Double Life: The Intern Book 1 by Scarlett Grace

⭐☆

Review-lite

…because this one is a breadcrumb

• A teaser book for a more complete later release…ergo, incomplete
• Reads like something you’d find on one of the many amateur fiction sites in terms of plot and characterisation

⭐☆

Night Life by S.J. Hartsfield

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This one has the setting of a romcom but is written with the seriousness and earnestness of a romance. It still works.

Ronnie Kent is the "hottest blonde" escort on the roster of Night Life, an escort agency owned by one Karla. Ronnie enjoys her work and is the most popular escort in the agency. When an unusual booking is accepted by Karla at a premium price, Ronnie is the girl of choice. The booking is unusual inasmuch it is not made by the end client and the contract that ensures a clean health undertaking is not signed by the client either. Though this is not okay, the money is phenomenal and Ronnie rather likes the idea of being a 'gift', so off she goes.

Ronnie's client is Diana Silver, child of wealthy parents whose mother has political ambitions. Diana's mom disses Diana's education in hospitality but nevertheless has Diana working as an event organiser (party planner) in the family business. The overbearing mother is also not the least bit subtle about trying to matchmake and finds a suitable match in Evelyn for Diana and throws them together under the guise of the two of them working for her campaign. 

After a tentative start to their evening together, Ronnie and Diana have a exceptional time together. So much so that Ronnie can't wait to be hired by Diana again. 

Soon Diana becomes Ronnie's 'regular' and Karla happily fleeces Ronnie into paying stupid prices for Ronnie. However, Ronnie, Diana, Karla and Diana's mom did not consider the possibility of feelings rising between Ronnie and Diana.

This is an erotic romance. Erotica drives the romance and almost every scene featuring Ronnie and Diana together is a sex scene (through most of the book). But there are enough feelings (especially in Ronnie) to also make this a romance.

Ronnie is quite lovely. Diana is weirdly helpless and wimpish with the whole mom dynamic. Plus her lack of spine and leading Evelyn (who is a stellar person) on is miles away from endearing. Also, her tendency to treat Ronnie as hired help is less than nice or loving or romantic. That the romance works despite Diana is a tribute to Ronnie's likeability factor and the awesomely hot sex scenes.

Entirely unexpected is the adorable epilogue. Now that certainly brought a smile on our face and ratcheted up the rating for the book. 

This is an enjoyable read, on the whole.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Escort by Emily Hayes

⭐⭐⭐★

Sometimes romances surprise you with more than expected erotic content and sometimes, a book with 'erotic' in the title surprises you by being closer to a romance -- albeit with plenty of steamy scenes.

Ashley Davidson is a successful businesswoman and a happy no-strings-attached-one-night-stand camper. Except that nosy clients and possible-clients wanting to chatter about her single status make schmoozing for work a pain. At the advise of her friend, Ashley decides to engage the service of an escort agency and get herself a fake girlfriend for the parties she needs to attend.

Vienna Rhodes Is the best in the escort business. Educated, gorgeous and completely professional, Vienna thoroughly enjoys her job. Since Ashley's asked for the best, Vienna is the girl for her.


Though Ashley had no intention of having sex with her fake girlfriend, she'd not accounted for how charismatic Vienna would be. Or how alluring. Or how irresistible.

The book has a little bit of everything -- some burn, so can't-hold-backness, some romance, some drama, some angst and lots of sexy times. The fact that Vienna is an escort (who loves her job) is treated with normalcy by most every character (who knows this fact) in the book. The easy acceptance is nice. The defined and definite plot surprised us in a very good way.

Ashley doesn't create much of an impression but Vienna packs a punch. She not only bewitches everyone she meets in the books, but cast a spell on us too.

This is a quick, enjoyable read.

⭐⭐⭐★

The Scent of Rome by Lise Gold

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Love, love, love the title. And the book so totally lives up to the lovely title.

Nadine Costa is a high-end escort, which means dating but no touching and definitely no sex. She’s approaching thirty, retirement age from her current profession. Early for one of her ‘dates’ she meets a beguiling young lady, Rome Foster, who’s come for an interview with potential investors for her app. The two strike up a conversation in which Nadine shares the nature of her ‘date’ right before realising that Rome is a participant of the evening’s meeting. With tacit agreement, neither mentions the fact that Nadine is in fact an escort and before the evening is over there is a bit more bonding between them than expected – enabled by one lascivious man in the group and some well-timed statements by Nadine which help Rome’s efforts.

Nadine is quite taken by the ‘straight’ Rome and offers to play guide to her for the next couple of days. The sparks between them are undeniable and despite her protestations about being straight, Rome is entirely into Nadine and unexpectedly relishes her flirtations.  

Rome gets her funding and moves to her namesake city and their relationship develops.

Nadine and Rome are engaging from word go. Nadine is crush-worthy and Rome is woo-worthy. The chemistry between them is off the charts which comes to awesomely satisfying fruition first in the sex scenes and more fully in the depth of their emotion towards each other.

We loved the respect, support and interest that Nadine and Rome had for each other’s work. First Nadine never hid or apologised for her job as an escort and after an initial faux pas, Rome didn’t bother about hiding Nadine or her work from her new colleagues either. Gold has created two impressively original ideas for both her leading ladies work-wise. Besides her job as an escort, Nadine is a perfumer. The impressive originality in Nadine’s work as a perfumer is the line she’s working on. Similarly, Rome is an app developer, but the app she has created to measure an individual’s carbon footprint is fabulous. We’re not sure if something like that already exists, but are convinced that it should exist.

