reviews_and_ramblings | Tusks by William Maltese

William Maltese wrote three books for Harlequin Romance at the beginning of the '80 with the pen name of Willa Lambert. He actually told that he thought the stories as M/M but Harlequin was not ready for them (it is still not ready, so let you imagine 25 years ago...) and so he re-wrote the stories as F/M, to rewrite them again now like M/M. The first was Beyond Machu, then Goldsands last year, and now Tusks.

Richard and Christopher were in love 15 years ago, when Richard was only a 13 years old boy and Christopher a young man of 18 years old. The love was intense like it is when the lover are so young, but all in all was only kisses and very passionate declaration of everlasting love and also a promise of marriage... But Richard's father worked for Christopher's one, and there were contrasts between them, contrasts that drove Richard far from Christopher and ultimately killed Richard's father. For all these years Richard blamed first Christopher's father, and then, after his death, Christopher himself. Now he has the chance to see again the he loved, and obviously Christopher doesn't recognize in the nearly thirty man, the 13 years old boy of long ago, but the man he sees is someone Christopher wants now like he wanted the boy. Can Richard forgives and loves again?

All in all, I think Christopher is a martyr; he didn't do nothing, he was very in love and when Richard disappeared, he also tried to contact him by letter. It was Christopher who asked Richard to marry him, and it was Christopher who changed his habits to meet the expectations of young and innocent Richard. It was not Christopher who drove away Richard's father, but it was Christopher that Richard blames for all these years... Why? he is your perfect hero, a bit of Robert Redford in My Own Africa, and a bit of Errol Flynn of long ago. Christopher is wealthy and handsome, and he is also very gallant; maybe he treats Richard a bit too much like a "woman", but, hey, he gives presents like roses and diamonds...

Richard instead is a bit of a weathercock, he always seems to search a new reason to hate Christopher. Don't know, if I was Christopher, I would drag him in a room, lock the door, throw away the key and make love to him till he was too tired to think. And instead, in comparison to other books by William Maltese I read, sex arrives rather further on on the book. There is a long game and catch and go between Christopher and Richard, and they always seem to be irreparably torn apart, to manage to be together again soon after; but the see the consummation of their love we have to wait a bit.

Even if we have to wait for sex (!), well, we are entertaining by the setting: a wonderful Africa, described till the minimum details. Same thing you found in Beyond Machu for Peru and in Goldsand for Egypt. It is almost like William Maltese wrote a travel journal, with all the little details that only if you are there can catch.

http://www.mlrpress.com/ShowBook.php?book=TUSKS001

Amazon: Tusks
Amazon Kindle: Tusks
Paperback: 284 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (April 6, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 097931108X
ISBN-13: 978-0979311086

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