What do you think?
Rate this book
Bastien is now the man of the house. His mom has given up everything to give him a new life and he’s determined to do everything in his power to take care of her. Verona, Indiana is Bastien’s chance to start over and he’s not about to waste the opportunity.The grumpy old man next-door is most certainly not one of the more attractive features of Bastien’s new hometown, but Bastien’s opinion of him slowly begins to change. More intriguing is another neighbor. Viktor is a wrestler for Verona High School and mows his lawn shirtless. Viktor stirs Bastien’s passion, but he tries desperately to hide his desires. He doesn’t want Verona to be Chicago all over again.As he settles into his new life Bastien discovers that Verona is different from what he has known before and not in the boring, watching-corn-grow-for-entertainment way he anticipated. The little town of Verona is odd, perhaps even bizarre, but maybe here he can forget the friends who turned on him and the father who tried to kill him. The Lawn Boy is a tale of friendship, love, lust, and acceptance.
211 pages, Paperback
Published October 20, 2015
19 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Mark A. Roeder
98 books210 followersMark A. Roeder grew up in southern Indiana - near a small town similar to those that appear in his novels.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 9, 2025
I spotted this on the shelf at Giovanni's Room bookstore in south Philadelphia. I'm glad I took a chance and bought this. A little m/m-action in here that would disallow this in a high school library, but minimal enough to let a good underlying story dominate.
Bastien is 15 and has to leave Chicago with his mother. His Dad heard of Bastien coming out and wanted to kill him. This story is set in the summer of 1984. A tough time to come out, but to depart to a no-name little town in the mid-west brought immediate new fear to Bastien that the local red-necks with gun racks in their pickup trucks would restart his troubles once again.
This is a good escapist story, with things somehow working out for the very best in a small country town, vs coming out in a big city. Doesn't everyone normally want to get OUT of the small towns and INTO the big cities?
This little town has its own backstory with gay students in the local school, and even involves Bastien's new neighbors. It all ties together almost too well, but hey, this is fiction!
Bastien mows his first lawn at his new home, and becomes lawn caretaker next door to Michael and Shirley. Another neighbor is a wrestler at Bastien's upcoming high school and like to mow with his shirt off (too).
No spoilers here. But I think I'll start grabbing more of this long series of books for my kindle. They will make good in-between-books for my books that tend to crush me.
There were a few typos in this book. Unrealistic positive gay talk at school for being 1984, but the story-line has a strong component to help explain this. The story thankfully never got fearful/tense, yet the final outcome got tears from me at the end. It was a simple, linear story that never oscillated in time or POV. Barely over 200 pages so easy to finish in 24 hours once you get hooked.
Solid 4.25* for me.
Bastien is 15 and has to leave Chicago with his mother. His Dad heard of Bastien coming out and wanted to kill him. This story is set in the summer of 1984. A tough time to come out, but to depart to a no-name little town in the mid-west brought immediate new fear to Bastien that the local red-necks with gun racks in their pickup trucks would restart his troubles once again.
This is a good escapist story, with things somehow working out for the very best in a small country town, vs coming out in a big city. Doesn't everyone normally want to get OUT of the small towns and INTO the big cities?
This little town has its own backstory with gay students in the local school, and even involves Bastien's new neighbors. It all ties together almost too well, but hey, this is fiction!
Bastien mows his first lawn at his new home, and becomes lawn caretaker next door to Michael and Shirley. Another neighbor is a wrestler at Bastien's upcoming high school and like to mow with his shirt off (too).
No spoilers here. But I think I'll start grabbing more of this long series of books for my kindle. They will make good in-between-books for my books that tend to crush me.
There were a few typos in this book. Unrealistic positive gay talk at school for being 1984, but the story-line has a strong component to help explain this. The story thankfully never got fearful/tense, yet the final outcome got tears from me at the end. It was a simple, linear story that never oscillated in time or POV. Barely over 200 pages so easy to finish in 24 hours once you get hooked.
Solid 4.25* for me.
April 24, 2017
BRAVO. This novel has the same formula that most of Roeder's books have, but this one in particular pulls at the heart strings. What I appreciate most about reading his books (sadly out of the suggested order) is the guest appearances of other characters from previous novels. This one does not disappoint, but the unexpected surprise of the Potters was truly a piece of artistry. The grieving father of one of the suicides from THE SOCCER FIELD IS EMPTY is woven into the narrative expertly. It is refreshing to examine the other side of a story, with a character that could easily be hated and disregarded. There is a magic that allows you to fall into these novels and dream of living in Verona.
