When I had gotten about a sixth of the way through this book, I put it down for a moment and wondered how on earth there could be that much story left. What could possibly fill those remaining pages?
The answer, as it turns out, was more ridiculousness than I could have ever predicted, and sadly not in a good way. The premise of the book is fairly absurd in and of itself: a 21 year old music student named Tyler is involved in a big underground prostitution/group sex/pornography ring because apparently the idea of graduating with huge student loans is so distressing the only answer is to sell his body. He agrees to do an additional 'surprise' gig on the same night as his music recital at his college. Haris is a fabulously wealthy venture capitalist who is a donor to the college's program and attends the recital; he is instantly captivated by Tyler and follows him after the recital. This is fortunate, because Tyler is coerced into doing a BDSM scene that he doesn't want to do and almost has a panic attack before Haris (an experienced former dom) can free him. Obviously the next step is for Haris to offer Tyler a contract for four months of him being Haris's exclusive sexual partner in exchange for twenty thousand pounds. And after that things get REALLY unbelievable.
Truth be told, I was actually enjoying the book through all of the above, but after the second kidnapping and fifth murder attempt and so many secrets from their backstories of pain that I lost count, it all just became so dumb I lost any ability to care about these characters, who never felt particularly real to me but who at least started out as fairly interesting in that sort of romance novel stock character way. It was all too much, and not in a good way.
Grade: D
The answer, as it turns out, was more ridiculousness than I could have ever predicted, and sadly not in a good way. The premise of the book is fairly absurd in and of itself: a 21 year old music student named Tyler is involved in a big underground prostitution/group sex/pornography ring because apparently the idea of graduating with huge student loans is so distressing the only answer is to sell his body. He agrees to do an additional 'surprise' gig on the same night as his music recital at his college. Haris is a fabulously wealthy venture capitalist who is a donor to the college's program and attends the recital; he is instantly captivated by Tyler and follows him after the recital. This is fortunate, because Tyler is coerced into doing a BDSM scene that he doesn't want to do and almost has a panic attack before Haris (an experienced former dom) can free him. Obviously the next step is for Haris to offer Tyler a contract for four months of him being Haris's exclusive sexual partner in exchange for twenty thousand pounds. And after that things get REALLY unbelievable.
Truth be told, I was actually enjoying the book through all of the above, but after the second kidnapping and fifth murder attempt and so many secrets from their backstories of pain that I lost count, it all just became so dumb I lost any ability to care about these characters, who never felt particularly real to me but who at least started out as fairly interesting in that sort of romance novel stock character way. It was all too much, and not in a good way.
Grade: D
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