Fertile Valley 1 by Virgil Knightley & Annabelle Hawthorne Review
Hey, you crazy cats and kittens. Step into the spear line with me as we talk about the most recent #HaremLit book that I’ve read! This book was a fun farm building LitRPG story. I never thought this style of gamified books would be for me, but I love Virgil’s books, so I gave it a chance. I am not sorry that I did, this was amazing! This book had everything, hot girls, a fun harem dynamic and all of the fantastical shenanigans you could ask for from a harvest goddess. So, join me on this crazy adventure and dive into the deep end of crazy with me, Lance Spears!
Book Title: Fertile Valley 1
Author: Virgil Knightley & Annabelle Hawthorne
Narrator: Boise Blue & Aurora Bliss
Audio Publisher: Royal Guard Publishing
eBook Price: $2.99 USD
Audiobook Price: $29.66 USD or one Audible Credit
Whisper Sync Pricing: $10.48 USD
Pages: 418
Audiobook Length: 10 Hours 10 Minutes
Keywords: Fertile Valley, Goddess, Harvest Goddess, Freya, Viking, Lactation, Breastfeeding, Magic, Farming, Farm, Dad, Mom, Parenting, Fatherhood, Dog, Pet, Pixie, Fairy, Harem, Lit, Mythical Creatures, Action & Adventure, Fishing, Dark Mines, Chosen One, Destiny, Fertility Pixies, Cock sleeve, Pocket Pussy, Prodigal Pete, City Pete, Country girl, Goth chic, Country life, Redhead, Fitness Guru, Waif, Pig Tails, Dark Elf, Curse, Dark Queen, Chicken, Chicken farm, MMORPG, RPG
Summary
Peter Busch-McGinley is a self-employed handyman in Max City. For the last eight years, life has been a downward spiral of loneliness and self-loathing. But that's about to change...
Peter's second chance comes at the cost of his very last family member. Grandpa Joe passed away, leaving him a farm in Mineral Village. Although Pete is filled with regret about missing his grandfather's end, he decides to accept his inheritance and start a new life in the village where he spent every summer as a child. But things aren't what they seem.
Pete is soon approached by the patron deity of the Fertile Valley and Mineral Village—the self-described Harvest Goddess. She reveals his destiny as her chosen one, the man who will save Fertile Valley by marrying its available women. As shocking as that is, the real surprise comes from his childhood friend, Queenie.
They have a daughter.
Can Pete navigate his new destiny alongside his new role as a parent? Can he become the kind of person his grandfather would be proud of? Or will the Queen of the Mines figure out how to corrupt him?
The summary by these authors was spot on! They gave us a hint of what to expect, showed their authorial tone, and generally made me want to read this book. The kick-ass cover helped, but the blurb sold it for me. Although, to be fair, I’d read anything from Virgil Knightley at this point, so I came at this novel expecting to want to read it and the blurb delivered.
Characters
The characters in this story are compelling, and like with most harem stories, the final product is better than the sum of its parts. The story is mostly told through the eyes of our main character, Peter. We did spend some time in the head of the women in his life, but those were the exception. Still, it was more than we normally see in this genre, and I really appreciated it. I’ll break down the individual characters, but overall, I loved all of the ensemble cast.
Peter Busch-McGinley: He is the main character of this series and starts book one at approximately 29 years old. He spent his childhood summers in the Fertile Valley working on his grandfather’s farm. He had ties to the land, giving to a ‘prodigal son’ vibe to this novel. Like many people in his situation, Peter left the small town to chase dreams in the city. He ultimately found that life to be unfulfilling and regretted those life decisions. The death of his grandfather, Grandpa Joe, was the impetuous for his return to the Fertile Valley. Peter seized the moment and returned to his roots, wanting to make a living in the valley. Luckily, he inherited the family farm and a million dollars. With things going badly for him in Max City and his struggle with his sex addiction, he sought a fresh beginning.
Those decisions were definitely affected by his desire to connect with the daughter he didn’t know that he had. Realistically, it was also partly to escape his sex addiction in the city. We learn through the course of this story that Peter’s sex addiction wasn’t truly an addiction, so much as his fertility gift not translating well outside of the Fertile Valley. Without the protection of the harvest goddess, he struggled to process the boon the goddess had gifted him.
