Family Man by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton
Samhain Publishing
Gay Contemporary
ISBN: 9781619214668
Reviewed by Cassie




Forty-year-old Vince Fierro is at a crossroads.  After three failed marriages, he suddenly begins to wonder if the problem isn’t that he chose the wrong women, but that he chose women at all.  For a good Italian boy raised in a huge Catholic family, it’s a terrifying question to suddenly be asking himself.  After confessing his confusion to his sister, he decides to take her advice and go to a gay bar.  If he’s not attracted to anyone, he’s not gay.  The experiment ends in miserable failure, until he runs into Trey Giles.

Trey’s family and Vinnie’s have been friends forever.  When Trey sees Vinnie at the bar, he’s astonished.  Seeing Vinnie’s discomfort, he takes him to a jazz club, where they share a hot dance Trey can’t get out of his mind for days afterward.  Between college, his two jobs, and taking care of his grandmother and mother, Trey really doesn’t have time to help a guy who’s just discovering he might be gay, but something about Vinnie makes Trey want to make the time.

Can the tentative feelings forming between Vinnie and Trey survive Vinnie’s fears and Trey’s difficult circumstances?

I absolutely loved Family Man.  Vinnie and Trey are wonderful characters.  Both men are caretakers who feel a lot of responsibility toward their families.  Vinnie’s huge Italian family is a lot of the reason he’s afraid to admit he might be gay.  The last thing he wants to do is disappoint them, or cause them to turn from him.  The family has strong Catholic beliefs that make Vinnie’s fears a real possibility.  It’s during a plumbing job at the home of a married gay couple that Vinnie begins to consider he might be gay, and he freaks out.  After gathering his courage, he tells his sister about what he’s been thinking, and thanks to her advice ends up at a gay bar.  It’s not his scene at all, until Trey shows up.  Trey’s more than a decade younger, and really attractive, and Vinnie is terrified of him—or more accurately, of the attraction he feels for him.  Once he allows himself to go with the flow, however, he begins to enjoy himself.  Unfortunately, no matter how much fun he’s having, or how much he’s starting to care for Trey, his fears won’t go away.

Trey has his own problems.  At twenty-five, he’s still in school because he spends most of his time working to support his grandmother and alcoholic mother.  He’s also still a virgin.  Dating Vinnie, who isn’t anywhere near ready for sex, seems like the perfect way to have fun and spend time with someone without the demands another guy might put on him.  Of course nothing is that simple, and pretty soon Trey starts to want the strings he thought he didn’t want.  His feelings grow deeper and deeper, but his family and Vinnie’s could spell the end of their relationship.

Family Man has so many things going for it I couldn’t help but love it.  Both heroes are men I’d want to know in real life.  I sympathized with both of them, and shared in their joys and sorrows.  The secondary characters, especially Trey’s grandma and Vinnie’s large, Italian family, are great.  The conflicts are all realistic, and handled beautifully.  The story is told in alternating styles—third person for Vinnie, and first person for Trey.  That should have been weird, but was so well done that I ended up really liking it.  The partnership of Marie Sexton and Heidi Cullinan brought all the best things about their work together into one delightful book.  I can’t recommend Family Man highly enough.