Book: A Second Harvest
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication date: July1, 2016
Length: 206 pages
Reviewed by Morningstar
Synopsis
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.
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Review
We all have those events that happen that seem to turn our
lives upside down, that event has us at a fork in the road where we can either
choose to stay the current road, the safe road, the easy road or we take the
either choice. The choice that is not the easy choice, the easy path but it’s
the one we know will give us greater fulfillment, greater love, greater
adventure in life. Which road do you choose?
David Fisher is a widowed Mennonite farmer with two grown
children off at college. All he has ever known was the farm and its never
ending work, all he has ever known is his church, all he has ever known was
sacrifice for the good of others but all that changes when he gets a new
neighbor. All his routines are changed and he starts to think when all he has
ever done is hide all those thoughts away since the day his father died and he
took over the farm. When does he get his dreams in life? When does he get to
experience the things he sees and reads in his prized National Geographic magazines? He is 41 years old but feels so much
older, too old for anything new, too old for Christie Landon. But Christie
makes me feel more than anything or anyone ever has.
“Only the opening was happening in David too, in some organ just below
his heart, maybe where his daydreams lived.”
Christie Landon is a 30 year old reformed party boy, a
graphic designer, and now he has inherited his aunt's farm in Mennonite
country. The perfect place to get away after he almost loses his best friend to
an accidental drug overdose. What he finds is a quiet place with his aunt's old
Bon Appétit recipes that fills in his
down time and gives him his creativity back with not just trying out all these
recipes but in his work as well. Christie is drawn to David, even though he
knows he is straight, he can’t help just wanting to be around him. What starts
as an offer to cook for David leads to helping him on his farm, snowmobile
rides, and travel to foreign lands through Christie's cooking. Christie is
starting to feel more for David, so much more that it’s starting to hurt
knowing there is no hope for them. Can he just walk away?
“But right now being with Christie was like hot sunlight. And when you
were in the sunlight, it was hard to imagine the darkness.”
This is more than just a love story, this is a story about
David and his self discovery. Not just about his sexuality but about what he
truly wants out of life. This is not an angst free read, it can’t be with
David’s religion playing a part in his personal struggles since his church sees
Homosexuality as a sin. But the struggle wasn’t on David’s part, it was on
those of his church members and his son, who is studying to be a minister. They
do not approve of David’s friendship with Christie but David refuses to give up
the one thing that gives him life and love.
There Is an epilogue which I always love but the ending
before that I did find to be a bit abrupt. There this traumatic incident that
happens and then...epilogue. I feel that it would’ve felt more seamless if the
author had added something after the incident instead of jumping right into the
happy ever after. There is so many things I loved with this story; well
developed characters, romantic, sweet, well paced, and above all what grabs me
as a reader is the well thought out story outside of the love story.
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