Bullet
I’m in love with a woman. Yes, I know, that’s quite a way to break the news. But seriously, I’m in love with a woman. Her name is Garrett Leigh and, if you have not read any of her books, I recommend you to do it the sooner, the better. She is EXACTLY my cup of tea.
I feel she writes only for me, she hit every (good) nerve and every (correct) button with [b:Slide|18487180|Slide (Roads, #1)|Garrett Leigh|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1379124316s/18487180.jpg|26168074] and [b:Rare|19546691|Rare (Roads, #2)|Garrett Leigh|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387440135s/19546691.jpg|27677648]. But seeing this one that short I thought it would be a superficial thing, above all due to the topic: porn.
Because, really, try to understand me, what could I expect with only 100 pages and films for adults? Only sex, sex and sex, right? Well, that’s a lie. I was really shocked to find the opposite of what I was looking for. There is an actual story here, and it amazes me how she achieved it.
Garrett Leigh writes to kill. She is unstoppable. She’s not afraid of writing anything challenging and different from each other of her books, that kind of plots who makes me wonder “WTF? Is she really going to make it work? Is she nuts?”. But believe me, she ends up making it all perfect. I don’t know her secret, maybe it’s hidden between the Coca-Cola recipe and Freddie Mercury’s voice, she is that UNIQUE.
If you are her fan, you will love this one. The MC are typical GL: they are more than they seem at the beginning. Categorizing them is useless, there is no predetermined type. When we meet someone for the first time, without us realizing it, we classify them: the physical appearance, the words, the gestures, the way of walking or the accent, everything. We are copies of somebody, in parts if not in the whole. We recognize parts of someone from our past experiences and then we form an opinion, and that’s called prejudice. I did that here, I classified the MC instantly and I could consider myself lucky if I hit the mark at half of it. I’m knocked out. K.O.
The only constant in her characters is that they are tortured souls. Maybe they lived throughout a traumatic past, maybe they suffered important injures, maybe they can’t go on in life due to apparently superfluous reasons. But they never turn out as I expect them to do, but still, in a way, it fits their nature and I don’t feel cheated like I do in some movies when they don’t give enough clues and invent the ending out of the blue. She manages to give enough clues and still be surprising.
Levi is a veteran in the porn world, to the point to consider it all routine, and Sonny’s taking his first steps in the industry. Levi is a top and has never bottomed. Sonny is a bottom and despises Levi’s way of treating the guys he fucks. But Levi is positioned in a hard place and is forced to make a scene that changes everything he ever experienced, so Sonny takes pity on him and decides to help him to prepare for what’s to come.
So, everything is very crude and sexual, with no place for feelings, and the MC are determined to make it business and duty. But God laughs at people’s plans.
I didn’t get on with Levi at first. He was quite cold and arrogant for me. A big dick, in every sense of the word. I thought it would remain like that the whole book, but he got under my skin with his cynical way of moving behind the cameras. Sonny is also cautious with him, even crude and rough when they interact. Levi is selfish, he looks only for himself and doesn’t waste time in looking for others. But Sonny’s words give him food for thought and he begins to question some of his actions and, reluctantly, he changes after a fashion.
Sonny is more hermetic because we don’t have his POV. He enters the scene like a tornado, turning Levi’s world upside down. He is defiant and takes no shit from Levi. I still wanted to know something more about him after finishing the book, he is much more than a smart-ass go-go dancer. And that’s what Levi is going to discover.
An unexpected marvelous surprise, this one. Porn movie turned into a love story. I’m beginning to think GL has the Midas touch, there is no other explanation. I even have a shelf only for her, that's my thing with GL.
