Mason left his hometown for college in Minneapolis without looking back. Student life is fun, classes are great, gay guys are easy to find, but it’s all a bit superficial. He’s at the State Fair parade route with his band when he realizes a scruffy maintenance worker is Luke, his secret high school crush. Luke should be safely home working on his dad’s farm, not picking up litter. Mason wishes he hadn’t fallen out of touch. He’s an optimist, though, and it’s never too late for second chances. Now he just has to convince Luke.
A very dear friend of mine is from Minnesota and we’ve been talking for years about joining her and her family at the State Fair followed by a week at their cabin. Fair Isn’t Life made me call her and talk about actually making it a thing next year. Thanks Kaje!
I can always count on this author giving me characters to read about that have so many dimensions and more realism than I expect. I should expect it though as it’s a normal Harper thing, I just get to re-appreciate it every time.
The realism in Fair Isn’t Life starts out pretty heartbreaking actually. Mason spies the farm boy, Luke, he tutored and crushed on when he was in high school picking up trash at the State Fair. Luke should be working the farm that he loved, not picking up trash. Mason is intrigued (and still attracted) and so begins a campaign to reconnect with Luke.
Luke seems like a stereotype on the surface, but as Mason draws him out we get to see that he is so much more than the dirt poor dairy farmer his peers mocked him for. Growing up, Luke was ridiculed for his perceived lack of smarts and wealth, but he kept his head down and did everything for the farm and the cows that he loved. All the while, he kept his sexuality to himself and the constraint he lives with made me so sad.
Slowly Luke reveals a little bit more and a little bit more and Mason is just a star for him. Luke has never really had Mason level support and while he doesn’t necessarily know what to do with it specifically, he knows it’s a gift and he’s smart enough and humble enough to accept what Mason offers. Luke has lost the one piece of his identity he could embrace fully. His life as a dairy farmer is over and he’s at a complete loss as to who he is meant to be now. His life has narrowed down to living paycheck to paycheck, not necessarily knowing where that paycheck would be coming from.
When Mason comes along Luke is finally afforded, for the first time in his life, the opportunity to explore more dimensions of himself and the courage to have hope for his future. The journey these two went on was absolutely sublime. It was much spicier than I expected and I enjoyed the two of them together muchly. I loved where the author took Luke and his sexuality. It was unexpected in that it didn’t fit stereotypes and isn’t that the point of a great book? We should all expect more from our MC’s and Kaje Harper delivered in spades. The beauty of breaking stereotypes is that the “different” becomes “normalized” and it gives hope that boys like Luke can be more than just a poor dairy farmer and more than just what is expected from him because of how he looks.
The angst in Fair Isn’t Life is external from the relationship between Mason and Luke and that was just as it should be. There was plenty of life going on without unnecessary drama between the two of them, which, given their personalities, would have felt manufactured.
I didn’t really say much specifically about Mason and that is doing his character a disservice, but just know you will love and appreciate him as much as Luke. Trust me, that’s a lot.
I’m going to call my bestie so we can plan a Minnesota vacation.
**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**
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