Tricked Out by J.M. Snyder

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Will is an Afro American cop just out of a month of leave of absence: his last case ended pretty bad, with his informer (and lover) dead. A drugs addicted with some friend in the wrong circle, Teabag was a guy in search of trouble, but it was Will who asked him to pass over information on his friends, and so Will blames himself for his death.

But Will seems to not be able to learn from his mistakes, and the first day he is again on duty, he drags the street to hook up with an hustler, Corey. Corey is a 23 years old college student who dumped university for an easier profession, and he is quite happy with his new work. He also looks upon six other guys, he is not a pimp, but he makes sure that all of them pays for rent and bills, and some of them are even still at university. But when a man begins to prey on "his" boys, beating them pretty bad, he asks Will for help. And Will has to be sure to not doing the wrong thing a second time.

Mmm, first of all, let me say that I like the book, but I'm beginning to wonder if what I always believe is true. Means that I always believe that whoring (or hustling) should not be a "nice" thing, that who does it, always has to be a "tortured" soul, someone in need of help. And instead this is not the first book where I read of hustlers who are quite happy of their life and that are planning to do that for a bit, till they obviously will find a nice man to set up. In this book this situation is driven to the extreme point: not only Corey is happy with his life, he is also quite a "normal" guy in his everyday life, a nice home, a bunch of friends... he also says that since he likes sex, he doesn't see any wrong reason in gaining some money doing it.

Yes in the end the story is a bit of Pretty Woman turning Pretty Man; we all know that in the end Will will do the "right" thing and will make Corey an "honest" man; actually, Corey has a more ordinary life than Will, and probably it will be Corey that will take a bit of normality in Will's life. The suspence subplot is easy and not too complex to unveil, but actually it's not the important thing of the story. And also it's strange but, the story ends very quickly, and yes, it's not very long, 80 pages, but I read it really in a blur... for me this is a good thing, since it means that I like it and I want to know what happens next as soon as possible, but, well, I'd like to have a bit more to read.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-releases/tricked-out/prod_140.html

Amazon Kindle: Tricked Out

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Comments

[lddurham.livejournal.com]

I know of quite a few gay men who hustled with no other reasons than it was easy money doing something they enjoyed. One is in stocks and such now with no problems. The hang-ups around paid sex isn't as prevalent in the gay community as it is in the hetero community. I'm glad that this book seems to showcase that, so I'm definitely going to check it out. Thanks!

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Well for sure this is the first book where the hustler is not at all "tortured" or lost soul in search of the right man to help him out of his misery. If not for the bad guy who begins to stir problems for him and his guys, Corey would probably continue with his life for another few years and then turns himself in the perfect "house-husband" for a nice man.