The only interesting thing about Why Yell, Iowa, is its name, so when Mark Johansen left for college, he didn’t plan to return. But his family has other ideas: his father manipulates him into a job he hates and his mother uses him as a patch for coping with his siblings’ problems. When Mark runs into Jamie Novotny after a particularly bad day at work, he’s surprised to find the quirky kid he knew in high school has grown into a driven ecowarrior. But the shock of finding Jamie working in the local co-op pales compared to his astonishment when Jamie confesses he’s had a crush on Mark for years. Their first night together leaves Mark happy but disoriented, but their second leaves him bereft. He's unable to find Jamie because he refuses to use cell phones, fearing their environmental impact. Mark’s usual stoicism splinters, and he can’t stop himself from tracking Jamie down. When their lives collide, Mark makes room in his heart and his house for Jamie—but what Jamie really wants is for Mark to man up.
Author
Mari Donne was born and raised in New Jersey, but after more than 20 years in the Midwest has finally learned to relax and enjoy the slower pace of life. Although the appeal of tractor pulls still escapes her, she loves many other things about her adopted state of Iowa, not least that it is the first in flyover country to legalize same-sex marriage. Fascinated by books and stories from an early age, Mari always wanted to be a novelist, but fell victim to the dreaded demon of Practicality. She worried that years of producing mundane, reality-based prose in an office environment would make it impossible to go back to fiction writing. But when she finally tried, she found it immensely liberating to be allowed to just make stuff up. Even more thrilling was the discovery that fantasizing about hot men was actually part of the job description instead of just a way to survive boring meetings. Mari and her husband have two grown children and are empty-nesting happily together.
