reviews_and_ramblings | Trapped by D.J. Manly

This is almost a modern Romeo and Juliet, better... a Romeo and Julio! Giovanni "Gio" Bianchi is the 18 years old son of a mafia boss. He doesn't like his father business but he is too young and too deep into the family to be able to repudiate his family, and so he is now in a hotel room waiting to kill the son of a Colombian drugs lord. The kill will be his initiation to the family business but will prove also wrong all the voices about him being a sissy. Actually Gio himself has no proofs that he prefers men, having had no chance to be with one. His father would have never allowed it. But Gio is in for a surprise and a definitely proof this time: Amador Vega, the man he has to kill, his in another hotel room on the opposite building with a man! And from his point of view Gio has all the chances to see him naked and in action... and he is so attracted to what he sees that he is easily distracted from the real reason why he is looking him through a binocular!

Gio is not very good at this work and Amador "Amad" Vega realizes soon that he is spied. He breaks into Gio's room while he is taking a shower and easily disarms the man and kidnaps him. Amad, like Gio, is not into his father's business, and above all, doesn't want that his father knows of his sexual preferences, like Gio, he is due to marry a woman he doesn't know as a collateral for a business contract. Obviously Gio and Amad fall in love, but it's a contrasted love and not one with an easy happily ever after.

The author plays a lot in making hard for this star written lovers to be together, but he doesn't skimp on the romance department. Actually probably this is the only part of the book that it's a bit unrealistic, but it's mitigated a bit by two factor: first, the love is not immediate, at first it's more a question of an horny and virgin to man love boy, Gio, who has the chance to be in strict quarter with a very handsome and experience man, Amad, and of course he takes advantage of it. Add to this the fact that Amad is also very good at it, and it's natural that Gio falls in love. Maybe if they had the time to grow tired of each other, maybe they would, but instead the fate torn them apart and the love remained hinted but not fulfilled. Again the author could have used the unconditionally love's card, making both Amad and Gio desperately in love and faithful till the eternity to each other, but we are talking of a teenager and a barely twenty years old guy, and so no, Gio and Amad remain in love with their heart, but not with their body, at least not till the moment they have the possibility to actually tighten a bond.

The story is about an opposed love, but it's not as tragic and dramatic as Arsenic and Rio, another book by D.J. Manly with some common elements with this one. In both books the heroes are not exactly white lilies, and sometime they are driven more by their sexual urges than their minds, but in both of them I noticed two things: there is not a forced connection between love and sex, but if it's present the sex is better; and the characters, even if behaving badly, in a way are naive and innocent, despite all, maybe since they are also so young. These are not men worn out by years of bad life, these are men young enough to have still time to redeem.

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Amazon Kindle: Trapped

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