Title: Innocence on Film
Series: Selling Out, #1
Author: Lilith Duvalier
Genre: Contemporary/ Erotic Romance
Length: 114 pages
Publisher: Evernight Publishing (March 24th, 2015)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3 Hearts
Blurb: It’s a rich man’s world. Shawn and Fletcher are just trying to survive in it. Unemployed, down on their luck, and three months behind on their rent, the two of them realize that it’s time to throw in the towel. Their dream of escaping Ainsworth, Iowa (pop. 658) is dead. Within the week, they’ll be evicted, shipped back to their respective parent’s houses to drown in student debt they can’t pay back, and watch their high school girlfriends raise other men’s’ children.
But when they take the last of their money to a bar to drown their sorrows, a well-dressed man with a big wad of cash and a little website offers them a life line. A jaunt across town, a quick tryst for the cameras and the cash is theirs.
The outrageous proposition is their only hope, but each enters the studio with secrets. What will it cost them to bare it all?
ISBN: 978-1-77233-290-2
Evernight: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/innocence-on-film-by-lilith-duvalier/
Reviewer: Kenna
Review: “Innocence on Film” is a short, sweet, and to the point erotic romance. However, I’m not sure if I’d call it “sweet” per se. Let me explain.
Shawn and Fletcher are broke…hopelessly, haplessly, broker than broke. They’re months behind on their rent, and neither of them have a job at the moment. They resign themselves to moving back to Iowa and being miserable. The boys decide to take their last 40 dollars, go to a bar, and get drunk. While they’re there, the bartender says he knows someone who can help them out and points them to man on the other end of the bar.
That man approaches them with an offer they pretty much can’t refuse (in a hilariously written German dialect, no less). He pays men to have sex on camera. At this point, I should mention that Shawn and Fletcher are straight. They’ve been with women all their lives and they don’t really have much inclination to change, except the money can pay their back rent and keep them in the big city for several months while they try to get back on their feet.
According to the German man, straight men having gay sex for the first time is very popular on the internet right now, and he’s got a website that caters to those who love that type of film.
As you can guess, Shawn and Fletcher take the man up on his offer. They’re nervous, but they figure that, since they’re best friends, everything would be alright in the long run. The German man gives them a rundown on what he’d like them to do, then turns the camera on and tells the boys to get on with it. It’s awkward at first, but soon, they give themselves over to the passion, and they have really great sex. They leave the building with their cash, but there are feelings between them they didn’t expect.
The rest of the story focuses on Shawn and Fletcher coming to terms with what they did. Shawn hides out in his room for weeks, not really wanting to see Fletcher. Meanwhile, Fletcher goes and gets a job helping to design a certain gay movie company’s website. They keep thinking about each other and that night. They’re confused and even a little scared. Finally, it’s the day when their movie is to debut on the site. How do they feel about that?
I liked “Innocence on Film”. I didn’t love it. I wanted to because the blurb really grabbed me. I usually fall in love with at least one of the MC’s, but Shawn and Fletcher never really moved me. Their personalities rubbed me the wrong way, and I was getting so angry with Shawn for not facing Fletcher and talking things out. He was cowardly, in my opinion, and I just can’t get past that.
The single sex scene was off the charts hot, but the romance that I wanted to see develop never really came about. As I mentioned, they thought about each other a lot, but that just wasn’t enough for me.
This was a very short read. It took me just over an hour to get through it, and I’m not sorry I read it, but I just felt like there should have been more…more romance, more sex, and more communication.
Just more.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *