Review: Confessions of a Rentboy by TR Verten

Confessions of a Rent Boy was one of those books I may never have read if the author hadn't sent it to me to review.  The author is new to me and I'd never heard of the publisher, and since I'm one of these rather conservative readers who tends to stick to the bigger league m/m publishers this book would have passed me by entirely.  What a huge shame that would have been because I found this book utterly compelling.

I have to admit the title of the book led me to believe that this was going to be one of those red-hot, sex filled books where the hero loves his job as a prostitute and everything is rosy but this, thankfully, was not at all the case.  Whilst the book is certainly filled with a lot of sex scenes, the subject matter is a realistic view of life as a rent boy with some of the good, bad and in between points of selling your body for a living.  Having said that, this is not a bleak book, although the hero does suffer at times.  This is for two reasons: The strong narrative voice of Andy and the way that the sex is used to show the better clients whilst the worst ones are glossed over a little.

The book is set in Britain, mainly London, and Andy has the voice of many typical British men.  He's a bit of a lad, with a tough inner core.  He's self-deprecatory with a wicked wit and humour.  He's also very honest about his feelings, unapologetically so.  It's this 'take me as you find me' attitude that I found very sympathetic.  He's also unstable at times, mainly because whilst he's had a lot of sex in his life, he hasn't had much in terms of love and genuine affection.  At times I felt so sorry for him as he struggled with loneliness and disappointment, with betrayal and unrequited love.  This is then balanced by the pride he feels in his job, the act of giving of himself to provide a service to other lonely men.  I also liked that he's not conventionally handsome, and even struggles with lack of confidence in his looks and body.  It made him all the more human than these heroes with rippling muscles and movie star looks.  The character of Andy was entirely rounded, filled with depth of emotion, realistic feelings and actions.  He made me laugh, but at times I also wanted to cry.

As I said earlier there's a lot of sex in the book.  However, each sex scene was used to show us something of Andy's development as a person. We see the extreme nerves he felt with his first client, the way he slowly builds up a client base, the different types of men he encounters, and even the way he gentles the nerves of a virgin.  The sex scenes are all so tightly well written and sensuous, even when what is being described isn't always a positive experience.  There's a freshness about the writing and Andy's feelings, especially during the sex, that lifted it beyond mere titillation and made it a part of Andy's experience.

The question for me by the end was how much of this book is a romance.  There's a change in direction towards the end of the book where in a time of weakness Andy goes back to a previous lover. I wondered whether that would turn out to be the focus of the romantic core of the book, or whether he would begin a relationship with one of his clients. I'm not going to spoil things by giving too much away, but the romance is almost secondary in this book to the drama of Andy's life.  The book ends on more of a promise of romance. I found this satisfying enough as my imagination supplied the rest. However, some readers may feel that they want more of a solid happy ending for Andy.

Before I conclude, I want to point out that Andy is bisexual and as such there is some m/f sex in the book. This didn't bother me because it's only briefly described but it may not appeal to all readers of m/m books. I'd urge you not to let it put you off though because you would be missing out on a great book.

Overall, I found this book to be a surprising gem.  The writing is engaging, the character of Andy vivid and extremely sympathetic.  I may not have heard of this author or publisher before, but I'm definitely intending to check out further books from them in the future.  I highly recommend Confessions of a Rentboy with a grade of 'Excellent' to those looking for a book which is strong on character, emotion and drama. I couldn't put it down and intend reading it again very soon.

Buy this book HERE.