reviews_and_ramblings | Life Class by Scarlet Blackwell

The cover is really good, and indeed, if the one character on it is Ryan, it has also some meaning, since this is the story of a young man whose only livelihood is his body. But Ryan has not the meek behaviour of someone who is aware of his limits, on the contrary, he has a lively character, inflammable, and he is often ready to burst, even when it means that he will not eat or pay the rent for the following month.

Ryan’s story is quite typical, an average intelligent boy who always associated with the wrong people, and he arrived to the edge between youth and adulthood without having learned his lessons. He spent all his twenty years doing spare time jobs usually for students or teenager and obviously they didn’t allow him to build a solid future. His lucky, and damnation, is his good looks: he thought to use his good exterior working as life model for drawing classes, but the step between being a model for a class of students, to being a model for desperate housewives, and then something else, is very short. Without really being willing, or consciously take the decision, Ryan becomes a whore, but unfortunately for him, not an high paid one: Ryan is too irascible and proud to being a good one, he more time than not, refuses to concede his body if the person on the other side of the bargain inadvertently pushes his wrong buttons.

Harley is one of the artists who hire Ryan. And the only man so far. Through, Harley is really a painter, and he really wants to do a male nude, and Ryan is the perfect model, but it’s also true that Harley heard of Ryan’s reputation, and he is wondering if maybe, Ryan will be willing with a man as he was for women. Harley is not a desperate lonely man who has to pay for sex, on the contrary he is pretty cute, wealthy and with a lot of admirers, but he is fascinated by Ryan. For of all he was by Ryan’s stunning body, but then also by the complex man inside that beautiful container. Not that Ryan proves to have a clever mind, but behind his irascible behaviour there is a little boy who wants to be protected and cuddled.

The strange thing is that, Harley, other than being very wealth, doesn’t resemble at all the Prince Charming that usually swept away the Pretty Woman. Harley himself is someone who inspires protection, and that is probably the only reason why Ryan allows him to hire his services: the good man behind the hard exterior that Ryan presents to the world doesn’t want to hurt Harley, Ryan is not able to be firm and strong, and to refuse Harley; mainly since he can’t allow himself to do that, but also since Harley is too fragile and clueless to bounce back Ryan’s blows (material and immaterial).

In the end, I’m not really sure if Ryan really loves Harley, or if instead, he is accepting the unavoidable: Harley is a safe haven, he is kind and gentle, and Ryan can love him… this doesn’t mean that he loves him.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/life-class

Amazon Kindle: Life Class

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