Besides the two winsome leads and their fantastic relationship, there is Gold’s description of places – Rome in this case. We believe that Gold has actually travelled to each place she writes about, has experienced it all and shares the best parts of each new place in ways that make it irresistible. With this one, we felt frenwah for Rome. (Fernweh is a German word that translates as ​‘farsickness’ and refers to ​“feeling homesick for a place you've never been or could never go.”)

Thankfully, there is no angst created between Nadine and Rome in their relationship. The conflict and drama comes from outside their relationship in a #MeToo scenario. We wish all women who have ever been harassed or abused by men (in power particularly) received the kind of quick resolution as they did in this one. But then fiction is free to create utopia and we can hope it comes to pass in real life at some point too.

All in all, this one is most definitely recommended. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Rough Around The Edges by Crystal Chard

⭐⭐⭐☆

Roxanne Mackenzie, a talented writer was on her way to Warwick University with a full scholarship when her life took an abrupt turn. Her mum was diagnosed with cancer and her needs outgrew the care that Roxanne's sister, Emma, who their mum lives were there, was capable of providing. She needs to be admitted into a home. Emma and their brother, Ben, are willing to pay all the costs for the luxurious home that they've identified, but as the oldest sibling, Roxanne feels compelled to contribute her share. Which means she needs to earn a lot of money without any real qualifications -- and ends up becoming a stripper.

During one of her daily visits with her mum, Roxanne meets Josie Calhoun, a professor who comes and reads poetry to Roxanne's mum a few times a week. There is an immediate draw between the two of them. On a night out with her friend end (and housemate), Clara, Roxanne meets Josie at a club. Josie asks her out but Roxanne doesn't quite answer.

Finally they do go on a date and things progress from there.

Written in first person PoV (Roxanne's), this book has some interesting characters. Besides Roxanne and Josie, the author also gives depth to Clara and the mum's personalities (even Emma is fairly defined, though to a lesser degree). So we have plenty of well-defined and well-realised characters (and all except one are likeable). The story is not superficial so you are completely drawn into the happenings and the people.

One of the scenes we absolutely loved was when very early in their relationship, Roxanne confesses that she is a 'pusher' by nature, i.e. She has a tendency to push people away. If only this kind of self-awareness and honesty was there IRL. Josie understands and offers that they work through this towards seeing where their relationship can go together. Wouldn't it be wonderful if such things happened outside books? (Interestingly, Josie calls herself a 'runner' but far from running, she singlehandedly builds the relationship with Roxanne -- despite Roxanne).

Initially, we liked both the leading ladies a lot. But as the book progressed, Josie grew in awesomeness and Roxanne diminished in personhood. Josie is open, honest, upfront, loving, caring and giving. On the other hand, we found Roxanne to be an emotional taker. She took not only from Josie, but also from her mate, Cayden and from Clara without really giving back,  She's not a user, just a shameless (maybe even unaware), self-absorbed, self-pitying taker. She way too woe-is-me without having any reason whatsoever for it. Everyone in her life (including the manager of the club where she works) is supportive and supporting of her and there for her in every way possible. So yeah, Roxanne was an epic fail as a person we could empathise or sympathise with.

One of the most interesting characters is the mother. We've not met any other pragmatic nihilist in lesfic and she was just so real. Such people aren't common but they are so real and we were delighted with her.

This is almost the first self-published lesfic we've read that has maybe zero typos, zero wrongly spelt words and zero misused words. Hallelujah! 

This is a well written book and though the main protagonist did not work for us, a good read nevertheless.

⭐⭐⭐☆

After Mrs Hamilton by Clare Ashton

⭐⭐⭐⭐

We’re kind of bamboozled by this book. It is completely out of any boundaries and expectations set for lesroms. It is twisting, twisted and throbs with secrets clawing to get out. It is intense and entirely immersive.

Mrs. Hamilton, an American, knows her husband is cheating on her with someone across the pond. She meets the woman, Marella, a high class prostitute, to find that the woman in question doesn’t take clients herself any more but makes perfect matches for her clients. Mrs. Hamilton is in a state of existential ennui where the cheating doesn’t matter anymore and to give validity to her meeting arranges for an escort for herself. As she is waiting, taking in the square below the balcony of her hotel room, she changes her mind and cancels the tryst. Clo, Mrs. Hamilton’s assigned escort (“Prostitution. You can call it what it is,” says Clo.), doesn’t receive the cancellation message in time and turns up. The two women connect and spend the night together talking, with a side of a massage thrown in. In spending the night with Mrs. Hamilton, Clo misses her meeting with her friend, Laura, who’s going through a rough patch in her marriage and with Susan, a friend rediscovered after decades who has just come to London from the States. Laura and Susan end up spending the evening together with Susan holding Laura through a meltdown.

The four lives crisscross and tangle with other lives in strange ways. The book fairly vibrates with threat of something racing to derail the new relationships in a way you want to know what’s coming next and each character’s past. You find yourself praying for the lovers to get together. You desperately want them to be together and are as willing to write the rest of the story yourself as you are to read what is already written.

It is a great achievement that by the end of the book, you are actually uncertain about morally ambiguous relationships and are left wondering what relationship you actually want for the complicated characters – especially the unresolved relationship in the end. We have a sneaking suspicion that Ashton actually started off planning a Fran/Isabelle or a Fran/Amelia relationship in the past – but even she couldn’t handle the complications that the latter pairing would cause.

Admittedly the depth of emotions between characters is rather fast, but given the intensity of the book, you don’t realise the insta-emotions aspect much.

This complicated book (with some great sex scenes to boot) is certainly a lesfic must-read.

⭐⭐⭐⭐