Advanced Book Review: Farm Fresh, by Posy Roberts

Farm Fresh, by Posy Roberts
Publisher: Labyrinth Bound Press
Release Date: January 28, 2016
Genre: Gay, Poly, M/M, Menage (M/M/M), Contemporary

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Buy Links: Amazon / Universal Amazon

Blurb:

Jude Garrity visits the farmers market every Saturday. As an environmental engineering student, he’s curious about living off the grid and sustainable agriculture.

And one particular farmer.

Hudson Oliva has worked hard to support his commune, where queer people live without fear of harm or retribution. When Jude asks pointed questions about living there, Hudson realizes he needs to be honest about his home. Few people know what the farm is actually about, but Jude is insistent.

Jude moves to Kaleidoscope Gardens, however his sexual hang-ups make it hard to adjust. He’s an uptight virgin living among people who have sex freely and with multiple partners. When Jude finally loosens up, Hudson is flooded with emotions. Falling for Jude wasn’t part of Hudson’s life plan. But when vindictive rumors about the commune begin to spread, love might be all he has left.

My Review:

One of the things I love about Posy Roberts is her ability to write beautifully tragic characters whose physical or mental limitations only help make them stronger. Farm Fresh may seem like a novel about a sex-positive hippie commune, but there’s a lot more beneath the surface.

This was an interesting novel for me, because I identify as a sex-positive asexual. So this meant it was almost foreign to read about such large-scale sexual expression. Not in a bad way, though! I love reading novels with erotic content, and with poly and menage relationships, and all of the sex that Posy shows is very positive and healthy! But I think most people will blink twice at the relaxed and open atmosphere that Posy brings us at Kaleidoscope Gardens.

Jude is an absolutely stunning character. Raised in an incredibly strict religious household, he’s managed to escape physically, but his parents’ cruel words and actions still have their claws in his mental and emotional state. He struggles to relax and accept sex as a positive thing. It’s heartbreaking, but Jude is definitely not weak in any way!

“I’ve lived with secrets my whole life so I can keep safe.”

“You’re safe here.”

There are a lot of references here to emotional and physical abuse, to attempted suicides. These are characters who have seen the worst of humanity, and come out alive on the other side. And Posy writes a gorgeous novel about healing, and about using sexuality and touch as therapy to help heal those wounds.