Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Dead Ringer
AUTHOR: Heidi Belleau and Sam Schooler
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 453 pages
BLURB:
Brandon Ringer has a dead man’s face. His grandfather, silver-screen heartthrob James Ringer, died tragically at twenty-one, and Brandon looks exactly like him. But that’s where the resemblance ends. Brandon is unknown, unemployed, and up to his ears in bills after inheriting his grandparents’ Hollywood mansion. He refuses to sell it—it’s his last connection to his grandmother—so to raise the cash he needs, he joins a celebrity look-alike escort agency.
Percy Charles is chronically ill, isolated, and lonely. His only company is his meddlesome caregiver and his collection of James Ringer memorabilia. When he finds “Jim Ringer” on Hollywood Doubles’ website, he books an appointment, hoping to meet someone who shares his passion for his idol.
Brandon? Not that person.
But despite their differences, they connect, and Percy’s fanboy love for James shows Brandon a side of his grandfather he never knew. Soon they want time together off the clock, but Percy is losing his battle for independence, and Brandon feels trapped in James’s long shadow. Their struggle to love each other is the stuff of classic Hollywood. Too bad Brandon knows how those stories end.
REVIEW:
I really wanted to read this book after reading the blurb. First off, I guess I have not read a rent boy/escort/model story before. I wasn’t sure of what my feelings would be about it. Unfortunately, I had a really hard time getting into this book. The first quarter of the book drug so slow that I literally would have to walk away from it before my frustration level would get the best of me. Finally, at half way through the book, I felt like it might be going somewhere that I liked, but it took a hard right corner again.
I had an extremely hard time with the abuse that was being done to both the main characters. First, with Brandon thinking he was required to take it from a client was way too far over the top. There is a difference between safe, consensual hard play and abuse. I hated that Brandon didn’t feel safe or secure enough that he could tell anyone about it or the slurs and threats from his driver. It just made me mad to think he thought he had to take it. Also, the mental abuse his parents had used on him because of his sexual orientation was appalling. The abuse Percy endured, at the hands of his caretaker, Hazel, infuriated me! To take advantage of a medically fragile person in your charge was criminal. Withholding medications from a client with life threatening complications was pure evil. She was sick and twisted. And his parents lack of caring was deplorable. Law enforcement needed to be called in so prevent this abuse from happening to her next charge.
The book reinforced my fears of the sleazy people that I was afraid I would encounter in the sex industry, especially Vince. However, Ms. Judy Monroe was refreshing as Brandon’s boss, as was Theresa, their secretary/receptionist.
I was thankful to Kovie and Brandon finally coming in to “save the day”. Kovie was a breath of sunshine in a pretty dark story. I did find it difficult that Percy would be fine with Brandon’s career choice.
All in all, I find that this was just not a book for me. The plot moved way too slow throughout the book and then too fast of a resolution to all their problems with such an abrupt ending just didn’t work. It had the feel of a “made-for-tv” ending.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: