Genre: Contemporary Romance, FF Romance
My Review - 5 Stars
I first heard of this book through a review on Smart Bitches and since I'm always looking for good FF romance, I decided to give it a try. I wasn't sure what I thought at first but then I quickly got sucked into the story. And the more I read, the more I loved it. More importantly, it got me thinking about how it fits into the romance genre as a whole.
Friday Jill is a college graduate working on her graduate degree, a low level supervisor at the local factory, and a lesbian with few good romantic prospects in her small town. She’s unfulfilled but doesn’t feel like she has many options. Her life is a series of rinses and repeats. She and her coworkers are on edge because Krylon Motors is set to be bought out by a Japanese giant and there are rumors about labor union organizers coming in.
So it’s really not a good thing when one of the organizers turns out to be very attractive and seemingly interested in Friday. She can barely take her eyes off of El but there are more reasons for them not to test the waters. And yet life keeps making their paths cross, often in funny ways. We never get El’s perspective and I was fine with that. Friday’s emotional arc was quite compelling as she tries to make sense of what she wants and whether she can take the risk—and this goes well beyond trying anything with El.
One of the things I most appreciated about this story was the way it explored labor unions. Through El’s work for United Auto Workers, we see why the union could be a good thing for the factory. Through Friday’s coworkers, we get to see the very real way they could be impacted by even talking to one of the organizers and of course we hear why Krylon’s management doesn’t want anyone to organize. There are references to other real life union efforts, like Volkswagon plant in Chattanooga, which served to ground the story all the more. Later, (minor spoiler alert) once the Japanese buyout goes through, we get the perspective of Tam, the new owner, which I found quite refreshing.
Friday feels quite caught in the middle. As Krylon’s management currently stands, she has no chance of getting a real promotion. Not until she’s viewed as being compromised because of the time she’s spent with El and then she’s in a pickle. For so much of this story, I wanted Friday to take action. Quit her job or take a stand or fight to unionize or just freaking take El out on a date. But at the same time, I understood why she felt so paralyzed. It was a real pleasure to watch her figure things out and finally step up to the plate.
Friday and El have great chemistry. This is a closed door romance. I believe it's the first time I’ve read a closed door FF romance and I’m glad to now have an option to give friends who prefer less explicit romance. I don’t read much closed door but this made me think about how it can be the right choice for a character. Friday is a very private person and I could see her not wanting us as readers to know more about her intimate moments with El.
There are very real stakes between them. How can a factory supervisor date a union organizer? Especially since organizers don’t stay in one place for long and Friday is rooted to Princeton and Owensville. I had a guess as to how it might play out but my heart was in my throat while I waited for it to work out. The ending was more than satisfying.
I finished this a few months ago but haven’t known how to sum up my thoughts. It’s very different from other FF romances I’ve read—different from other contemporary romances, for that matter—and I wanted to take my time in considering why.
Hoosier Daddy is a rural romance. It’s not a term I’ve heard before but surely other books like this exist. Rural romance could be a subset of small town romance or perhaps it’s a different subgenre all together.
The book’s greatest strength is the rich sense of place. Rural southern Indiana is brought to life in such a way that I could practically see, touch, smell, and taste everything described. And yet the descriptions tended to be spare. They do the job and convey what they need to, which tends to be my preference in fiction.
According to the author’s note, the residents of Edwards County, IL (population 6721) informed the telling of this story and it shows. The characters are rooted in something real but I admit I wasn’t sure about the representation at first. Were certain characters caricatures? Are people really like this in such a town? I haven’t known many people like Friday’s friends TBomb or Luanne, nor have I ever lived in a place with such a small population. I wasn’t sure if the authors were honoring the people they knew or making fun of them. It can be a fine line and I’ll leave it up to the residents to say which side this book falls on. But as I got further into the story, my appreciation for the characterization grew. It’s part of why Princeton, Owensville, and their inhabitants felt so real to me.
It’s also why I can’t qualify this as small town romance, even though it fits. Hoosier Daddy is set in a small town but it’s not like the small towns we usually encounter in this subgenre. This is a place set apart by class. Many inhabitants work at Krylon Motors. There’s a low cost of living that goes alongside lower wages. People are worried about their bills. Some people work a couple of jobs. There are fewer opportunities to move up the ladder and Friday encounters a very male-dominated leadership structure, along with workplace sexism. The story doesn’t ignore some of the harsher realities of life.
A common critique of small town romance is that it’s white and cishet. They’re these perfectly contained Hallmark bubbles, ignoring and denying any possible diversity. One would assume the same parameters would be in place in a rural romance but Hoosier Daddy sets itself apart there. Yes, there are not many LGBTQ people in Princeton but Friday isn’t the only one. There are references to other queer people. The book isn’t always PC and it doesn’t get everything right but this felt like a reflection of the town and how its inhabitants are on a spectrum of acceptance. There’s a minor character named Casey who completes in the Pork Festival pageant who appears to be questioning her sexuality and gender identity and the conversation about them is not always kind or accurate. But by and large, the townspeople are accepting of Friday, even if they don’t always understand her. Additionally, not all of the characters are white—I primarily remember Latinx characters who work at the factory. This story doesn’t dig into the racism or homophobia that exists in every American town, no matter how big or small. But I appreciated that it didn’t portray a utopian existence either.
This story turned out to be an unexpected delight and I’m so glad I gave it a chance.
CW: workplace sexual harassment, death of a coworker
Synopsis
Jill Fryman (Friday to her friends) is a line supervisor at a truck manufacturing plant in a small southern Indiana town. Life on the assembly line is almost as predictable as her love life. When it comes to matters of the heart, Friday always seems to be making the wrong choices. Things go from bad to worse when El, a sultry labor organizer from the UAW, sweeps into town to unionize the plant right after it’s been bought out by a Japanese firm. Sparks fly on and off the line as Jill and El fight their growing attraction for each other against a backdrop of monster trucks, catfish dinners, Pork Day USA, and a bar called Hoosier Daddy.
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