Title: The Farmer’s Son
Series: N/A
Author: G.A. Hauser
Genre: Contemporary/Erotic Romance
Length: Novel
Publisher: The GA Hauser Collection LLC (April 15th, 2013)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: All Wade Reed wanted to do was make it to his brother, Cole’s parole hearing at Corcoran State Prison. But the forty-year-old environmental planner from LA never made it. With a bad navigation system and the infamous Tule fog, Wade ended up on a road to nowhere, his BMW stuck in the mud. His gas tank running low, no phone reception, Wade couldn’t think of a worse scenario.
Until…headlights appeared through the gloom.
Twenty-two year old Ayden Solomon worked with his three brothers and father on the almond orchard in the Great Central Valley. Ayden, being the youngest, and prettiest, was constantly the source of amusement for his brothers’ teasing and put up with it, but grew weary of the bullying. At night, when he was alone in his room, Ayden drew superhero comics, a dynamic duo who he imagined would save the world from bullies…bullies who attacked men like him. Gay men.
After unsuccessfully trying to pull Wade’s car out of the ditch, and getting himself stuck as well, the two strangers spend the night in Ayden’s truck, keeping warm, talking, bonding, and sharing things with each other; personal things. Ayden and Wade, although had nothing in common, got to know each other on a very deep level in the eight hours they were sitting in the dense fog, alone and completely isolated.
What had begun as a frustrating trip for Wade had turned into a gay erotic fantasy with a young stud. But neither man could imagine what would come next, when the city slicker met…The Farmer’s Son.
Product Link: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thefarmer039sson-1152525-145.html
Review: This book unfortunately was not to my satisfaction. It started with an interesting idea, with two men coming from two different worlds. The city guy, whose family was very supportive of him while completely shunning the stray son, and the farmer boy, whose life always was miserable in the middle of nowhere with no one to understand him, let alone accept him. Add to that the age gap between the two men and you have a story there.
As I said, the idea was very interesting but the way the story unraveled was too unreal. Call me cynical but I just couldn’t handle the whole “I met you, gave you my virginity and fell in love” line. It’s too much, or maybe my romantic side was asleep for this read. They dynamic between the pair are somehow disturbing at first.
Ayden is twenty-two and a virgin, never felt even a touch from another man and when he meets Wade, a stranger, in need he tries to help him, but gets stuck instead. For twenty-two years he’s been careful to not even lay eyes upon another guy so he’ll not get discovered, yet in a matter of a very, very small time not only he confesses to Wade he’s gay, but he goes and narrates his whole life in the farm and all his troubles to a complete stranger. The way he clings to Wade is also beyond my sphere of comfort. In one night Ayden has explored and experimented with his gay stranger, has opened his heart at him and has decided to leave in the morning to L.A. and leave his family behind. Add to this the idea Wade suggests Ayden about his father and brothers and all of the sudden Ayden’s eyes open and… Quite unreal.
As for Wade, he is a grown up man forty years old, has had his share with young ones who have cheated him with other young ones (and this is constantly repeated in the text), he is supposed to be mature yet he pick a kid in the middle of the night and takes him from his family home to keep him in his L.A. condo.
As I said, this did not appeal to me and I was completely detached from the main characters. They did not only warm up to me, but I never saw them in the light of “this could happen.” It was as if I was reading a contemporary fairytale, a new take on Cinderella. Even the erotic scenes didn’t make me get lost in them, although I have to admit to them being quite funny once the pair settled in L.A. and Ayden revealed his playful side and his superheroes worship.
The end of the book, just like the entirety of it was one of the same. Imagine an invisible fairy Godmother sprinkling pixie dust on everybody and the personalities stuck in a slump for years suddenly were let free. The bullies became loving brothers horsing around; the homophobic father suddenly became loving and caring, a mother that did not exist until not gained a voice and actually had a dialogue scene. And on the other side, parents who for years didn’t care for their son in prison suddenly remembered that they have compassion in them. And I do mean suddenly literally.
Now I understand that if I didn’t mind the whole fairytale approach I might have seen this book in a different light. The moral behind it did not escape me, but in the whole, I didn’t enjoy the book all that much.