During his time living in Max City, he dropped out of college because he was shiftless and didn’t know where he fit in the world. Having been accepted into higher education, we know that Peter has some level of intelligence. After leaving school, he made his living as an unlicensed handyman. That detail was key, making him a jack of all trades. Thus, Peter’s ability to run the farm and bring it back from the brink of decay seems plausible. Too often in literature, characters have skills that don’t make sense for their backstory. That isn’t the case with this novel.
Overall, there’s a lot to like about Peter. He seems like the kind of dude you’d want to hang out with. I’d love to meet him at Yvette’s Pub for a drink, which is something that I like about my main characters. He’s not Superman, but he’s a reliable man-next-door. Someone who does the right thing when the chips are down.
At first, Peter struggles with the Harvest Goddesses’ gifts. He was tasked with the quest to repopulate the valley. He was instructed to form a harem and make a lot of babies. Through his reluctance to be non-monogamous, we see that he wasn’t just a horn dog in it for the sex. Nope, he really did want a relationship with the women he was engaging in coitus with. It took him a little bit to understand that he could have both romance and sex with multiple women in this valley. I liked that about him. I also enjoyed his dynamic with the various fairies and pixies in the novel. His reluctance with them illustrated that, at his core, he was a standup dude.
Harvest Goddess: She’s the harvest goddess of the Fertile Valley with ties to her old name, Freya. She was brought to America by the Vikings, where her essence was trapped in one of her symbols of power. She stayed and made the valley her home. When her other Viking gods and goddesses faded away, she remained as simply the harvest goddess and specialized in fertility (human and nature). She’s trapped in this valley, but she seems content there. She maintains her presence via her statues, and sometimes comes to life in physical form to engage with the locals. Physically, she was the embodiment of feminine perfection and had the right curves in all of the best places. Birthing hips, ample breasts, you know… goddess things. It was hinted that she looks differently for different people, but we don’t know for sure. She was more of a peripheral but guiding player in this book, but I think we’ll see more of her in later novels.
Queenie Luna: She is the daughter of Liz, the Mineral Town mayor and the mother of Kylie Anne. She was Peter’s childhood romantic partner, and she had been in love with him since she was eight. She did keep his daughter from him at her mother’s request, so there are trust issues to overcome. There were larger things at play with that decision, given Peter’s role in the story, but I am trying to avoid spoilers. Even with all of that, I still liked her and was rooting for them. Physically, she has blond, shoulder length hair that she mainly keeps in a ponytail. Part of her country girl charm, I think. She has a curvy body, yet is described as slim, but with a loveable womanly shape. Her blue eyes never ceased to captivate Peter, when he wasn’t distracted by her other parts, that is. Her relationship with him felt equal parts old friends and old married couple. Except there was a lot of underlying tension from their past experience and shared history. As a father myself, I had a hard time with this character. Keeping Peter from his daughter for those 8 years is unconscionable to me. That is one big hurdle to overcome, but her redemption arc did a good job of rehabilitating her.
Elizabeth “Liz” Luna: She’s Queenie’s hot mother and Kylie’s grandmother. Curves in all of the right places, someone Peter self-described as having the peak feminine form. She’s the mayor of Mineral City and the high priestess of town’s church to the Harvest Goddess. She was a character that existed more in the periphery than on screen, so I’m not really sure what to make of her. But the mystery was fun, and I didn’t mind how she was portrayed.
Missy Sanford: She’s the daughter of Chelsea Sandford, who owns the town gym. She went to college out of the valley, but she returned to her roots upon graduation. Peter only remembered her as the skinny, pimply-faced teenager obsessed with aerobics DVDs, whom he used to babysit. She grew into her body, though, and was a super attractive woman who could be a fitness model. She is an online fitness guru and runs her mom’s gym, teaching exercise classes to the locals. She prefers to rock her toned body in yoga pants and sports bra, the “just from the gym” look is her schtick. Luckily, Peter doesn’t seem to mind. Her perfect face was sharp, with a clear complexion and a set of six-pack abs. One of her quirks is that she refers to Peter as ‘City Pete,’ because he’d always visit and return to Max City where he lived with his parents who’d left the valley. She’s obsessed with Peter and has been since she was a kid. He isn’t much older than her, but he babysat her when they were kids. She is about 24 as the novel starts and ready to chase her dream of being his housewife and spitting out a few kids for him. As a character, she was all sexy red flags and stalker vibes, but I liked it. She’s the first time I’ve seen trillions of green flags and trillions of red flags all at once in one love interest. Man, maybe I need therapy!
