Grade: A-

I’ve got one word for you: Boy-whores. I’ve read a lot of books featuring fake female prostitutes whose first clients turn out to be their true loves and they never have to sleep with anyone else, but the ho protagonist in this story does have sex with other people for money. And they’re not all attractive people. And he’s a college boy. Ignore the fresh-faced, goofy-looking kid on the cover. Ryan Hayes does not look like that. At least not in my head. No, I actually pictured Scott Speedman in his place. Yum. But homegirl up there certainly looks like a young Ally Sheedy, don’t she? It’s uncanny! Anyway, I’m not here to make fun of this cover. Y’all know where to go for that. No, I’m here to congratulate Bonnie Dee for having the guts to have a real hooker for a hero. Whoo-hoo! As if that’s not enough, she also gives us a heroine who suffers from agoraphobia. On top of that, there’s also butt sex, a rape fantasy scene, and a group sex scene with midgets little people! Okay, that last one was a joke, people, this isn’t a David Lynch movie. But it does have a threesome featuring two boy whores and the use of illicit drugs. Gasp! Oh, Lord, my heart can’t take too much of this. I would have preferred if the heroine had been a little older–she’s only 27–and these two kids do get a little weird and neurotic with the “does she/he love me?” and the “could she truly love me even if I’m a whore” melodrama, but it’s understandable and actually worked for the story. Good job, Bonnie!

Monica Brennerman is a twenty-seven year old freelance writer who lives in a small little house in a retirement community with her cat. The house, along with a small trust fund, was left to her by her grandmother when she died. This is a blessing for Monica who doesn’t have to seek a 9-to-5 job, especially since she suffers from severe agoraphobia. As a child, she had some anxiety issues, but it only got worse as she got older. After a stressful time at college as well as a job that paid little but drained her energy and a failed relationship with a world-class jerk, Monica has altogether ceased leaving her house. If it weren’t for a meddling, but well-meaning mother and a bossy, but kind older sister, Monica wouldn’t have any contact with the outside world at all. And she’s not exactly happy about that. She spends her days working on different magazine articles to supplement her income, hanging out with her cat, but at night, she attempts to stave off the loneliness by masturbating to Jude Law. Eww (the eww wasn’t for the masturbation; it’s for Jude Law). Her mother would like her to practice going outside, even if it’s only to her backyard, but even that is a trial for Monica. How would she be able to meet anyone if the very thought of stepping a few steps outside of her front door causes her to hyperventilate and break out into sweat? One night, while feeling particularly randy and desperate, she goes on the Internet, googles up “boy-whores” “escort services,” orders herself a man, and charges it on her credit card. Brave girl. I would have tried to pay for that shit in cash. You don’t want to leave no paper trail when it comes shit like that, girl!

The boy-whore in question is Ryan Hayes, twenty-two years old, and a poor, starving college student. But Ryan doesn’t whore himself out just to put himself through college. No, that’s not enough to score him a Martyr of the Year award. He also has a grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer’s and Ryan can barely afford to keep her in the nursing home where she’s staying and the hospital bills are piling up and there’s no one else in the world to take care of her except him. Naturally. Dude, if Ryan were a romance heroine, he’d also have an elderly deaf uncle with a gambling problem and a precocious, but developmentally disabled sister. Oh, and a house with a leaky roof and a mean landlord who threatens to evict them ’cause they’re always late on rent. Anyway, Ryan is actually a construction worker, but those jobs are coming few and far between for Ryan’s financial needs, so a friend suggests he apply for work as a phone sex operator. It turns out that Ryan is pretty good at talking dirty and is able to do his homework while telling some old lady to stuff her hand down her panties, but when the nursing home calls and tells him that Grams is suffering from pneumonia, Ryan realizes that he needs more money. Especially since his Jeep just died on him. And he’s tired of living in a shitty apartment where the cockroaches are bigger than his shoes. A co-worker suggests that he take off his clothes and wiggle his ass for some dudes at a gay bar, but he’s not down with that, so the co-worker tells him that he should really try selling his charms to the bored, lonely housewives trolling for ass on the Internet. His first job turns out to be a lady with agoraphobia. Driving to her house, Ryan almost psyches himself out of it, but when he goes to her door and he sees the lady he’s going to be servicing, Ryan thinks to himself, “Jackpot… I can’t believe I’m going to be paid for this!” (p. 73).

