Reviewed by Lisa
TITLE: Toy
AUTHOR: R. Parr
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 380 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 29, 2019
BLURB:
Troy the toy isn’t looking for a relationship. He gets all the sex he needs whilst working at Priapus: a brothel in inner city Melbourne.
Over the past three years, he has learned to turn himself off and load his Tommy program whenever he is with a client. A saleable commodity in today’s consumer society, he is well aware that his cute twink appeal has an expiry date, but he is content for now with the status quo.
That is, until his homophobic high school bully books an appointment.
Seeing Nick Stephanides again after all these years gives Troy’s operating system a bit of a jolt. Troy has always assumed that Nick is straight, but Nick is gay, lonely and determined to start a bromance with Troy. How can Troy say no to those broad shoulders?
Troy and Nick begin a tentative friendship, whilst Troy continues to provide good customer service to his clients, some of whom have very interesting requests.
Offering advice and support are his friends at Priapus: Melissa, his manager, who keeps a maternal eye on her boys, Brett, the bear and Ari, the surfie dude, whose passionate love affair is the catalyst for much soul searching, Qiu, the cheery Goth and Damien, the beautiful redhead who, for some reason, tenses up at the mere suggestion that Troy might one day break his dating embargo.
And then there’s Desmond the politician, who pays to watch Troy dance.
Of course, Troy’s operating system is bound to glitch sooner or later. Will it be Nick who finally sneaks under his defences? There is that ancient proverb about Greeks bearing gifts…
REVIEW:
In America, there’s a huge stigma for sex workers. They’re thought of as dirty, diseased, amoral, less than. Maybe that’s why stories with MCs who work in the sex industry are some of my catnip reads.
Troy works at Priapus, a licensed brothel in Australia under the assumed name of Tommy. He began working there as a way to earn extra income while attending university and to help his mom who’d fallen behind paying bills after a series of unfortunate events.
Even though he’s graduated uni with a history degree, he doesn’t quite know what other work to do. And besides, the income is enough that he’s paid extra on his mortgage as well as continuing to help his mom with her expenses.
His perspective is drastically changed one day when his next client turns out to be Nick the Prick, the guy who made his high school years miserable and who’s starred in his fantasies for years.
As one might expect, the appointment doesn’t go well but Nick calls later and asks Troy to dinner so he can apologize for his bad behavior and the guys agree to have a platonic bromance.
My only complaint is that because the story is told in first person, there’s no other POV than Troy’s so Nick’s thoughts are unknown except for how Troy interprets them. I was also surprised at how easily Troy agreed to be Nick’s friend after all the high school bullying.
Something I found unexpected in this story is how it reads almost as “slice of life”. I expected more explicit sex scenes, more like a PWP story, but when Troy’s at work he has what he calls his “Tommy” program. And the Tommy program is completely separate from Troy except when the sex is mundane and he’s thinking about what he should cook for dinner!
I loved how Tommy has some clients with unusual requests. One of them is a science teacher who demands Tommy recite the periodic table while they have sex and of course it made me imagine Tommy singing the Periodic Table Song. I also enjoyed his interactions with the politician whose only request is that Tommy dance for him.
I loved how unapologetic Troy is about how he earns his living as well as how well the sex workers at Priapus get along with each other.
I also loved how Troy makes his decision about whether or not to continue working at Priapus based on what he thinks is best for him and not based on how other people feel about his job.
And I loved the fluffy ending and the illustrations included in the book.
I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys characters who work in the sex industry, amusing clients, and fluffy HEAs
RATING: 
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