For Ben and Toby, faking it has never felt more real
Dropped by his agency for walking out on a client, professional escort Ben Lassiter is thrown an unexpected lifeline: an assignment to be a boyfriend-for-hire for a family wedding. But there’s a catch. The man who wants him for the weekend is a man who makes Ben’s blood heat, his spine tingle, and his heart pound. A man Ben wants so much, but … pound. A man Ben wants so much, but who doesn’t want him in return.
Toby Hawksmoore, a man Ben’s vowed to stay away from.
Ben and Toby circle each other as they tell themselves their relationship is strictly business. But the hard lines they’ve set and the rules they’ve made are starting to blur.
Escort and client is turning into something neither had bargained for.
*** Faking It is the second in the Rent Boys series but can be read as a stand alone. 71,000 words. HEA and no cliffhangers ***
more
A E Rycart’s books just keep getting better and better.
The first book in this series, Release, blew me away and I wasn’t sure that anything that this author wrote could equal it. I shouldn’t have worried. Faking It is a fabulous story about another rent boy falling for someone he shouldn’t. While this is book two and reads well as a standalone story, I think you will appreciate it more if you read book one first.
Ben has gotten himself off of the streets and now he’s a high-class rent boy, meeting clients in fancy hotels and restaurants as a paid escort who will provide “extras” for the right price. He doesn’t particularly like this line of work but he doesn’t feel like he’s capable of doing anything else.
Toby is a wealthy, pretty disagreeable man who is friends with the boyfriend of one of Ben’s housemates. Ben and Toby had a “moment” at Christmas but Toby ran off and left Ben embarrassed and upset.
Boy, this story is full of all kinds of feels. I was so sad for Toby; his family is awful (except his sister). Toby’s appalling treatment of Ben made me want to shake him. And Ben, he was devastated after what happened between him and Toby but he won’t let anyone see it.
When a book moves me to tears it’s a sure sign of how much I loved it; I shed more than a few reading Faking It. Toby and Ben go through a lot of rough things but A E Ryecart always gives her boys an HEA and the journey, no matter how difficult, is always worth it to get there.
This month marks the fourth anniversary of my discovery of A E Ryecart’s books and I’ve read and loved every single one published since June 2016. I hope she continues writing for a very long time.
A copy of this book was provided to me but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author.
***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***
This was wonderful.
You’ll find yourself falling in love with the plot, several of the characters, and the ending. I love this series and as each book intertwines with the rest of the books, I’d recommend you read them in order.
Ben is a professional escort who has been hired by Toby to go to his sister’s wedding with him. Don’t worry! It will work out, eventually, but there will definitely be some difficult conversations, some apologies and lots of steam!
This is my first book by this author, with no other reason than there are too many books out there and too little time.
I felt the story about Ben and Toby could easily be read as a stand alone but it’s given more meat if you indulge in the previous book.
Ben wormed his way in and I had an instant soft spot for the sweet rent boy, Toby took a bit longer which is
just as his character works on others. Stern, detached and with a loneliness that soon shines through, harbouring a longing for somewhere to belong but without the knowledge of how to get it.
This is a slow burn with little treats speckled throughout the book, it makes you want for more to happen but you
know they are going to need to take their time. As they are too jaded and too skittish to get there any faster,
specially Toby which you just want to roll in to a blanket burrito and love on him.
It’s well written, the language fits though I did think there would be differences to show a class difference between the boys and Toby.
If there were anything that niggled me a bit, it was the constant interruptions when people spoke, but it’s not a deal breaker.