Darlene Copeland: She’s one of Peter’s women and has a dream of starting and running the Mineral City Museum. She had a crush on him as a kid, when he used to babysit her. Her brother Dale, however, hated Peter and thought he was no good. That didn’t stop Darlene from wanting Peter. She lives in a trailer and has some white trash tendencies, but in all of the best ways. She’s best friends with Missy, whom she experimented with as teenagers, though she didn’t like lesbian sex. They were just so starved of cocks, since few men lived in the city. She lived the off-grid life, well off-grid lite. As from her dream of Peter and a museum, she desperately wants to become one of the priestesses of the Harvest Goddess. As a character, she was a lot of fun, I liked the sassy ginger vibes she sent off. She’s a freckle-faced redhead, rocking the cute pig tails that accent her emerald-green eyes. She’s a skinny woman, with a petite frame and worries about her smaller bust. Peter, however, reassures her that her tits are a perfect mouthful. What I liked most about her was how down to earth she was and the opposite of materialistic. She’s equally at home cooking dinner around a campfire as she is eating in some fancy restaurant.
Kylie Anne Luna: She’s the 8-year-old daughter of Queenie and Peter. She was fun to see on screen, a breath of cute, childish antics. However, she was written more toddler than elementary school kid. That could be due to how she was voiced, or maybe not? Given how magical the valley is, this could work if they age slower there. We don’t know the extent of the valley’s effects, so I’ll defer judgement on that until book two.
Becca Sue MacIntyre: She’s the skinny goth girl who runs the Mineral City flower shop. She was a petite and like all of the women in the Fertile Valley, she’s more attractive than what’s good for her. There was a lot to say about her, but that would be spoilers, but let’s just say that her character arc was fun to watch and I’m looking forward to seeing her in book two.
Cindy Clarkson: She’s the daughter of Yvette Clarkson, who owns and runs the pub in Mineral City. That eating establishment is named after her and serves as the town gathering place. Cindy works at Yvette’s Pub as a jack of all trades; waitress, cook and delivery driver. She seems to have narcolepsy, which isn’t explained in the first novel, though I suspect that we’re going to see those answers in the second novel. It’s set up that I think that she’s going to join Peter’s harem, but that has not happened yet.
Plot and Pacing
First, let’s talk about the plot of this novel. It was very simple, the main character, Peter, has to go to the Fertile Valley and reproduce. He has to get his thing on with a bunch of women and make babies. But not with one woman, no, he must go and fertilize as many wombs as possible. And if that wasn’t fun enough, he must sexually service the fairies and pixies of the valley. In doing so, he empowers them to facilitate the quest to save the valley. But wait, there’s more! The sex with those magical beings also impowered him. That plus up to his RPG stats allowed him to maintain the farm he’d inherited. He was tasked with doing this by using old school methods and eschewing modern technology. Speaking of roleplaying games, this novel is set against the backdrop of a farming sim RPG. I found the entire premise or plot of this novel to be highly enjoyable. The stakes were low, but I was hooked from the first page.
Another consideration for this novel was its pacing. In that respect, these two authors really showed their skills. The plot was simple, but Virgil Knightley and Annabelle Hawthorne kept us engaged throughout the course of this story. At first, this book was about Peter re-engaging with his old girlfriend and his newly discovered daughter. Then the plot expanded outwards, as he met the various women Mineral City. Those townies were women he’d known tangentially during his childhood. From there, his tasks continually grew; he hunted for fairies and pixies to free, he farmed his land, and he improved his cabin. There was plenty of slice of life action, with intermissions for sex with everybody and normal action that resulted from the Dark Queen and Dale subplots. Those served to keep the story churning along. Overall, I thought that the authors killed it and made such a simple concept fun. It was nice to have such an enjoyable concept that was a relatively stress-free free read.
Audiobook Quality
I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, and it was perfectly done. I shouldn’t be surprised that Virgil Knightley and Royal Guard Publishing put together a Grade-A production. The narrators, Boise Blue and Aurora Bliss, did an amazing job. I’ve never listened to their works before, but they definitely go on the list of folks I’d listen to again! I don’t know if they’ve ever worked together before this series, but this felt natural. I really thought I was sitting around the coffee table, drink some good brews while my friends told me a kick-ass yarn. They did a good job of setting the mood and tone for the various parts of the story.
