Ellery Mountain series, by R. J. Scott

[Ulysses]

RJ Scott's Ellery Mountain series is classic m/m romance. Set in a small town in Tennessee, we meet three young men - Finn, Kieran, and Daniel - who grew up together and came out, each in his own way. In their mid-twenties, Finn is a policeman, Kieran is a carpenter, and Daniel is a recently-returned soldier from Afghanistan. I am not why sure RJ Scott feels that rural Tennessee would be such a welcoming place for young gay men (does she not read the news about this state - the "don't say gay" state?) - but she creates a gentle sort of "Mayberry"-esque town in which these men feel part of a community in which everyone is connected and everyone knows everyone else's business.

The First book, the Fireman and the Cop, is about Finn, who is rescued by Max, a handsome fireman, recently transplanted from a more homophobic Knoxville. This story is a murder mystery - because a series of mysterious calamities point to a deadly targeting of one of the trio.

The second book, the Teacher and the Soldier, looks to Daniel, still finding his way after recovering his body and soul after war. A fourth childhood companion, slightly older, is Luke, who fled Ellery Mountain as a teenager to escape an abusive father. Luke is linked to the other men, and this volume focuses on the demons he battles, and how the rest of this little gay coterie rallies to his aid.

I have to buy the Carpenter and the Actor - just out...it promises to center on Kieran, the jock and the class clown, and see if it can't give him his HEA as well.

These are not deep books - but they are charmingly written and emotionally well crafted to trigger the emotions that all of us sappy romantics want in our M&Ms. I especially love to see Scott, who's a Brit, slip in British words like "whilst" and try to imagine them spoken in a Tennessee twang.

[Ulysses]

So I finished the Carpenter and the Actor. Now I feel that the sextet is complete - the group of friends are tied together in Ellery - ready for the real story to begin.

And that's my caveat - these three short books feel like the long prologue to a bigger book. Six handsome young men who have found each other, as couples, as friends as a support system in a small town in rural southern America (which still seems weirdly non-religious and liberal to me). I like Scott's characters; but I want to get to know them even better than I do. I want to see them live for ten years like this - see them become real couples and not starry-eyed boyfriends. I want adventure!

[Rick]

There's three further books coming for this series. #4 and #5 are complete awaiting release and #6 is in progress. All are slated for 2013 release.

The final three books seem to follow a similar series theme, The Doctor & the Bad Boy / The Writer & The Paramedic / The Barman & The SEAL

Phew! I need to move to Ellery to bag a hubby!

[Ulysses]

So this is clearly going to play off of the young veteran center that Daniel and the boys are working on...

[Ulysses]

Imagine a small town in the mountains, where all the gay men are beautiful and every one of them finds love and support. In Tennessee.

Our old friend from the Ellery Mountain series, Dr. Liam, is still on his own, in spite of all his gorgeous friends who have found eternal love on the banks of the River Black. Enter bad boy Mitchell Askett, whose local gentry parents made good and moved their better-than-you asses to Knoxville when he was just a boy. Mitchell is, as my daughter would say, a hot mess. He's hot, but he's a mess. And no sooner does he pull into town with his niece Roberta, than she gets sick and is rushed to the hospital. Where Liam saves the day. Aw.

I have to admit, RJ Scott does a fine job of making these stories believable, but why she picked a notoriously un-gay-friendly state to set her romances in, I'm not sure. Of course, she's a Brit, and the British English all these Tennessee country boys use also makes me giggle.

Given the novella format Scott uses for this extended series, she manages to very skillfully pack in a wonderful amount of character detail about the main characters - not so much about the rest of the cast, about whom we've learned in previous books. It is a slightly frustrating formula, because her characters are so likeable that you really want to spend more time with them. I particularly liked the density of this story - the amount of small-town action, and the resolution at the end.

I have it in my head that someday RJ is going to write a massive War-and-Peace scale novel about Ellery rising up as a town to defeat the homophobic asshats who run the Tennessee state government. Then, at last, we'd get to see every one of these appealing, attractive characters working as a team to change the larger world. But that's my fantasy. Meanwhile, enjoy the romance, because no one does it better.

[Ulysses]

Book five in RJ Scott's Ellery Mountain series involves the red-haired Jamie Llewellyn (sigh, red hair) and a mysterious John Doe clutching a gun who he rescues from a wrecked car.

I still have to giggle over the fact that RJ Scott, a very good British author, chose to place her gay romantic Disneyland in the rural mountains of one of the more anti-gay places in the United States. But never mind, Ellery is impossible anyway because all of its young men are gay and good and beautiful and just too easy to fall in love with. Sometimes a little hard to keep separated one from the other in my increasingly aged head.

But Scott knows what she's doing, and by the time romance hits (and she's never trite or simpleminded about getting there) the reader is as ready as the protagonists. Jamie is a particularly appealing character, and the ongoing backstory about Ellery and its gay boys and their good work in the community creates a solid foundation on which he spins his own tale of love on the mountain.

Each of these stories stands alone, but it is nice to know who everybody else is - people wander across the stage, but you only get some reminders, not a lot of replay (and that's just fine). So read them all. Take a couple days off and just wallow in the love. Really.

[Ulysses]

Now I'm all caught up, through book Six. Here's my Goodreads review for "The Barman and the Seal": https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I think one of my favorites, or maybe it's just that I'm so caught up in this town and its men that I can't help it any more. Some real darkness here, and Ellery needed that.

[Kelly (Maybedog)]

I'm not a member of your group. I just joined for a moment to let you know that this book is currently 99 cents at Totally Bound: https://www.totallybound.com/the-fire...

[Octobercountry]

Kelly wrote: "I'm not a member of your group. I just joined for a moment to let you know that this book is currently 99 cents at Totally Bound: https://www.totallybound.com/the-fire..."

Thanks for the information! I see The Fireman and the Cop is on sale at Amazon too, for the moment at least. So, I think I'll give it a try.

I've been curious to read the Ellery Mountain series, but quite honestly the price has put me off, up to this point. These are novellas---they could even be called longish short stories---but they're priced like they're full-length novels.

At any rate, now I can give the first one a try...

[Kelly (Maybedog)]

The first one is a little different than the next couple. It's got some danger and mayhem but the others are more just contemporary romance. The Paramedic and the Writer looks like it might have a little action in it, though.