Customer Reviews

Love Means No Shame

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Andrew Grey has written a beautiful story about two men brought together in an unlikely way. When he learns of his father's death, Geoff returns home to the family farm leaving behind his crazy life in the city. He begins to realize that he doesn't want to return to his old ways; and settles into running the farm. He soon discovers Eli, an Amish man; sleeping in his barn. Thus begins a most wonderful and intriguing relationship. Geoff; who has never known real love, finds himself falling hopelessly for Eli. Eli feels the same way toward Geoff, but fights with his insecurities and Amish lifestyle teachings. He is torn between his developing feelings for Geoff, and his fear of ruining his family's reputation in their community. The story is wonderfully told; and the characters are incredibly real. I found myself sitting for hours, turning page after page; not wanting it to end. There were times I found myself laughing out loud, only to be surprised at the fact I was actually brought to tears by certain parts of the book.
I have to confess that I bought this book on a whim. I was not familiar with Grey's writing however, I'm now hooked. Will certainly read his other books.
"No Shame" is a great effort; and a story that stays with you for days/weeks afterward.

I orginally bought this book on the recommendation of Amazon, but I found that I liked it. I have some doubts as to some the facts it presents given my experiences with the Plain Folk.

But the idea that a country boy has to come back home to find his right place in the world struck a nice note.

I liked the book so much that I went on to buy its prequel.

This story touched me deeply because the two main characters are such an unlikely match at first and have so many obstacles to overcome. The descriptions of their feelings and motivations is excellent and the story captivated me from the very first page. The setting and detail given adds lots of color and a rich background.

Geoff struggles with his attraction but gives in when Eli starts courting him. Eli is very clear about his feelings for Geoff but struggles with the repercussions his family might face in the Amish community if word of his relationship with Geoff ever got back to them.

I was moved to tears at several points because I was so emotionally involved with the characters and their inner conflicts. This is a wonderful story that I recommend wholeheartedly.

An interesting story with characters I grew to care about. If I can get emotionally attached to characters in a book, that means it's a good book. That's how I felt about this book. Worth reading, so I will be buying the prequel as well.

I read this book in two sittings. It was just too hard to put it down once I got started. The characters are believable, the story line is classic, and the outcome was just a enough unpredictable to make a person guess what was coming next. The author was able to keep it suspenseful and emotion filled at the same time. I have also read the prequel, Love Means...Courage, and found it to be of similar high quality. I have since also read two other novels by Andrew Grey, Bottled Up, and Uncorked; both of which were nonstop reads. In the sage words of Mikey, "Try it, you'll like it".

This booked moved me so much that I had a hard time putting it down to go to bed. The main charcters of Geoff and Eli are embedded in my brain even now. The fact that Eli came across first as a straight Amish young man, I had my doubts about the two getting together. When the young man started to "court" Geoff that seemed to be the turning point of the book. I loved the interaction between the two from the moment Geoff found him sleeping in the barn to the very end of the book. Their love for on another was unconditional.

I laughed in this book and cried as well especially when Eli had to make a difficult decision. My heart sank when he had to leave and go back to his family due to some unforseen circumstances due to some nosey relatives and their big mouths.

I loved this book very very much and would recommend it for anyone to read. I would give this book 10 stars if there were any but 5 stars is what it gets.

This is a truely great story loved the characters and how they were brought to life. I'm reading the prequel now. Love Means Courage. Which in my opinion should be read first to give you more insite for This book. Love Means No Shame. but ...thats just my opinion. Both are very good reads. I hope it becomes a series of books with the characters moving along with each new book.

Geoff, Cliff and Len's little boy from the first novel in this series, takes center stage this time. He's living the raucous, gay high-life in the big city when Cliff, his biological father, dies. He returns home to help deal with things and finds his other father, Len, wanting him to take over the family farm. He's thrown even more when he finds someone, Eli, secretly sleeping in the barn. Eli is Amish and spending time outside his community to give himself an opportunity to see other types of life before deciding whether returning to the Amish community is right for him. I admit that I don't know much about the Amish faith and its traditions, but this is so well done and internally consistent that I find it hard to imagine that Grey didn't either grow up around this or do a lot a research, which I appreciate. You can see all the opportunities for conflict, drama, and angst. Very enjoyable book by a great author.

This story was cute and sweet and touching. Geoff and Eli couldn't be more different at the beginning of the story, because Geoff comes back from Chicago to the farm he inherited from his father. In Chicago he was cruising bars for sex and working as an accountant. Eli is Amish and he is spending the traditional time away from his community to see the world of the English.

What they have in common is their caring attitude. Geoff is much more experienced, but Eli's enthusiasm makes up for his lack of experience. He's such a wonderful young man, he's open to what life has to show him, for Geoff's love and it seems he was just waiting to find the right someone to open his heart to.

The storyline is simple and it shows people who support Geoff and people who spread awful rumours about him, because they don't accept his sexuality. There's a little bit of drama, but not too much, the right amount to make us root for the main couple and to move us to tears.

I think the story lacks some characters' insight. It is told in Geoff's point of view and we see how things affect Eli only as a reflection, so maybe that's why I loved him so much even if I didn't know exactly what was going on in his mind. Geoff seemed a bit more shallow, or maybe I could not shrug off his initial behavior. I also think the transition from one scene and the next wasn't always so smooth, sometimes situations ot thoughts seemed rushed or cut off.

I think this book is Romance - yep, with a capital R - so I'd recommended it to the very romantic souls who love sweet, cute and happy stories.

This is one of 3 in the series by this author.
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I enjoyed reading it greatly.
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Taking in and nurturing gay young men who are lost or kicked out of their families.