Review: ~TEASE
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 20, 2013
Told in what feels like a series of interconnected first-person POV vignettes from the perspective of male escort Liam "Coop" Cooper, Tease poses an interesting read. It's rare to get an erotica from the male perspective which does set it apart from the pack from the beginning; it is doubly rare to get an erotica from the male perspective where he's both likable as well as desirable.Coop sold the story for me. He is the epitome of physical perfection in a man, but he's always portrayed as very much a Good Guy. Coop loves his family above everything else, winds up being the punch-line in quite a few jokes which come from anecdotes of his youth, and has some really amusing quirks that humanize him into a completely believable, fully realized character.It doesn't hurt that his descriptions of his sessions with clients are blistering, either.Sex is Coop's business and he does it well. He's very cavalier about it without ever giving the reader the impression that he doesn't enjoy the time he spends with his clients or that he thinks less of them for hiring his services. Coop is young enough to still be able to appreciate the thrill of the encounters which helped to keep me interested in what would happen with his next appointment. I admit, I'd have read the book if his main love interest had never made an appearance and I still would have loved it purely for how much fun his escapades were to read about.Mia does show up as a love interest for Coop into the book at a decent point, though I, personally, would have preferred a little more lead-up to her introduction in the story. I think it works from a stylistic choice because the book is in first-person so it makes sense that I, as a reader, would have been surprised to see her since Coop, the main character, also didn't expect to see her again.First-love or the-one-that-got-away could both be applied to Mia in terms of her position as the female protagonist. Given how much I already liked Coop, I wasn't sure how much I was going to care for her though she surprised me by being both the innocent and the minx at the same time. A lot of her charm comes from the fact that she has only known Coop as an awkward, geeky teenager which lends the reader the ability to see him as something other than a fantasy-for-hire.What kept me loving the book as it moved through their story was that Coop never stopped being Coop, Mia only became more interesting as I learned more about her, and the fabulously varied clients Coop worked with kept popping in for cameos that made everything come together to be one cohesive story of a life.Overall, I would give it 4/5 stars for being a very enjoyable read with some kinky surprises (including a few sessions with a husband-and-wife couple who aren't shy about what they want) and wonderfully 'real' characters.~Shandra Torbett, review based on a complimentary copy received from the author for an honest review on behalf of This Redhead LOVES Books Blog[...]