This is a particular touching novel and well worth the read.
This is a particular touching novel and well worth the read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2015
I will read anything Mark Roeder writes and I've read every book in this series.
And this was just a nice easy quick read. I loved getting to return to Verona and meet up with all the guys.
If you haven't read any books in the series you definitely missing out!
In this book we add a new homo to the homo table.
Great sweet story with a hot lawn boy!
FIVE STARS * * * * *
And this was just a nice easy quick read. I loved getting to return to Verona and meet up with all the guys.
If you haven't read any books in the series you definitely missing out!
In this book we add a new homo to the homo table.
Great sweet story with a hot lawn boy!
FIVE STARS * * * * *
February 1, 2025
ON A SUGAR HIGH, IT’S A GAY BOY’S UTOPIA!
First, while it has no bearing on what I thought of the story, I have never encountered more typographical errors in any previous Kindle book I’ve read. I think the proofreader fell asleep!
—————-
Bastien is fourteen and he knows he’s gay. In fact every guy on his football team and every person in his Chicago school knows too. His father also found out and tried to kill him before disowning him. Life is ugly for Bastien. He’s bullied banished, and beaten by his former friends. His mother, however, loves him unconditionally, divorces her husband and moves with her son to begin a new life in the small town of Verona, Indiana.
Early on Roeder compares Verona to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Mayberry from Andy Griffith fame. Indeed, we will discover that Verona is overflowing with wholesome goodness and is unlike any other small midwestern community in the great homophobic U. S. of A.
Bastien is a perfect son. He is so very grateful his mom moved them and gave him the chance to start over and he promises himself that this time he’s going to keep his sexual orientation a secret. We’re reminded over and over again (really too much, we get it already) that there will be no repeat of those dark times in the Windy City. Turns out there was no need for all that negative energy.
Bastien still misses his football days in Chicago before being outed. In the course of trying out at Verona High he learns that the last three quarterbacks at VHS were (are) gay. Other players too. The team and most all of the school also do not care about their classmates sexual identities and totally accept them. Boyfriend football players sit together openly with their teammates in the school cafeteria at lunch. Roeder creates a town essentially where being gay is almost as “normal” as being straight. It’s a “no judgement” zone.
With the exception of one bully who quickly is put in his place early in the story, nobody turns out to be an asshole in this book. Roeder creates situations that portend potential violence over Bastion’s queerness, but they’re always resolved with sweetness and light and gay affirmation. Bastien continues to tell us, over and over and over again how lucky he is having moved to Verona, IN.
So how is this? Is there something in Verona’s water supply? Well, it turns out this is the one “mystery” Roeder weaves into his plot. Bastien and his mom become close friends with an older childless couple who are their neighbors. Soon Bastien feels he’s found a second mom and the father figure he’s never had. He becomes like a son to them. And they have no issue that he likes boys. There is, however, a perpetual sadness that hangs over this couple. Bastien will make it his mission to find out why. Actually Roeder is pretty transparent here and we figure it out rather quickly.
This story is not a flawless endeavor. Roeder redundantly brings up subjects he’s covered over and over again: the Chicago experience, Bastien’s paranoia stealing looks at his sexy teammates in the locker room and the fear of being disovered, just to mention a few. The book is written in first person from Bastien’s viewpoint and Roeder works hard at making the prose resonate with voice of naive horny teenage boy. Sometimes it’s just too much, especially when Bastien directly addresses us readers with humor that doesn’t land. Speaking of not landing … I doubt that Roeder ever played football as his descriptions of the game and how it’s played on and off the field often do not pass the authenticity test.
There’s also an outlier that makes little sense to me. One of the gay football players had a brain tumor years ago (never quite followed Roeder’s timeline) and was near death. A mysterious dark haired man was in the boy’s church when the boy collapses. The mysterious man was castigating the preacher at the time for his homophobic sermon when the episode occurs. The mystery man stoops down and touches the boy’s forehead and he stands up and the tumor is gone! Bam!! Before and after CTR scans prove it. In the course of a developing relationship with Bastien, this boy (who mentions he’s not religious), believes the man was Jesus! So do many others in town. The story draws a lot of press. A miracle? Perhaps. Not sure what Roeder intended here with this paranormal escapade. Just seemed out of place with the rest of the book’s narrative.
