The Pastor's Son

by Chris Ogden

Leo Parker is your typical seventeen year old boy: into sports, full of energy, and often rebellious. When his mother decides it’s time he shape up, she sends him to attend the local church’s youth group. He goes, but only to make her happy. He never expects to make any new friends there, let alone fall for Noah Matthews, the Pastor’s son.

Noah seems to have the perfect life: flawless grades, a beautiful girlfriend, and a promising career set for him. But it isn’t the life he wants for himself. He’s trapped and afraid to break the path his pastor father made for him. He struggles to balance behaving like a normal teenager and staying true to himself with his confusing attraction to Leo, all while staying the good Christian son his dad always wanted. Will Leo be able to help Noah find happiness without disappointing the only parent he has left?

Genres: M M Romance

183 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2013

About the author

Chris grew up in New England and began writing over eight years ago. Most recently, Chris has written several novels including The Pastor’s Son and continues to write new love stories every day. Above all Chris values a good book, family, friends, and fans.

Reviews

[D. Colwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to admit I did not finish this book. I couldn’t finish it. I’s just finished reading a book by Robin Reardon and someone suggested this book in a similar vein. It was quite a disappointment. The conversations are consistently stilted. Not at all like people actually talk. And the story itself, just doesn’t flow like it should. Not Recommended.

[Blue Bayou .]

The voice of Leo seemed years older than a senior in high school (17), like way older. The internal monologue and description of people, places and things was dry and inconsistent with the MC's train of thought. See below:
"I sit with my parents toward the back of the church. Noah sits in the front as usual, listening to his dad’s every word like a good son. Despite all his father has said to him, he’s still here listening to what his dad has to say. If only his dad was better at listening to his son. Noah’s really exceptional."

The paragraph above is part of the last chapter I read. I stopped reading here because the Pastor's sermon is on temptation. Example:
"He [The Pastor] says other people who have been influenced by the devil will try to tell you things and brainwash you. He[The Pastor]talks about how you have to resist temptation and follow the righteous path. He [The Pastor] even mentions gays and how they have chosen the wrong path and will surely be condemned to Hell. He [The Pastor] says they go around recruiting other people, trying to convince them to follow into sin."

It's not that the pastor said these things that made me stop reading. Trust me when I say I have heard worse from 'men of God' when I was growing up. What stops me here is that Leo, who is gay and out, is in church with his parents, who know Leo is gay and are accepting of him. What I find it hard to believe is that parents who are accepting and loving, like Leo's parents are portrayed, would allow their child to sit through this and not be concerned if not outraged. One, being a parent this feels and looks awfully hypocritical. We love you and accept you at home but when at church just go along with the flow. Secondly, how does a parent think faith is going to grow in a child when he/she is told they are the devil and a perpetrator? I skipped ahead to see if the parents attempted to reconcile their actions with Leo. Nada, nothing.

What did ring true was the actions of the teenagers. Internal monologue "no way am I seeing him again, it hurts too much" to "ok I will meet you". Teenagers are like that, not normal. However, I don't feel as though the author did this on purpose. More that he needed to move the story along, which is sad because it felt just like 17 yr olds in actions, just not spoken words.

[Trisha Harrington]

I've heard it's a decent story, but cheating is not really for me and apparently that happens a few times here, so nope.

[Gwendolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh god the dialogue is awful.