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Hottie Scotty and Mr. Porter
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Hottie Scotty and Mr. Porter, by R. Cooper
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By R. Cooper
Published June 2016
122 pages
Five stars
As one of R. Cooper’s big fans, I was interested to read a straightforward, small-town romance by her that didn’t involve magic or supernatural beings. What I discovered is that Cooper, denied the use of shimmering wings or werewolf courtship rituals, is a lovely romance writer. She is gentle, insistent, and creates stories with an exquisite sense of subtle detail—both physical and emotional.
Hottie Scotty is Scott Yun, a Korean-American firefighter who moved to a small town in California to help his divorced sister with her two young kids. He, being almost thirty and a certain kind of gay man, is of course obsessed with his body and eating healthy. Unwillingly outed by the town’s gossipy knitting club, he has found his comfortable niche in small town America. His main problem is that he doesn’t see himself the way other see him.
Mr. Porter is Henry “Cole” Porter, the bowtie-wearing librarian at the town’s elementary school. Cole is 42 and widowed—his husband Eric having died suddenly some years after they moved to town.
The town gossips want to get Cole dating again. But Scott is just a party boy, a Grindr kind of guy. He’s not on their list. He is dismissed as beauty and no brains, because Cole is an intellectual, a smart man with sophisticated tastes.
And that’s it really. The whole book takes place through Scott’s eyes, as he interacts with various townspeople and his sister Angie; and, of course, with Cole. There are moments of gentle humor and silliness; and these are balanced with moments of intense, controlled emotion. There is something Jane Austen-like about the delicate, carefully calibrated feelings with which Cooper fills this simple story. It is all about the place and what Scott feels about this town, himself, and the people he has chosen to live with. Nothing much happens, except that two lonely men’s lives change completely in spite of the well-meaning interference of people who pretend to know them, but really just want to push them around. See? Jane Austen all the way.