Tony & Ryan by Michele L. Montgomery
Tony & Ryan was a little difficult read to wrap my mind around; at first I thought it was a book in a series and maybe the problem was I hadn’t read the previous books, but I did a quick search on the net and discovered instead this is book 1 in a new series, Lethal Obsession. That made me ponder on the novella: the feeling was really like some of those Christmas novella authors write with their favorite characters from a series gathering all together for some happy event; it’s something quite typical in the romance genre, and the readers buy the book more since they are fan than for the book itself. That is also the reason why usually authors don’t give much details on the background of the characters, since the length is short (novella) and the characters are a lot (all the main characters from the previous book).
When the story starts, not only Tony & Ryan have already a relationship, they also have a past together; and so have all the supporting character, three brothers of Ryan, one friend, and their wives and girlfriends. As the author highlights, Ryan is the only gay brother and for this reason I feal a bit of detachment in him, like he has some unresolved issues with his family; it’s not a lack of love, the love is there and it’s mutual, but Ryan has self-esteem issues, the wrong concept that being gay makes him a lesser man than his brothers, even if he is the second oldest.
Ab absurbo, he has not really chosen the right partner if he wants to play being a macho man, Tony is a mountain of a man who would make feel small the majority of the men around. And sincerely Ryan loves his big guy (that is Tony’s nickname) and when they are alone he is all for being the needy bottom in their relationship.
From a beginning that was light and sexy, the story takes an abrupt turn towards angst; everything Ryan fears comes true and the two men start a race to who is more guilty: I felt a lot of unresolved issues between them, issues that you have to add to the one Ryan already had with his family… that is probably the proof that he is not weak, a lesser man would have surrendered to the weight of all that guilty.
I’m still not convinced this is a first book in a series, true, I did a quick research and I don’t know all the backlist by Michele L. Montgomery, but or she wrote something before and didn’t publish it, or she is using this story as an appetizer, to entice the reader to wanting more, and in this case the wanting is not for something after, but for the story that was before. By the way, for the fans of het romance, she has good material for at least 2 stories if not more.
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Amazon Kindle: Tony & Ryan (Lethal Obsession)
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