SURVIVAL - Jade Falconer

Phaze - www.Phaze.com

ISBN - 13 : 978-1-59426-864-9

ISBN - 10: 59426-864-9

March 2008

Erotic Gay Contemporary

Los Angeles, California - Present

Gabriel White has what many people would call a great life. He is good-looking with a bright future ahead of him, a successful career as an attorney in a big prestigious law firm, and a fiancée, who just happens to be the Mayor's daughter. But Gabriel aches and longs for something or someone that he dare not name. Should he take the chance? Dare he take the chance? As if decreed by fate, one night Gabriel, shaking and terrified, goes looking for his fantasy. Only one taste, only one time, he tells himself. Gabriel finds what he is looking for, a prostitute by the name of Nicky. But making one's fantasy a reality comes at a price; Gabriel's price is obsession for the one thing that could take away everything Gabriel has worked for so long and hard.

Is Nicky Gabriel's salvation or ultimately his downfall?

Nicky left home when he was seventeen-years-old, or to be more exact, was thrown out by his homophobic father. Two years later, penniless and prettier than most women, Nicky lives life as male prostitute, leaving him cold, cynical beyond his years, and feeling dirty. Gabriel is not like the other men who have picked up Nicky. He is too good-looking, nice and he looks like he has never done anything like this before. To say Nicky enjoys Gabriel's lovemaking, is saying a lot. Prostitution is a job to Nicky, and love is for people unlike him. Then why does Nicky fantasizes about Gabriel treating him like a real lover, and the sex between them more than a business transaction? Why does Nicky long to be with Gabriel all the time and in a real relationship, what is that, if it is not love?

SURVIVAL is too hard edged to be put in the same category as the movie "Pretty Woman," where a prostitute meets a wealthy guy and a relationship develops between the two. The language is blunt and rough, and the situations that Nicky encounters are unpleasant and non-erotic, for him and the reader. It does not help that Nicky is only nineteen-years-old, eleven years younger than Gabriel and, that at first glance, SURVIVAL'S plot seems contrived. However, this reviewer came to care quite a lot for Nicky and Gabriel, rooting for them and hoping that each would find peace. Told from the point of view of both Nicky and Gabriel, their emotional neediness and vulnerability raises them above practically every sordid situation that they encounter, making them more than one-dimensional characters stuck in a kinky, erotic novel.

Although an imperfect book, I liked SURVIVAL but I know that it will not be to most reader's taste. Warning, I only recommend SURVIVAL to those who don't mind a hard edged, downright kinky homoerotic novel that underneath is about as close to a fairytale as one can get. If you dare, go to Phaze for your copy.

Nickole Yarbrough