Sizzle Factor
Now, let’s dive into the reason we’re all here! Let’s talk about the sex scenes in this novel, of which there were several. They were unique from anything I’ve read so far, though others are more widely read in this genre than I am. The sex in this book was mostly between Peter and the various minuscule pixies and fairies that floated around the Fertile Valley. There were some coital engagements where they remained with their womanly forms, but they remained in their miniature sizes. They acted as almost a living flesh-light, or a cock sleave. It was weird, and not something that tickles my fancy, but the writing was well done. Even better, it created a sense of otherworldliness that lent itself to the idea that the valley was magical. There were a few times where Peter had relations with his human women, specifically Missy and Queenie, but those were experienced in less detail. I would almost rather have seen more between him and his humans, than him in the fairies. That said, the story was engaging enough that I didn’t really care, I was invested in Peter’s quest. Overall, I wouldn’t say that any of this was extremely sizzle worthy, but it wasn’t horrific either. In that respect, it was a wash for me. Not a negative, not a positive, just a neutral. But, let me reiterate, the scenes that were there were well written. I know that many readers found them to be hotter than the surface of the sun!
Overall
First, I’ll open that I listened to this book instead of reading it on page or screen. The audiobook narrators were amazing and made the book really pop for me. The entire time I was taking my nature walks; I had a smile on my face from the sheer enjoyment of this novel. This was one of the most enjoyable listening experiences that I’ve had in a long time. I can’t say that any more strongly, I loved this book, and I think you will too.
The first thing that I noticed about this novel was how well-written the prose is. Normally, my own writing style is very workmanlike, and I appreciate that in others. Sometimes authors try to impress me with their verbiage, to the point where it felt like they were abusing their thesaurus. That was not the case here. This book felt very much like we were reading a book written by someone with an extensive vocabulary. When these two authors used words that I’d never heard before, it felt natural. Yeah, I had to look up a few of them but I didn’t mind at all. These two definitely made me want to restart those word of the day challenges I did in college. I need to catch up with Virgil and Annabelle, increasing my vocabulary past the four-letter words I learned in the Army.
Another thing that I enjoyed about this novel were the place names they used for everything. The main location was Fertile Valley with the two cities being Mineral City and Max City. They were so generically anime/videogame-esq that I didn’t have to take the story too seriously. It also meant we didn’t have the stress of placing the story anywhere specific on the globe. Even better, the names made me smile when I heard it the first time. Maybe even a slight chuckle, but shh, that’s a secret. I normally prefer more serious plots and locations, but it worked for the tone of this novel, and I was there for it!
Moving on, another thing that I noticed in this novel was the amount of winking that the girls in this these books do. I’ve realized that it must be Virgil thing, because you see winking and biting in almost everything he produces. That, and some blushing on the girls. Not a complaint though, I don’t mind! At this point, when I read his books, I start looking for them like I’m hunting for Easter Eggs!
One thing that I really enjoyed about this book was how relaxed everything felt. This was a thoroughly enjoyable novel, it almost felt like a harem equivalent of the cozy mystery as a setting. That doesn’t mean that the cast wasn’t varied, because I felt like we had a diversity of character archetypes. The plot felt laid-back, and I was there for it. No explosions that would in the world, no dragons trying to eat people, just a dude getting his nut off and making some babies to save the valley. I can’t wait for the book 2 audiobook to come out! I really should start banking money now, because at this rate Virgil Knightley is going to bankrupt me!
To wrap this book review up, I want to impart on you all that Fertile Valley Book 1 was the perfect combination of a farming and dating simulation that is intermixed with the witty humor that Virgil and Annabelle deliver. More than the humor, there was plenty of the fluffy goodness that will bring a smile to your face. This slice of life adventure was interesting, and I loved the characters. I think you will too, so give this book a chance!
There’s so much more I’d like to say about this book, but we don’t allow spoilers to slip through our spear line. So, with that… I’ll wrap this one up and put it to bed. As we close, I’d like to request that if you loved this book too, go over to Amazon and leave a review. This is a small thing, but it really does help authors find visibility in the algorithms that rule us all. Since I’m hooked on this genre, I want the creators I’m growing to love to be able to give us more of this literary crack that’s piped straight into my earholes!
Check out the reviews on my Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/lancespears/p/fertile-valley-1-by-virgil-knightley?r=70njf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true