Title: Facade
Series: N/A
Author: Zahra Owens
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (236 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (October 2009)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3Hearts
Blurb: Jonas Hunter is a high-class body for hire with a small, exclusive, mostly male clientèle who pay big bucks for his undivided time and attention. Discretion is Jonas’s middle name—he can play his role to the hilt for the client’s benefit and at the same time disappear seamlessly into a crowd, safely anonymous.
He’s persuaded to take on a new client who is everything he despises in a man: the effeminate, tantrum-throwing, attention-seeking bad boy of Paris haute couture named Nicky Bryant. Nicky’s shows are outrageous and always good for a front cover, and his appearance never fails to turn heads. But Jonas soon learns Nicky is a carefully maintained façade himself.
As a fiery attraction grows, Jonas and Nicky have to find a way to walk the tightrope between their public and private personas. They’ll need to learn to love and trust each other around the other people in their lives if they’re going to share their hearts.
ISBN: 978-1-61581-076-5
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1560
Reviewer: Mags
Review: Jonas Hunter is a high-class body for hire with a small, exclusive, mostly male clientele who pay big bucks for his undivided time and attention. Discretion is Jonas’s middle name—he can play his role to the hilt for the client’s benefit and at the same time disappear seamlessly into a crowd, safely anonymous. He’s persuaded to take on a new client who is everything he despises in a man: the effeminate, tantrum-throwing, attention-seeking bad boy of Paris haute couture named Nicky Bryant.
I chose “Façade”, because I found the cover fun, I read the blurb and thought it sounded good. Then I started reading. For the first 80 pages or so of this book, I was interested, and thought that there was a lot of potential for Nicky and Jonas to find romance. Then, out of nowhere, there is a ménage (m/f/m). Which is not so bad in itself, but for me this started a kind of creepy feel to the characters.
Nicky has an undefined relationship with Tanna, his assistant and at one point has unprotected sex with someone else and, everyone is ok with this? Plus there are several sex scenes that may turn readers off, many voyeurs’ scenes, graphic manage m/f/m. The publisher should have disclosed that this was not a full m/m story, as I can’t imagine this would make many m/m readers happy.
For me there are too many gratuitous sex scenes that do not enhance the already weakening plot line of this story. Maybe the author doesn’t understand fidelity, which is needed, for me, to even begin to feel any romantic connection between the two main characters.
The reader gets nothing about either of the main characters back-story. You don’t believe that they can come to any compromise that would lead them to end up together. There is neither character growth nor any real journey. Jonas comes across as flat and Nicky is underdeveloped, too many gratuitous sex scenes that in no way further the meagre plot or relationship.
Some issues pop up, like a photo of the Jonas and Nicky having sex ends on the internet, but nothing happens, no scandal, nothing. Makes you question what the point of it was except to add to all the other unbelievable issues this story brings.
I felt especially let down by “Façade”, because of the engaging start, but, the author was unable to capture the fulfil potential this story started with. At this point, I am unsure if I will take another chance on this author.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *