HARD TIME - D.J. Manly
eXtasy - www.eXtasybooks.com
ISBN- 978-155487-013-4
February 2008
Flame Rating: 4 Flames (inferno)
Erotic Gay Romance - Novella

Durham, Maine - Present Day

David's stepfather, Jack Malone, is the warden of Durham prison. At the age of fifteen, David's mother married Jack and they subsequently moved into the house right next door to the prison. Although the house is provided by the state rent free, David's mother is deathly afraid that a prisoner might one day escape and target their family.  However, David's concerns lay elsewhere, namely with his stepfather, whom once he found out that David was gay developed a penchant for calling him derogatory names. David has been unable to understand why his mother would ever marry a man like Jack.

After graduating from college, David sought employment as a teacher and a place of his own to live, but David's  mother's worried pleas had him changing his plans. Still living with his mother and stepfather, David now works as a teacher in the prison schooling inmates, after his mother insisted that his stepfather get him a job there. Then one day, Jack assigns David a new prison inmate, Elliot Law, as his teaching assistant; unlike the other prisoners, Elliot is college educated. David has worked with criminals from various backgrounds but has never felt as intimidated by an inmate as he is by Elliot. It is not just Elliot's violent criminal record that has David trembling, it is also his dark, good looks, pulling from David a sexual response that is unexpected and unwanted.

Then things really get interesting.

HARD TIME starts off with an intriguing premise that, as the story progresses, becomes just too hard to swallow. The continued references involving certain less than plausible plot points within HARD TIME, had me wondering if D.J. Manly hoped that by admitting to them, readers might be able to over look them. I could not. David and Elliot are likable and I had high hopes that the attraction between them will sizzle, but while it's steamy it is not as hot or as passionate as one would have wished. This is partly due to how David and Elliot's emotions are dealt with in the story. Their emotions do not come naturally out of the situations in which they  found themselves, but out of a storyline insisting that they kiss or make love at certain moments, leaving me with the feeling that something is missing.

HARD TIME is not one of D.J. Manly's better books, and while I say pass on HARD TIME, I would recommend you check out some of D.J. Manly's previous books instead.

Nickole Yarbrough