This story was so Pollyanna. Homemade baked cookies from the lady next door appear almost every time you turn a page. With all the wholesome goodness, I believed the book was written as a coming of age story for questioning youth not yet legal adults. Bastien’s hormonal urges are only referred to in the vaguest of terms.
Then there’s a tide shift! Bastien looses his virginity to an older hunk on the wrestling team who lives next door! He’s been staring at him all summer mowing grass with his shirt off. Repeat episodes of oral then anal sex are graphically described. So there goes the book’s PG rating. (Librarians would burst into flames)!
For all its flaws, I still really liked the book because it imagines a world where good people are kind to one another. Differences are not judged, they’re respected. Sexual acts are kept in perspective and, as Gay Pride pronounces, “love is love is love.” The book doesn’t just deliver a happy ending, it delivers a happy journey getting us there.
First, while it has no bearing on what I thought of the story, I have never encountered more typographical errors in any previous Kindle book I’ve read. I think the proofreader fell asleep!
—————-
Bastien is fourteen and he knows he’s gay. In fact every guy on his football team and every person in his Chicago school knows too. His father also found out and tried to kill him before disowning him. Life is ugly for Bastien. He’s bullied banished, and beaten by his former friends. His mother, however, loves him unconditionally, divorces her husband and moves with her son to begin a new life in the small town of Verona, Indiana.
Early on Roeder compares Verona to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Mayberry from Andy Griffith fame. Indeed, we will discover that Verona is overflowing with wholesome goodness and is unlike any other small midwestern community in the great homophobic U. S. of A.
Bastien is a perfect son. He is so very grateful his mom moved them and gave him the chance to start over and he promises himself that this time he’s going to keep his sexual orientation a secret. We’re reminded over and over again (really too much, we get it already) that there will be no repeat of those dark times in the Windy City. Turns out there was no need for all that negative energy.
Bastien still misses his football days in Chicago before being outed. In the course of trying out at Verona High he learns that the last three quarterbacks at VHS were (are) gay. Other players too. The team and most all of the school also do not care about their classmates sexual identities and totally accept them. Boyfriend football players sit together openly with their teammates in the school cafeteria at lunch. Roeder creates a town essentially where being gay is almost as “normal” as being straight. It’s a “no judgement” zone.
With the exception of one bully who quickly is put in his place early in the story, nobody turns out to be an asshole in this book. Roeder creates situations that portend potential violence over Bastion’s queerness, but they’re always resolved with sweetness and light and gay affirmation. Bastien continues to tell us, over and over and over again how lucky he is having moved to Verona, IN.
So how is this? Is there something in Verona’s water supply? Well, it turns out this is the one “mystery” Roeder weaves into his plot. Bastien and his mom become close friends with an older childless couple who are their neighbors. Soon Bastien feels he’s found a second mom and the father figure he’s never had. He becomes like a son to them. And they have no issue that he likes boys. There is, however, a perpetual sadness that hangs over this couple. Bastien will make it his mission to find out why. Actually Roeder is pretty transparent here and we figure it out rather quickly.
This story is not a flawless endeavor. Roeder redundantly brings up subjects he’s covered over and over again: the Chicago experience, Bastien’s paranoia stealing looks at his sexy teammates in the locker room and the fear of being disovered, just to mention a few. The book is written in first person from Bastien’s viewpoint and Roeder works hard at making the prose resonate with voice of naive horny teenage boy. Sometimes it’s just too much, especially when Bastien directly addresses us readers with humor that doesn’t land. Speaking of not landing … I doubt that Roeder ever played football as his descriptions of the game and how it’s played on and off the field often do not pass the authenticity test.
There’s also an outlier that makes little sense to me. One of the gay football players had a brain tumor years ago (never quite followed Roeder’s timeline) and was near death. A mysterious dark haired man was in the boy’s church when the boy collapses. The mysterious man was castigating the preacher at the time for his homophobic sermon when the episode occurs. The mystery man stoops down and touches the boy’s forehead and he stands up and the tumor is gone! Bam!! Before and after CTR scans prove it. In the course of a developing relationship with Bastien, this boy (who mentions he’s not religious), believes the man was Jesus! So do many others in town. The story draws a lot of press. A miracle? Perhaps. Not sure what Roeder intended here with this paranormal escapade. Just seemed out of place with the rest of the book’s narrative.
