Forever Today by Willa Okati

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Every book by Willa Okati, short or long, contemporary or paranormal, all of them have a rather poetic taste, a fable flavour. And then this one is dearer to me since it's setting in Italy.

Rick is a scottish travel reporter (we just met him in another book by Willa, Enough to Let You Go, he is the young virgin man who falls in love with Paul); now he is a thirty something old man and he is travelling in Italy to write a travel guide about the Tuscany vineyards. In one of his research he meets Adriano, the only heir to a wealthy family of vine-growers. Adriano is handsome and daring, sexy and forward. He draws Rick in a blissful relationship only to break his heart when he confesses that he must marry to produce an heir to the family.

Now Rick lives alone in a deserted villa, almost like an hermit, waiting for his broken heart to mend and for the need of money to rise. He tries to convince himself that he hates Adriano and that he doesn't want to see him no more, but when he finds the man unconscious on his doorstep, he can only bring it home. Adriano seems to suffer of amnesia, he doesn't recognize Rick, and the only things he knows is that he wants and needs to find his true love, "Rick". And like an happy child, when he understands that the man who finds him and his true love are the same person, he clings to Rick like a starving baby.

When Rick contacts Adriano's father to inform that his son needs help, he is coldly informed that Adrian was disowned and Rick can take him if he wants. And so Rick is faced with a choice: try to find a way for Adriano to regain his memories, or take him like that, needing of nothing else than Rick's love, forever an innocent lover happy only to be by Rick's side.

The book is very sweet and tender, sometime playful, sometime intense, but never sad. Rick is a very good and caring man, he is for all the book a perfect man: gentle, loving and open, almost too open, putting his heart on stake and risking to be deeply hurt. Adriano is a bit of a spoilt man: he has always had everything he wants, money, fast cars and lovers. He doesn't think twice before involving Rick in a relationship he knows will lead to nothing if not a broken heart, he always wants more and more. But as in every fable worthy of its name, a sudden event makes Adriano realizes that he just had what he truly wants and that he lost it. The following Adriano is like a newborn baby, all happy smile and open heart: from commanding man he becomes the man in need of a firmer hand. Don't know if I like better the former or the latter, maybe a mix of the two it would be perfect.

A not so long story, less than 150 pages, but enjoyable and light. Once you start it, you easily will not close it before the end, and you will do that with an happy smile on your face, the same happy smile that Adriano found.

http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=730

Series:
1) Enough to Let You Go: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/167057.html
2) Forever Today

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Artist by April Martinez