What I liked about Monica is tha she seemed like a real person. Even though she suffers from severe anxiety issues, she’s not a weird, lobotomized freak who blushes when she accidentally touches her vagina in the shower. She’s got real desires, real problems, and tries to deal with them like a rational human being. When she got horny, she called for a boy-whore. She didn’t have to trick her next-door neighbor into having sex with her or devised an elaborate plot where she could get her brother’s best friend–the one who only saw her as a little sister–into bed for One Special Night. I was also glad that Ms. Dee didn’t treat her disorder as a plot device. Monica works through her own issues by herself and little by little, manages to take a few steps outside of her door one day at a time. She also doesn’t torture herself too much about whether Ryan feels the same way about her even when she starts to have feelings for him. She doesn’t get crazy like a stereotypical romance heroine on him, driving herself even crazier by second-guessing herself, even as she suspects that she may be getting a little too attached to him and that it’s nothing but a business transaction for him. She’s not a weird fourteen year old girl trapped in a grown woman’s body. She actually acts her age. Can you just die?

Ryan, on the other hand, is also pretty mature… especially for a twenty-two year old boy. Shoot, the 22 year old boys I go to school with wouldn’t even know how to balance a checkbook if their lives depended on it, much less whore themselves out so they can keep their sick grandmothers in a nice nursing home. I did enjoy that Ryan was a little insecure about himself, wondering why Monica would choose him over the other hot bois on the website of the escort service. For me, Ryan was just… too damned nice. There’s this scene where he indulges Monica on her rape fantasy, but couldn’t stay in character because he couldn’t stop asking if she was okay. It’s a nice change of pace to read about a hero who doesn’t have everything quite figured out and doesn’t act like a complete and total bonehead about ninety-nine percent of the time, but I wish there had been more to Ryan besides being a nice grandson and a nice boy-whore. He just seemed kind of… bleh to me. Ms. Dee hints in the book that Ryan may have some Dom potential and I really wish she had explored this aspect of his personality more. As it is, Ryan is just too nice and probably the kind of guy you’d bring home to mom… you know, if he weren’t a boy-whore.

What I also liked about this story are the secondary characters, more specifically Monica’s mom and sisters. I just really liked that this book didn’t just revolve around Ryan and Monica’s sexcapades, but also with Monica struggling to maintain a relationship with her relatives even as her agoraphobia seems to get worse. I also really enjoyed the scene where Monica goes with her sister to a cousin’s bridal shower. I mean, those things are horrible enough, but just imagine it if you’ve got an anxiety disorder. Yikes, what a nightmare. I would have liked perhaps one or two scenes of Monica talking things out with her psychiatrist, especially about Ryan, but I do understand that this is a rather short story and the focus should have been on Ryan and Monica getting to know each other better.

This is a really well-written, well-thought out story by Bonnie Dee. I do love how emotionally complex and tightly plotted her stories are, even when they’re really short. She really knows how to showcase two people getting to know each other and falling in love in a way that the reader can truly believe it. This is definitely a mark of a great author. I know I sound like a gushing fool here, but I just really enjoy how emotionally flawed Ms. Dee’s characters are and how she deftly avoids sticking them in situations that just reek of plot contrivance. If you want to read an original, heart-warming piece about two real people who reach out for each other and find love together, definitely check this book out. There are some references to casual drug use that may offend some of you prudes out there, but if you can get past that, you’re gonna luuuurve the butt sex scene that immediately follows it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 25th, 2006 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Books, Grade: A, Romance: Contempo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.