This story was so Pollyanna. Homemade baked cookies from the lady next door appear almost every time you turn a page. With all the wholesome goodness, I believed the book was written as a coming of age story for questioning youth not yet legal adults. Bastien’s hormonal urges are only referred to in the vaguest of terms.
Then there’s a tide shift! Bastien looses his virginity to an older hunk on the wrestling team who lives next door! He’s been staring at him all summer mowing grass with his shirt off. Repeat episodes of oral then anal sex are graphically described. So there goes the book’s PG rating. (Librarians would burst into flames)!
For all its flaws, I still really liked the book because it imagines a world where good people are kind to one another. Differences are not judged, they’re respected. Sexual acts are kept in perspective and, as Gay Pride pronounces, “love is love is love.” The book doesn’t just deliver a happy ending, it delivers a happy journey getting us there.
March 26, 2021
Every time I get to visit Mark Roeder's world of gay boys and men in Verona and Bloomington, I fall in love again with each of them (except Devon?) and with the author. Yes, they are fantasy, wish fulfillment stories for queer men of a certain age; but, they portray a world of healing that we all need so much. And, rekindles the hope that they LGBTQ+ youth of this and coming generations may find these fantasies fulfilled in their real world.
In this novel, a young teen running from a horrible father and experience in Chicago finds healing and hope in Verona, as well as his first sexual experiences and first boyfriend (but not with the same guy!). He also finds a surrogate father in his next door neighbor and unknowingly helps bring partial closure to the story that initiated the whole Verona epic.
In this novel, a young teen running from a horrible father and experience in Chicago finds healing and hope in Verona, as well as his first sexual experiences and first boyfriend (but not with the same guy!). He also finds a surrogate father in his next door neighbor and unknowingly helps bring partial closure to the story that initiated the whole Verona epic.
June 7, 2025
Incredibly Great Story!
This author is touched with a magic or spirt that helps him bring the emotions of his subjects to life. This story captures you from the start and draws you into a life you want to protect and nurture. It shows the Power of Real love and forgiveness, not the overused expression so common. This is my second book by this author, and both make me feel good after reading. MUCH can be learned about yourself and how you live by reading this Great Story.
This author is touched with a magic or spirt that helps him bring the emotions of his subjects to life. This story captures you from the start and draws you into a life you want to protect and nurture. It shows the Power of Real love and forgiveness, not the overused expression so common. This is my second book by this author, and both make me feel good after reading. MUCH can be learned about yourself and how you live by reading this Great Story.
June 18, 2017
Like most of Mark's books you'll need to read them in order to understand the characters and their history. Please bear this in mind. You'll enjoy the process and support Mark by following the complete series in order!
After Snow Angel Lawn Boy is Mark's most moving and most beautiful book. It contains the true essence of Christianity minus the modern "Christians". Deeply satisfying.
After Snow Angel Lawn Boy is Mark's most moving and most beautiful book. It contains the true essence of Christianity minus the modern "Christians". Deeply satisfying.
September 10, 2021
This is a story about a child pedophile!!! Do not read. This is nothing more than talking about how a boy is molested like it’s ok!! DISGUSTING HORRIFIC !! F***ing disgusting talking about a fourth graders penis
February 18, 2018
If I could give this book a half star I would; creepy and a little 'author fantasy'. This made me feel like I needed to take a bath in bleach, really, really strong bleach... AVOID!
May 15, 2018
I really enjoyed this story. It was over before I knew it.
January 5, 2024
Perhaps his best...
I have read many of Roeder's books and this is perhaps his best. Bastian is a compelling and well drawn character.
Don't miss this book.
I have read many of Roeder's books and this is perhaps his best. Bastian is a compelling and well drawn character.
Don't miss this book.
July 14, 2017
Yet another in the Gay boys of Verona boys series. This time a newcomer befriends the cranky old man next door and we get to see a side of a character who was vilified in earlier books.
This story gives the book a nice sense of closure.
This story gives the book a nice sense of closure.
December 1, 2025
I read a few of Mark Roeder’s novels which had a time-travel, sci-fi bent. This was the first I read that didn’t seem to really touch on supernatural elements too strongly, and it was somewhat paint-by-the-numbers. One plot seemed like it was going to go to a dark place but then oddly fizzled off into “everything’s good” and another relationship dropped in late in the novel.
Did Not Finish
August 30, 2017DNF.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews