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    In My Father's House: A Novel
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    In My Father's House: A Novel
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    In My Father's House: A Novel
    Ebook341 pages7 hours

    In My Father's House: A Novel

    By E. Lynn Harris

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    For his final new series, New York Times mega-bestselling author E. Lynn Harris introduces Bentley L. Dean, owner of the hottest modeling agency in Miami's sexy South Beach.


    Only the world's most beautiful models make the roster of Picture Perfect Modeling agency and they only do shoots for the most elite photographers and magazines. They are fashionista royalty—and the owners, Bentley L. Dean and his beautiful partner Alexandra, know it. But even Picture Perfect isn't immune from hard times, so when Sterling Sneed, a rich, celebrity party planner promises to pay a ludicrously high fee for some models, Bentley finds he can't refuse. Even though the job is not exactly a photo shoot, Bentley agrees to supply fifteen gorgeous models as eye candy for an "A" list party—to look good, be charming and, well, entertain the guests. They don't have to do anything they don't want to, but...

    His models are pros and he figures they can handle the pressure, until one drops out and Bentley asks his protégé Jah, a beautiful kid who Bentley treats as if he were his own son, to substitute. Suddenly, the stakes are much higher, particularly when Jah falls in love with the hottest African American movie star in America. Seth Sinclair is very handsome, very famous, and very married—and his closeted gay life makes him very dangerous as well. Can Bentley's fatherly guidance save Jah from making a fatal mistake?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJun 22, 2010
    ISBN9781429921107
    Unavailable
    In My Father's House: A Novel
    Author

    E. Lynn Harris

    E. Lynn Harris, a #1 national and New York Times bestselling author, wrote twelve acclaimed novels including Basketball Jones, Just Too Good to Be True, and I Say a Little Prayer. There are more than four million copies of his novels in print. He died in 2009 at the age of 54.

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    Reviews for In My Father's House

