and that I got to learn much about the way he had been brought up and the expectations placed on him. I also liked that it made him a kind, hard-working man and compared to some of the ‘white men’ we come across in the book much more civilised. It made the choices that Eli makes later in the story all the more believable for me, when you compare his sweet, gentle way of looking at the world with the cruelty of others.
If there were any niggles in the book, then I thought that maybe the character of Geoff’s evil aunt was a little too overdone. Geoff is also rather too good to be true at times, especially for such a young man and I was rather sceptical at the expert way that he managed the expansion of the farm, as well as negotiations with neighbours, given his lack of business experience. Also (and this is really minor) at one point in the book Geoff and Eli go for a ride with one of the farm hands, Joey, and then he is mysteriously forgotten about. None of these niggles were enough to spoil my enjoyment of the book too much.
If you’re looking for a sweet, but not overly sweet, story of two nice men who fall in love then you can’t go wrong with this book. I enjoyed it a great deal and recommend it to those who like emotional, romantic stories. This is the first of a series and I’m very much looking forward to reading the other two books which are now on my TBR pile.
Jen
I’m so happy you liked this book so much and that you are going to review the other books in the series. It really sounds like a “charming” story.
I have read a few books with Amish characters and they are unusual because their way of life is so different, almost alien, from what most of us know.
Hi Wave
This is the first book I’ve read with an Amish character, and I found the whole way of life very interesting when viewed from Eli’s perspective.
Wonderful review, Jen.
I liked this one as well although I still haven’t read the others. They are sitting somewhere on my TBR still. 🙂
Thanks, Lily :).
I’m going to be getting to the sequels sooner rather than later.
I’ve had my eye on this book (and the others in the series) for a while now. Thanks to your great review, they’ll be moving to the top of my wish list right away!
Hi Will
I’m glad my review has persuaded you to take a chance on this book. Hope you enjoy it too.
Well said Jenre…
Glad to see you took up the challenge..
E.H>
Hi EH
I’m glad I did too :).
I met Andrew Grey–nice guy–and bought Bottled Up from him. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for it and never finished it. Since you are coming from a similar place (previous stuff by this author “didn’t do it for you”), I’m quite tempted here, as the setup and story sound good to me. I’ll go read the excerpt and probably buy it at some point, unless the excerpt is horrible, which from the sound of things it won’t be.
(“At some point” because, well, you should see my huge to-buy list….)
BTW, Dreamspinner also has a short story in this series by Grey.
Also…there’s an audiobook of this book! I don’t think I realized Dreamspinner was doing audiobooks. They have 9 out so far, it appears. This one, the sequel, Loving Lucas, the 2nd Cut & Run book (why not the first?!) (I haven’t read either–just sayin’…), and some others. Hmmness….
Hi Kendall
I actually read the short from this series first because it was part of the Advent Daily Dose from DSP. It was partly this story which got me interested in reading the series, even if I hadn’t really got a clue who anyone was when I read the short!
I like the cover. But what’s with that piece of grass hanging out of the hunk’s mouth? I live and work in the country and I know of no real country hunks that chew on pieces of grass. That’s something y’all from the city have made up. I’d rather be chewing on something else……..
Hi John
You’ve made me blush :)!
I suppose the ole stick of wheat in the mouth is a bit clichéd, but I hope it doesn’t put you off reading the book :).
Jen, I didn’t expect you to rate this story so high, to be honest. *lol* I would have rated it a 4 maximum. But the funny thing is that I agree wholeheartedly with all the aspects you mentioned in your review.
I too found it to be a charming and gentle story of falling in love, spiced with some really erotic and tender love scenes. The evolution of the relationship is very believable, nothing’s rushed. A very smooth story that gave me the feeling of being there on the farm with them as part of their little family. I really enjoyed it.
But what finally disappointed me was something you mentioned in your review(s) of the satyre series, iirc: the way the conflicts where handled. I’d say there were two rather huge conflicts in this story but their resolution left me unsatisfied. From my opinion at least one had the potential for a little more drama after the built-up but it all was resolved rather easily.
One reason could be that the story’s told exclusively from Geoff’s pov. Or maybe it’s just me being a sucker for drama. Talk about expectations. However, it lessened my enjoyment considerably towards the end of the story.
That being said I’ll probably still read the next one “Love means…no boundaries” as I heard it’s the best in this series to date and I’m curious how the author handles the characters’ issues in that one.
Hi Lilli
The funny thing is, the way that the problems were resolved so easily in this book didn’t bother me as much as they have done with other Andrew Grey books. This is possibly for the reason you mention – that as we only get Geoff’s point of view we don’t get to see the difficult times that Eli goes through and only hear of it after the fact. But it could also possibly be that because I was so charmed by the story generally and really liked the characters of Geoff, Eli and Len, that I sort of forgave the way that the issues with the evil aunt panned out.
Also some of the problems that Geoff faces, especially to do with the rumours, are never resolved and that seemed true to life. I could see how that would continue to affect Geoff and Eli well into the future.
Hope I’ve explained myself clearly! I can see why these things might have bothered you, Lilli.
Very clearly, Jen, I can absolutely see where you’re coming from. The characteres were absolutley lovable. Lots of people rated this very high and I can see why so I wouldn’t not recommend it. 🙂
If here’s a rule at work I’d most probably rate the author’s other books the way you did this. *lol*
BTW, I found another book involving the Amish culture, “The Shunned” by Jay E. Hughes, and it’s discounted over at ARe at the moment. I haven’t read it yet but I put it on my TBB.
Wave, you mentioned you’ve read other books with Amish culture in it – is this one of them?
Hm, just saw that “The Shunned” got some really bad reviews. Thought I should let you know.
Hi Lilli
I have The Shunned on my TBR pile because it was sent to my blog for review. I’m trying to avoid looking at reviews so that I keep an open mind whilst reading it. It’s a policy I have for all my review books – I don’t want to be swayed by another’s opinion so I avoid reviews altogether until after I’ve read the book.
I just bought the other book by this author dealing with the “fathers”, so I expect I will eventually come to this one :). I heard these stories were very good, so I hope find this book every bit as charming as you did :). Thanks for the review.
Hi Mary
Sorry I’m a bit late answering your comment.
I’m reading Love Means…Courage at the moment and enjoying it. I don’t think it really matters if you read the first two out of order.
It always disapoints me so much when I read a book, then go on to read another by the author and one of the main characters is snuffed out! Hate that! Poor old Cliff.
But anyway. I read ‘Love means Courage’ which I thought was ok, not enough agnst for me if I’m honest. I like more of a struggle… more emotion. But it was sweet and the characters were gentle and sweet (there’s that word again).
I had decided I wasn’t going to read ‘Love means no shame’ because i was annoyed Cliff is now dead 🙁 and because Andrew Greys style of writing doesn’t really excite me but as you rated it so highly I’ll give it a shot!
Hi Becky
I feel like that too. I hate it when an author kills off a character. However, because I read “No Shame” before “No Courage”, I was expecting Cliff’s death and so it was easier for me.
I hope you enjoy the book :).