Review: Lethal Obsession: Caged by Michele L. Montgomery
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2011
When I started this novel I did wonder if the characters I was reading about where realistic, it was not much that they were gay and married (I suppose they tied the knot in Massachusetts), but one of them was so flamboyant to be almost a caricature. But more I read about Paul and Nicholas's life and more I realized that they did remember me a real-life same-sex couple; now I don't want to do names, but I had the chance to meet online a writer (he is famous to be the author of the first gay gothic romance, back in the '70) and to exchange some emails with him; from titbits here and there I could imagine him living in his big home in the Hamptons, full of books and antique furniture, an home he is sharing with his long-term partner, and in this case long term means really looong, they are together from the '60, they met in college and never parted way after that. Even if nor him or his partner (poet and novelist) are still active in the publishing industry, they still like to host dinner parties gathering the gotha of the literary field.So no, Paul, and above all flamboyant Nicholas are not unrealistic characters, they are only people living a privileged life, something that I, sincerely, cannot imagine since it's so far from "my" reality, but my reality is only a little part of the known world. Once I realized that, I started to enjoy them but above all their little Christian, a spoiled brat that was way too cute and so above any possible judgement. Christian is Paul and Nicholas's son, born from a surrogate mother, and he has always been the joy of his fathers' eyes. Even before he escaped from a kidnapping attempt when he was 5 years old, Nicholas always fretted above him, and so it's only natural that, when it's time for the boy to find a partner, the fathers prefer to "give" him to a family friend than a perfect stranger.Paul and Nicholas have always known Lucca, the son of a couple of friends, and so he is the perfect candidate; and it doesn't hurt that both Christian than Lucca are attracted by each other. The only issue in this perfect setting is that Christian needs probably a stronger hand than Paul, Nicholas or Lucca.I need to warn the readers, the novel starts in a "pink glasses", puppy and cuddling way to have a suddenly deep dark turn one third of the path. In a way I had just adjusted to the more than sugary atmosphere and then I was thrown into a nightmare: it was a bit unsettling, and giving that I'm not that into the BDSM world, above all not when it's edging more toward torture than passion, I'm not so sure I completely like the feeling. I think the author was a little "sadistic", cuddling us in cotton candy and kisses, to then throwing us in a dungeon of the nightmare variety.When the things go awry, Lucca calls for reinforcements, and they arrive in the shape of Carl, Lucca's previous lover (and Master) and also Tony and Ryan, the main characters of the previous novella by the same author, even if the two story are almost completely detached and so can be easily read as standalone.