Third full week of the month means Theme week here on Love Bytes!

This month we feature Love For Sale!

Enjoy !

Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Rentboy

AUTHOR: Fyn Alexander

PUBLISHER: Loose Id

LENGTH: 255 Pages

BLURB:

Knowing he is gay, but nerdy and extremely shy, scientist Dr. Edward Atherton, is out looking for his first sexual encounter in order to avoid being a 30 year old virgin, and because he desperately wants sex with a man. With his birthday fast approaching he goes in search of a prostitute.

The young Goth he meets in a back alley in Soho, London, was not exactly what he had in mind, but he soon finds himself in bed with Fox Baillie having the sexiest time of his life. When he wakes up to find Fox gone and with him Edward’s computer he feels embarrassed and used, but still he cannot get the skinny, pale young man with the black hair and eye makeup out of his mind. He finds Fox once again in the alley and is treated to a hand job up against the grimy wall.

The last thing Fox expected when he was ordered by his ex-military father to seduce Dr. Atherton and steal computer with its valuable information was that he would actually find the dude sexy and enjoy the encounter. Ignoring the danger from his brutal father he continues to seek out Eddie to continue what they started.

REVIEW:

Ok, so I cheated, so sue me. As you can plainly read from the blurb, Fox isn’t really a rentboy but for much of the story our other main character Edward isn’t aware of that. Edward first meets Fox while out trolling for a prostitute to assist him with losing his virginity before reaching age thirty. When Fox offers him a “suck or a wank” he thinks he’s found just what he was looking for but, not wanting to lose his virginity in a dirty alley, he invites Fox back to his apartment. Well, his flat, since the book is set in jolly old England. But instead of the sex both men are planning they end up cuddling and sleeping together in Edward’s bed. Instantly smitten, Edward brings Fox back to his flat the following night but when he wakes up the next morning Fox has disappeared along with Edward’s laptop and some memory sticks.

Far from being a rentboy, Fox is an art student who lives in a mansion with his mother, father, brother and sister. But behind the doors of their impressive home, there’s a whole world of wrong going on. Retired army captain, William Baillie is a psychotic, abusive, homicidal asshole who has recently begun to consort with terrorists. His new employer wants the formula for what could potentially be a devastating biological weapon that is believed to be in the possession of Edward Atherton. Baillie has no compunction about sending out his son to whore himself with the threat to get the formula from Atherton or his mother and siblings will suffer. However having met Edward, Fox finds it impossible to stay away from the absolutely geeky, adorable nerd despite knowing that his father won’t be happy if he finds out what’s going on.

WARNING: If you’re a stickler for what’s actually realistic then you’ll probably be bald by the time you get through this book. Pulling out fistfuls of hair will prove unavoidable and grinding your teeth to stumps may also result. But if you enjoy a bit of over the top, larger than life storytelling then this book may just be for you.

For myself, I loved it. I mean seriously, this is the cast – there’s a closeted thirty-year-old virgin (who calls his cock a willy), a self-harming pseudo rentboy goth (who wears a kilt, swoon), the autistic identical boy/girl twins (who like to cross-dress), an alcoholic mother (I have nothing to write in these brackets) and a criminally insane father (who has plans to become an incestuous pedophile). Not to mention all the secondary characters like the Ugandan warlords/terrorists, the assassin couple who some readers will recognize from another Fyn Alexander series and last but not least a priest called God. Add in MI6 and a virgin’s newly discovered love of kinky fuckery and like I said…seriously!

I realize that I’ve made the book sound like a bit of a comedy but it’s not actually written like that at all. In fact, there’s some rather confronting violence aimed at both main characters. And as much as I say the characters are all OTT I still think they’re very well written. Even William Baillie, who is the baddest of all the big bad book baddies, beyond his extreme evilness, I still found him interesting. A completely hateful dickhead, but interesting.

The ending is one satisfyingly gooey HEA that left me awwwing and maybe brushing away a few happy tears.

So if you want to read a rentboy story that isn’t really a rentboy story, this book might be for you.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Loose Id

Amazon

ARe