    3.5/5

    18 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I actually have this mindset that reading E Lynn Harris's work will be like reading his other work again. Same theme. Closets, closets, closets and nasty divas. However, I still enjoy reading his novels because he knew how to entertain the readers. I enjoy his light writing. Well, there is no nasty diva in this novel, and I was surprised I liked this novel more than his other better acclaimed work. For one, I did not feel like Bentley was a self-pity guy. He made decision that affected the relationship with his father. He took a stand. It was interesting to read the hardship he faced.Some of the characters sounded so yummy. I liked Daniel, and would have loved to see another action between Daniel and Bentley. I thought Ramon's character was wasted because nothing more was shared on him. I did not like how Seth was formed. A famous director/actor in the same league as Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Will Smith? These three are not directors and I cannot accept the idea of an actor who is also a director, bigger than these three. I was curious what they would do to Jah, but obviously that was avoided. Funny. It sounded horrific but no details. And I wish that none was going around in a circle, but it did - how Seth was linked to almost anything bad that Bentley was facing.I did like the touch on the relationship between Bentley and his father.Will miss his work. How many yummy guys can fit into one book? Apparently, and luckily, in E Lynn Harris's book, limitless.
    • 4/5
      Received 07 Jul 2010 - LibraryThing Early Reviewers programmeMy being white, female, straight and English did not stem my enjoyment of this novel about black gay men in America, and presumably this was why I was picked to receive this book. I've read and enjoyed Harris' books for some time now and was very pleased to win this one. It was a fairly quick read. The main character, Bentley, is a man who is trying to stay moral and just in a world that tries to encourage just the opposite. In conflict with his father, who dislikes his "life choices", he sets up his own business away from the riches of the family firm. When recession hits and it's a struggle to keep going, he feels forced to take on a job for his modelling agency that he wouldn't normally touch, supplying men for a private party. He has bad feelings, especially when his mentee, Jah, becomes involved, but squashes them for the sake of the money. Now, you wouldn't maybe expect a novel about modelling agencies and gay men who indulge in all sorts of practices (and some of it is a bit explicit, which doesn't bother me but might be worth mentioning), to be a particularly moral read, and indeed the dust jacket plays up the glamour and risk, but it's actually all about mentoring, fatherhood (of various kinds), doing the right thing, keeping safe, and love.Being set at the time of the Obama election and the credit crunch offers an interesting dimention to this novel and it's up to date in its use of facebook and texting as plot devices, without this seeming laboured. Some characters are not rounded enough for me, and the ending seemed a bit sudden - but the back of the jacket implies that this was supposed to be the first in a series featuring Bentley and his modelling agency. Tragically, the author died after completing this book, so this won't happen.A good read with momentum given by the thriller-y plot, some satisfyingly twisty sub-plots, and depth given by the probing questions of Bentley's therapist.
    • 4/5
      After coming out to his wealthy Detroit family, Bentley L. Dean III moved to Miami and opened Picture Perfect -- one of the hottest African-American modeling agencies in South Beach. Times are tough, though -- both economically and on the romantic front. With companies slowing down, not many are in need of models; Bentley could ask his Father or Mother for a little financial help, but he worries that they aren't ready to forgive him for coming out. Things could be turning around, though, when he reluctantly agrees to allow some of his male models to be eye candy at an exclusive men-only party on Star Island.As for a relationship, he called off his wedding to be with Warren, the man he loved, only to be dumped in turn after moving to Miami. At the party on Star Island, Bentley runs into Warren and hopes to re-ignite what they once had. But when one of Bentley's younger models named Jah falls head over heels for the host of the party, a movie mogul on the "down low" named Seth Sinclair, and he learns of some rough dealings that involved Sinclair's former boi, Bentley fears for Jah's safety and begins to question what exactly Warren's role in this whole scheme is.E. Lynn Harris' "In My Father's House" took me into a different side of the gay world, that of the closeted, or "down low", black men. On the public side, they have families, well-paying jobs, the respect of the community; on the private side, they attend exclusive parties, hoping for a little action with a hot man or boi. At all times, they're on guard, doing whatever it takes to keep their secret lives a secret, damn the consequences. Throw in Bentley L. Dean III into the mix, handsome and confident with his own sexuality, and the tensions simmer and boil over until someone makes a wrong move.Bentley's inner struggles with regards to his family -- and more specifically, his father -- weave nicely into the tale. He came out to them in order to be true to himself and to his family, but now, isn't sure of his place. Do they still love me? Will they help me if I reach out to them? So many gay men and women deal with those questions, I found it comforting to follow a character dealing with those issues on a realistic level and not like a melodrama."In My Father's House" is definitely a beach read, something to sit with for a few hours, get caught up in the story and just have as much fun as you can. The intertwining stories -- finding work for the modeling agency; testing the waters of love after a bad breakup; the secret parties of high-powered closeted gay black men; Bentley's struggle with his relationship with his father -- made for a book that I couldn't put down once I started.
    • 4/5
      Even in his absence, the late E. Lynn Harris keeps us on our toes with his latest novel In My Father's House released June 22nd. In the first installment of this highly anticipated three part series, Harris introduces us to Bentley Dean. Bentley is educated, handsome, and born into an aristocratic family. However, all goes flying into limbo when Bentley decides to be true to himself and discontinue his days of living in denial. In exchange for his honesty, Bentley is disowned by his father and loses his share of the seven-figure inheritance intended for him and his sister, Anna. Bruised but not broken, Bentley packs up and soon finds himself in Miami building his own empire, Picture Perfect Modeling agency along with his business partner, Alexandra. Life is going good for Bentley until the economy takes it toll on the modeling industry and Bentley resorts to robbing Peter to pay Paul. Will Bentley break and decide that living a lie with an inheritance is better than living in truth while struggling to make payroll? It all unfolds page by page and will definitely leave readers wanting to read more from the Bentley Dean series. My reviewI have to be honest. I was afraid to read this book until I found out that E. Lynn Harris HAD indeed finished this one himself. I wasn't sure if I could take someone finishing his work by adding to it or taking away from it. After I found out that he finished this one himself before he died then it was a go. From the moment I picked up this novel I fell back in love with the E. Lynn Harris that stole my heart with his first novel Invisible Life. In Invisible Life, Harris was able to create the original persona of the "Down-Low" brother before we attached the tag Down-Low to him. Now that we know about the Down-Low brother and the sometimes complicated lives he leads, Harris revisits the topic with modern twists such as family denial, homophobia, and HIV/AIDS. This book was a quick read for me and I often caught my self racing to get from chapter to chapter to see what would happen next. The characters were well developed and left me kind of upset when the story ended. I was literally looking at the last page saying, "Really E. Lynn? Really?" Yes, I know I got it bad. Really bad.So needless to say, I was sad when the end came. I was left wondering if I would get to read the next two novels in the Bentley Dean series. I will say this, if Harris' estate and the publisher can come to terms on whether to print the remainder of the series I would like for it to remain as he left it. If he only wrote half of the next book then release that untouched except for minor editing. I will respect that more than another author attempting to sound like The E. Lynn Harris.
    • 3/5
      As regular readers of Harris's books will expect, "In My Father's House" is very light reading. It's an enjoyable read, good for the beach perhaps. It's more fantasy than novel, as Harris goes to great lengths with each character he introduces that she or he is fabulously rich, blindingly gorgeous, or both. This went on past absurdity -- if the book were a movie, there would be a drinking game marking every time it drew attention to an ostentatious detail. Players would also drink at the word "boi," which appears on average about once a page, to the exclusion of "boy."Also distracting were a number of editing failures that give the impression that Harris isn't as literate as the average novelist. As an example, witness page 155: "money is no option." If neither Harris nor his editor knows the idiom well enough to know that it has to be "money is no object" to even make sense, then Harris needs to find a more capable editor.