reviews_and_ramblings | Romentics: Nothing Personal by Scott & Scott

Nothing Personal by real life couple Scott&Scott is more a mainstream novel than a romance. Actually the romance in it is a bit overshadowed by the life journey of one of the character, the Cuban-American Carlo Batista.

At the beginning of the novel, Carlo is a mid-twenty normal gay guy; like a lot average guys, he went to college and gain a white collar job in an insurance call center. He has friends and ex lovers, and he follows the floods; one of this flood brings him in front of the building where politicians are voting a ban against gay marriage... and they win. Carlo, maybe for the first time, realizes that politics can influence his life and not in the best way. An attempt to change things without being too much involved doesn't bring much and so Carlo decides to enter the ring: he opposes to the Democrats candidate to be the Democrat representative.

Carlo is not a political animal, he is mostly a man throws in something bigger than him; gathered around him is a disparate election committee, made up of friends, and not, with different minds but whose personal interests draw them together. Carlo begins to convince people that he is serious, when he himself is not sure of it. Meanwhile his relationship with Brian Gallagher, his new boyfriend, is getting serious too, even if Carlo doesn't know a lot about Gallagher, and Gallagher at once is supportive of his political campaign and soon after refuses to be too much involved.

Carlo and Gallagher's relationship is strange, since it starts abruptly, so abruptly that the reader realizes that they have a sexual relationship from little hints and not since he had the chance to read something about it; there is a scene in which Carlo is thinking to call Gallagher to ask the guy out, and few pages after, Carlo and Gallagher are steadily dating, and probably something is happening between them... I was a bit disoriented, I even went back some pages to actually check if I missed to read something... Maybe the fact is that the focus of the novel is not the romance between Carlo and Gallagher, but more Carlo's growth as independent man. And to be independent, Carlo couldn't focus on Gallagher.

While we know about everything about Carlo, we know very little about Gallagher. He remains a mystery almost till the end, not only about his life, but also about his feelings for Carlo. Gallagher is strange, since he made things that are very tender, like bringing Carlo to know his family, but then he never gives any details on his life and feeling. Despite this, speaking of the romance, I prefer Gallagher's character, I feel like he is more involved on a personal level than Carlo. I really feel Carlo like a man following the flood, both in politics than love, but maybe this is due to the fact that he is still so young.

Anyway the book is a bit of a surprise, quite different from the others I read by the same authors, but not a negative one; only be warned, to be not disappointed from the lack of heavy romance aspects, usually so frequent in the Romentics novels.

http://www.loose-id.com/Romentics-Nothing-Personal.aspx

Amazon: Nothing Personal (A Romentics Novel)

Reading List:

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Cover Art by Michael Breyette