Forbidden : King (The Four #4) de Sloane Kennedy

Salut mes p’tits chats!

J’espère que vous allez bien. Pour ma part ça va. Je vous retrouve aujourd’hui avec la chronique du 4eme et dernier tome de la série The Four de Sloane Kennedy en auto édition. Après l’histoire de Luca (chronique ici) , Lex (chronique ici) et Con (chronique ici), c’est au tour de King. Et je dois dire que j’avais hâte de lire ce roman. Résumé:

King
My brothers think I have a lot of secrets. They have no idea…
My job is to rescue kids who’ve been stolen from their families. I’m good at it and it helps me forget my own ugly childhood, but I’m a grown man now and the family of my heart is all I need.
Except that I haven’t seen them in two years. I walked out of their lives without an explanation. I walked away from him without even saying goodbye. I know how much I hurt him. I know how badly I broke his trust. But even though we’re not related by blood, our family thinks of me as his uncle.
Yet there’s no part of me that thinks of young Giovanni Covello that way. Problem is, I shouldn’t be thinking about him at all, especially since my thoughts have become less and less innocent since Gio turned eighteen. He’s closing in on twenty now and there’s no escaping him anymore because he’s in New York, the place I rest my head. I don’t trust myself around him, yet I can’t stay away, not after learning about the painful nightmares and frightening memories he’s experiencing about his own abduction and imprisonment as a child.
He’s the son of one of my best friends and he’s had a crush on me for years. But I have to leave him alone. I just have to.
Not because I don’t want Gio, but because he shouldn’t want me. I can’t give him what he wants, what we both want.
Not now. Not ever.

Gio
Things didn’t make sense until he came along. Four years ago, he saved me from myself. Now he’s trying to do it again. But I don’t need saving. I need more than that. So much more…
I don’t remember much about the life I lived as a child after I was stolen from my family, but my doctor says I will. Apparently, the wall in my head will come crashing down one day and all the ugly memories of what had been done to me will come rushing back to me.
I haven’t told anyone, but it’s already happening. I just need to get through the computer course I’m taking in New York City so I can prove to myself that I can live an independent life before returning home to Seattle.
My plan is a pretty good one, but I forgot to include one important variable.
King.
He’s supposedly my uncle but I’ve never seen King that way and there’s not even one drop of shared blood between us.
Two years ago, he was my protector and my friend. And then he was just… gone.
He’s back now and wants back into my life, but not to resume our friendship or to act on the attraction he’s finally admitted to having toward me. No, he just wants to keep me safe.
But that’s a good thing, right?
What could go wrong with having the guy I can’t stop thinking about living with me under my own roof?
Answer: Everything.

FR- Alors alors… alors je dois dire que j’attendais ce tome avec impatience tout en me demandant comment Sloane Kennedy allait s’en sortir étant donné que 1) Gio a 16 ans à la fin du tome 3 2) Gio est le fils de Luca, le frère de sang de King.

Et je dois dire qu’elle s’en est admirablement bien sortie. J’ai vraiment beaucoup aimé ce roman, à un bémol près dont je vous parlerai tout à l’heure.

Il faut savoir que le tome 4 se passe plusieurs années après le tome 3 et que Gio a maintenant 20 ans. Je dois avouer que ça rend la lecture beaucoup plus facile.
J’ai adoré le personnage de Gio. Comme tous les personnages de Sloane Kennedy, c’est un personnage qui en a énormément bavé. Il a vécu des choses très difficiles et si l’histoire de Gio est en filigrame dans les trois autres tomes on a enfin tous les tenants et aboutissants. Sloane Kenendy garde une certaine pudeur et c’est ce que j’aime toujours dans ses romans. Nous n’avons pas besoin de tous les détails gores et dérangeants pour comprendre l’horreur que ses personnages ont traversé.

Une fois de plus, Gio va se battre contre ses démons et ceux de King et va se montrer incroyablement fort.

La première partie du roman est quasiment à huis clos. On est plongé dans le quotidien et l’intimité de King et Gio et j’ai trouvé que parfois c’était un peu too much. D’où mon bémol. Parce que King mérite clairement un coup de pied aux fesses. Je dois avouer que j’en ai eu un peu marre de le voir faire un pas en avant, trois pas en arrière. J’ai même fini par sauter des pages.

Mais la deuxieme partie du roman, celle où le reste de la famille de King et de Gio. J’ai beaucoup aimé retrouver Christopher et j’aime beaucoup la relation qu’il entretient avec Gio.
Il y a des moments vraiment très drôles notament grâce aux deux jeunes hommes. A partir du moment où King décide vraiment de se battre pour Gio le roman pour moi prend un second souffle et est beaucoup mieux.

J’ai aimé découvrir les secrets de King et enfin savoir comment il a payé sa part de l’opération de Lex. J’aime beaucoup cette série et encore plus le fait que les quatres histoires soient intimememnts liées, comme les quatre frères de sang.

Si les sujets et la construction de l’intrigue ne sont pas super originaux, si les personnages restent assez classiques dans la gamme des personnages proposés par l’auteure, le gros point positif est la construction des romans et des personnages. Cette série doit être lue en entier, dans l’ordre, chaque tome apportant plus de détail sur les personnages de cette famille atypique.

J’ai également beaucoup aimé les petits clins d’oeil à l’univers des Protectors , c’est quelque chose que j’aime toujours beaucoup.

En résumé, une de mes séries préférées de l’auteure,un dernier tome au début un peu lourd mais dont la deuxième partie et le final relèvent largement la qualité. Un dernier tome à découvrir sans plus tarder.

ENG – I have to say that I was looking forward to this volume while wondering how Sloane Kennedy was going to do it given that 1) Gio is 16 years old at the end of volume 3 2) Gio is the son of Luca, the brother of King’s blood.

And I have to say she did admirably well. I really liked this novel, with one caveat which I will tell you about later.

You should know that volume 4 takes place several years after volume 3 and that Gio is now 20 years old. I must admit that it makes reading a lot easier.
I loved the character of Gio. Like all of Sloane Kennedy’s characters, he’s a character who has had a lot of trouble. He went through very difficult things and if the story of Gio is in filigram in the other three volumes we finally have all the ins and outs. Sloane Kenendy keeps a certain modesty and that’s what I always like in his novels. We don’t need all the gory and disturbing details to understand the horror his characters went through.

Once again, Gio will fight against his demons and those of King and will prove himself incredibly strong.

The first part of the novel is almost behind closed doors. We are immersed in the daily life and the intimacy of King and Gio and I found that sometimes it was a bit too much. Hence my downside. Because King clearly deserves a kick in the butt. I must admit that I got a little fed up with seeing him take one step forward, three steps back. I even ended up skipping pages.

But the second part of the novel, where the rest of King and Gio’s family. I really enjoyed reuniting with Christopher and I really like the relationship he has with Gio.
There are some really funny moments, thanks to the two young men. From the moment King really decides to fight for Gio the novel for me takes a second breath and is much better.

I enjoyed discovering King’s secrets and finally knowing how he paid for his share of Lex’s surgery. I really like this series and even more the fact that the four stories are intimately linked, like the four blood brothers.

If the subjects and the construction of the plot are not super original, if the characters remain fairly classic in the range of characters proposed by the author, the big positive point is the construction of the novels and the characters. This series should be read in full, in order, each volume providing more detail on the characters of this atypical family.

I also really liked the little nods to the world of Protectors, it’s something that I always like a lot.

In short, one of my favorite series of the author, a last volume at the beginning a little heavy but whose second part and the end largely raise the quality. One last volume to discover without further delay.

Ma Note Globale :