Customer Reviews

Hot Valley: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Too often gay-themed-- whatever that means-- novels have covers that have nothing to do with the story. That is certainly not the case in James Lear's HOT VALLEY, the tale of Aaron Johnson, the son of a freed slave, and Jack Edgerton, a young man of privilege from Vermont. The action takes place from 1861 to 1964 in bedrooms, barrooms, toilets, jails, the forest, military camps, etc., and anywhere else that men meet up with each other. Set against the events of the Civil War, this novel is about men having sex with men. All the men, to a person, are goodlooking, have beautiful bodies, are well endowed and have sexual appetites that outdo a satyr.

If you are looking for a historical novel about the Civil War, you'll need to look elsewhere. In most of the novel, at least the first two-thirds are more, the characters are pretty much oblivious to what is going on around them. This is not a gay version of Ken Burns' "Civil War" series. If you want decent gay erotica-- although some of the coupling gets repetitious and boring-- then this book is for you. The story line, thin as it is, is of course total fantasy. Well perhaps not. After all, there is Thomas Jefferson's mating with his slave although his beliefs about punishment for homosexuality were pretty grim.

Lear dedicates this novel to Richard Amory, author of the famous THE SONG OF THE LOON trilogy, an approprite dedication as this novel owes much more to those novels than to anything that happened in GONE WITH THE WIND.

Don't you love the "key phrases" ("Statistically Improbable Phrases") that Amazon's computers have isolated for HOT VALLEY A NOVEL? As so often, I can't actually type the words into my review for the internal cursors would swoop down and consign my review onto the back burner forever.

I loved James Lear's previous book with Cleis Press, THE BACK PASSAGE, a Golden Age Detective novel made new and freshened up considerably by larding on pages and pages of hard core erotica into it, so I was anxious to get my paws on HOT VALLEY and didn't really care too much what it was about. Now that I've read it, I can see why Lear seems to avoid completely the humor that enlivened the sex, murder and class revolution elements of his detective saga, but I have to say, I miss them a bit. Maybe he thought that the American Civil War, with its fields of blood and its families torn apart by conflicting loyalties, not to mention the race angle that still haunts American society, wasn't the place to lighten up. Pity that, for the war aspects of HOT VALLEY are intense enough to make you think, all this suffering is killing my erection.

That said, the basic set up is admirably sketched and embellished. The white boy and the black, despising each other at the beginning of the book, one politically advanced and the other thinking between his legs, and somehow drifting into the most terrible battles of the War, and then in the second half the growing dependence of Jack for Aaron, then the love that grows between them--all this is admirably told. Okay, so Jack is a bit of a cliche slut. Okay, so the band of marauders he falls in with, as a sort of love captive (like Marlene Dietrich in MOROCCO), is one-dimensionally evil or unthinking. Still there are some great hot scenes here, and it would give away too much of my private life to tell you which one I found the best. Okay, okay, you twist my arm, I'll tell you. Why it's Captain Healey's psychological, then medical exam of Jack in the dusty, overwarm Montpelier office. As far as I'm concerned, his next book could be all about HOT VALLEY HOSPITAL and I'd order ten or twelve copies. Good work all around, thanks again, Mr. Lear.

As a transplanted Vermonter, who also lived in the Shenandoah Valley

for awhile, the setting caught my interest (some historical detail:

there was a very thriving water spa in Brattleboro Vermont around the

time the novel begins). The hot sex (come on, that's what you're interested in ,right?) kept me riveted to the page. Interesting plot twists, various couplings, good background. I thoroughly enjoyed the

book and am keeping it at hand for my collection.

One of the most erotic gay male romances I've read. How Mr. Lear combined the numerous erotic accounts with such a riveting Civil War era story...I'm impressed.

I especially liked how the author developed the characters. There are no long, drawn-out descriptions. It is left to the reader to interpret the characters according to their actions, and yet, understanding the characters' motivations and visualizing them is easily done. Very compelling and an unbelievably hot read.

