Review - Unbridled by Young

Young and his guardian-lover Andy are about to start another term of service as harem boys for a wealthy household in Abu Dhabi. Joining them is another guardian (valet), Oscar, with his charge. Young has become enamored of Oscar, and the three young men agree to enter into a threesome relationship. Their new master is not unknown to Young and Andy, as he is related to their first host. Together with other members of the household, the harem boys embark on adventures that take them back to Italy and on to the United States.

This second book of the Harem Boys Saga feels much more polished than the first. There's a bit less jumping around in time and a more coherent story. Another change from the first volume is that most chapters are bracketed with the author's present-day attempts to reconnect with some of his friends and lovers from the time of the books. Since the story follows directly on from the events recounted in the first book, you need to have read that one before this.

In many ways, this is a love story centered on Young and Andy. Despite the nature of their “service” in the households they're assigned to, the pair find ways to separate feelings of love from the enjoyment of sexual pleasures with others. It's not easy, and much of the book's dramatic turns are due to Young's struggle to curb his jealous feelings.

The boy's adventures bring them into contact with some of the major celebrities and events of the middle 1960s. I still have doubts about the plausibility of this autobiography. It's not impossible, but you have to accept that there was a secret society that placed schoolboys in wealthy Arab households and that those people had access to the significant players of the day. Some of those things are believable, but all of them together come off as a tale from Baron von Munchausen. That said, this second book is definitely a good story, regardless of whether or not you believe all of it actually happened.

“Unbridled” is available from Amazon.