Reviewed by Elizabetta
TITLE: Guns N Boys: Book 1, Part 1
AUTHOR: KA Merikan
PUBLISHER: self published
LENGTH: 110,000 words (about 250 pages)
BLURB:
— Love is sour like a Sicilian lemon. —
The Family is always right.
The Family doesn’t forget.
The Family pays for blood in blood.
Domenico Acerbi grew up in the shade of Sicilian lemon trees ready to give his life for the Family. Ready to follow orders and exceed expectations. A proud man of honor.
When Seth, the younger son of the Don is kidnapped, it’s Domenico who is sent to get him back. The man he finds though, is not the boy he knew all those years ago. Lazy, annoying, spoiled, and as hot as a Sicilian summer.
Seth Villani wants nothing to do with the mafia. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get a say when the Family pulls him right back into its fold after his mother’s death. Thrown into a den of serpents otherwise known as the Villani Family, Seth has to find a way to navigate in the maze of lies. But when Domenico Acerbi, the most vicious snake of them all, sinks his fangs into Seth, the venom changes into an aphrodisiac that courses through Seth’s veins.
Domenico knows his life is about to change when he gets the order to train Seth up to the role of future Don. Seth isn’t made for it. He isn’t evenmade. But a man Domenico knows he would never have to fear might just be someone he’s always needed.
If Seth is doomed to follow in his father’s footsteps, he might as well enjoy himself—with the most intoxicating man he’s ever met. Maybe he can even fool himself into believing that Domenico isn’t a handsome sociopath who kills for a living.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS:
Themes: Enemies to lovers, mafia, homophobia, assassin, organized crime
Genre: Dark, twisted erotic romance / crime thriller
Erotic content: Explicit gay sex, coercion
Length: ~110,000 words
WARNING: Adult content. If you are easily offended, this book is not for you. ‘Guns n’ Boys’ is a gritty story of extreme violence, offensive language, abuse, and morally ambiguous protagonists. Behind the morbid facade, there is a splash of inappropriate dark humor, and a love story that will crawl under your skin.
REVIEW:
So, what do I expect from this pair of authors? By now I know there’ll be offbeat characters, lots of kinky sex, and it’ll all be a little rough around the edges. Yeah, that’s how I’d describe Guns/Boys in a nutshell. Now let’s crack that nut open…
After Aleksandr Voinov’s brilliant mafioso series, Dark Soul, do we really need another M/M made-man tango? Well, Guns/Boys is a different twist, that’s for sure.
With Dark Soul we got dangerous, psychopathic mafiosi.
Guns/Boys gives us Seth and Domenico who like to take Sicilian gun-toting in another direction.
Here, we get men who constantly on the make. They are tall, dark and broody for sure, but it’s not so much ‘danger’ that wafts off of them as eau de randy man.
Here’s Seth Villani (son and heir to Don Dino Villani): ‘Ohmygodohmygod, why can’t my rich, powerful mafia Family just leave me alone to live my life in peace fapping my clingy, tearful, girly boytoyfriend? What to I know about guns?’
Here’s Domenico (hitman and bodyguard contracted by Family Villani to protect Seth): ‘Yeah, so? I’m gay, whaddaboutit? I fuck ’em wherever and whenever I please. I got a gun AND fabulous hair. Suck on that.’
Seth… From the start, when he’s rescued from a rival Chinese gang in NYC, we get that he’s not exactly the ideal candidate for next head of Family Villani. He’s nothing like the steely, gun-fingering men of Dark Soul. This pretty-boy is perpetually pouty and petulant.
He’s a quivering mess when Domenico sweeps in to the rescue and escorts him back to the homeland. Dom, “who’s cologne whispered, “Follow me and fuck me on the backseat”, has a hot body in form-fitting, custom-made suits that drives Seth to distraction. There’s lots of distraction, you know, from all that recent torture.
It seems there’s nothing that can overcome kidnapping by thugs like a tight end in well-cut slacks. For a guy who seriously needs a hard-core Sicilian make-over, Seth seems more concerned with good grooming. There’s soooo much talk about suits…
And when Seth breaks up with his tearful Yank boyfriend of two years via a cold, ten-minute phone call, he gives new meaning to the word shallow.
Now, Dom(enico)… a great name for this toppy tough guy, BTW… there’s more of a threat lurking in him. But we see it as mostly sexual; he’s an arrogant risk-taker. And he’s got his eye on the boss’s son. <SPOILER> Turns out they’re half-brothers so there’s incest kink thrown into the soup.<SPOILER> So he reeeeaaallly likes to live dangerously. Dom is the hard-hitting guy you’d expect in this Family. I find him much more interesting than Seth.
The roughness of Guns/Boys is in the language and the flow of it. I found it jangly and unfocused, giving mostly lip talk to danger and mayhem. There’s not enough ‘mafia’ in the mix; these guys could be anyone, anywhere. There is a very long section in Berlin where they are sent on a Family job. But they’re mostly stuck in a dinky, shabby apartment, keeping house and exchanging recipes. With Seth continually obsessing about bottoming for Dom.
It wasn’t until about three-quarters of the way into the story that things got more interesting… there’s a cameo appearance by Silvio Spadaro of Dark Soul fame. And a very hot threesome where he and Dom top Seth.
So what I found most intriguing was Dom’s systematic grooming of Seth into an acquiescent submissive. There was a fine edge of eroticism to this, to the hired man controlling the head man. Otherwise, I wasn’t terribly drawn to them as a couple. Most of their connection remains superficially sexual and it drags the story after a while. The authors make an attempt to assert some gentle interaction between them, but this is more erotica built on a flimsy mafia house of cards.
Guns N Boys is advertised as a serial with several more editions due (at least that’s what it said in the first of three ARC copies I received for review). Given the rather weak ending of this initial book, more is certainly needed. I do wonder how Seth and Dom will make things work out, they are not left in the best place. I may make a return visit to find out but it’ll probably take me a while to get there.
(For a great twisty, dark story I recommend Merikan’s Stung. Zombies, not mafia men, but sooo good, that one.)
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: