Monday, February 1, 2010

Bad Girls Without Borders

Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl
by Tracy Quan


Genre; Fiction/Erotic/Trick-lit
Publisher; Harper Collins/London/2008
Pages; 246

Plot; Nancy Chan is one of New York's most professional escorts, and one of it's most organised. Balancing her married life and her secret professional life it is understandable the risk she must take when one of her regular, and most appreciative, clients asks her to join him for two weeks at his villa in southern France.

When Nancy accepts the invite Milt has extended she is unaware of the issues this will raise and how close her married life will come to danger.

From the moment Nancy (AKA "Suzy") lands in France, accompanied by her closest working friend Allison, she finds herself thrown into a religious war between the gutsy and proud alliance of international prostitutes and the maliciously dangerous group against them. But this is the least of her problems as her colleagues start to disappear into the cells of French prisons while her sister-in-law starts to suspect Nancy's questionable activities, all through which Nancy must maintain a prefessional "agenda" around her client and must fight the strong and dominating urges brought on by her client's homosexual (and intoxicatingly muscular) cook, Duncan.

My Thoughts; What a fun read! Engaging, humourous, nail-biting and (most importantly) tantilising. I couldn't put it down.

I have read many books from this genre and they can be predictable; sex, issues in personal life, a bit more sex and a happy ending. Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl is so much more than that. Yes, there is the sex (and it is good sex!) but the reader also gets the juicy extras of a religious war, Interpol investigations and a nosey sister-in-law all set in a beautiful location with history and architecture.

When I first sat down with this book, I admit, my intent was to get a light hearted read in before delving into my next two heavy novels. I never expected that as well as getting that entertainment I would also be educated. There is so much more to these girls lives then motel rooms and dodging police, which is what I initially thought, the pure organisation of their activities is impressive. They could shame a top PA's organisational abilites!

What I most liked about this book (apart from the guilty pleasure) is the way that Quan has aproached the events. She has, ever so brilliantly, linked all the aspects of the story together so harmoniously. This book is like one of those movies you watch (such as Love Actually) that is full of lots of little stories that are only linked together by a character in one story being linked to a character in another, although I cannot give an example of such a link without giving away a bit of the story and I wouldn't want to ruin the fun of this book.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates and enjoys this genre because this book takes that genre to another level, a more involved level. And for anyone who hasn't read anything from this genre, or is sceptical, I would also recommed Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl as a great read full of unexpected events and good times.

5 comments:

  1. I can't say I've ever heard of "trick lit" but it sounds funny. This sounds like something my husband would like!!!

    Hope life settles down a little for you.

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  2. Jenners- Thanks, I hope it does to, which it should now that I have gotten into the swing of it.
    I too hadn't heard of "trick-lit" until I read this book, but it is such a great, applicable term isn't it!

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  3. That sounds like an excellent read! Thanks for sharing it!

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  4. Not one I'd normally pick up based on the title alone, but from your review it sounds really good.

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  5. I'll admit, I would've never thought a book like this would sound enticing, but after reading your review I will have to check it out! Thanks for the review!

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