If you're into reading m/m erotica, you'll enjoy Hot Valley, by James Lear.

My review title is corny, as the book is in some parts. It's a good read though and has erotic scenes throughout. Well-written yet sometimes unbelievable. I just had time really accepting that groups a gay soldiers went at it as much as these did in the Civil War, but this is fiction. Kind of a surprise ending. Written like a love story...I guess it was. Well worth the $9.99 price.

The eroticism is merely a bonus to the great storyline. Great period piece. A couple of inconsistencies did not deter from the story. One was the use of a slur that did not exist during that time (not a big deal) and there is a part where the main character has an orgasm on some certificates and on the next page he hadn't had an orgasm. Still, not a big deal and did not deter from the story. Great Read!

I believe that Hot Vally was Lear's 2nd or 3rd Novel, but when I wanted it, the book was not avail. so I ended up reading Back Passage first, then I followed with the next 2 Mitch Mitchell Mysteries. After that I read Low Road, then Palace of Varieties and I finished with Hot Valley. This was a great book. Lear at his best. The story was full of emotion, drama and excitement. It was a non-stop ride through the Civil War, that part of the Civil War that they dont tell you about in school. Lear's romance was sweet, the sexuality was hot and the honesty was refreshing. While I appreciate the candy coated versions of gay-male sexuality so often found in m/m romance novels, Lear's truth about the natural functions of the body and the need to clean ones-self prior to intimacy was well done. His honesty grounds the story into reality. I have mentioned before that what I love about Lear is his rough and gritty depictions. His prose is very masculine, very direct and very... There. Lear puts his readers into the moment, with the description of sight, taste and smell. He taps into your senses by communicating with your brain. Suddenly you are...There.

Jack Edgerton is the son of a weathly business man in Vermont. He has allowed his sexuality to be his reason for living a wreckless life. Hooking up with random blue collar men, with rough exteriors in bar's and bathrooms, young Edgerton -he was 19 when he started bar-hopping -developed a reputation that shamed his family. All this was going on when the southern states made the decision to succeed from the Union. As History teaches, our 16th President Abraham Lincoln launched the civil war and destroyed the confederate army after a grueling battle that took the lives of many in the most ugly and most brutal way. Lear did a good job depicting this truth in the midst of this sexually charged romance and adventurous coming of age story.

Aaron Johnson is the son of a freed slave (woman) and a white plantation owner. An educated black man, Johnson moved to Vermont with the hope of becoming a successful business man. He began to work for Jack Edgerton's father but didnt expect to fall in love with Boss-Edgerton's 19 year old son. This seems to be an issue for me, being that (like Aaron Johnson) I am the son of a black woman and a white man. I have white skin, full lips, narrow turned up nose, thick curly hair and dark eyes. I have the perfect blend of white and black features. I seemed to me that Lear just threw Aaron into the black pot without giving him any white features. He had brown skin, he had full lips, he had thick dark hair and I couldnt help but ask myself over and over, why not just let Aaron be a black man. Plain and simple he could have been a black son of black slaves and perhaps someone (white) took an interst in him to education him. The story the way Lear tells it, really does not require Aaron to be half black half white. It would have worked much better for me, if Aaron had had a better of blend of white and black... it is a fact that white male genes are very strong when they are the father of bi-racial children. Dont let Hollywood fool you, a lot of "black" slaves looked uncannily white.

NE Way... in order for the story to work well for me, I had to picture Aaron looking something like Colon Powel or "Kid" fron Kid N Play. LMAO!!! Then the story took off. I will admit, I put myself in Aaron's position as well, being that I look like the typical child of a white man and a black woman. There was even a moment when I started seeing Zac Efron as Jack and Corbin Blue as Aaron. BUT I DIGRESS.

Overall the story was fantastic. It moved and moved along well as Jack grew to understand the world around him, went on a great adventure that eventually led him to true love and GAY MECCA.