Fjord Blue

Book excerpt: After a year of partying, getting into fights, and finally crashing his father s vintage Bonneville in a car chase, seventeen-year-old Benjamin has pushed his parents to their limit. It s not like he can tell them why he s so angry at life, or that he ll do anything to distract himself from the lust he feels toward his best friend s sexy cousin, Dino. He can t even protest when he s sent away from Miami to spend the summer working on his grandparents farm in the desolate fjords of Western Norway. The farm is isolated and old-fashioned, and so are Ben s religious grandparents. It s cold and wet, and Ben is miserable and restless. Relief comes in the form of Even, the eighteen-year-old blond Viking farmhand who offers Ben friendship and a new outlook on his situation. But Even is hiding issues of his own. Ben s grandparents want him to inherit the farm, but the only thing keeping Ben there is his desire to know Even better. As the feelings between the two young men grow, things kept hidden are slowly revealed for good and ill and they must turn to unlikely places for encouragement. "