I was so excited to start reading The Fifth Favor and had really high hopes, but I was disappointed that I didn't love it. It just didn't do it for me. I wish it had given me more.
Magazine reporter, Billie Cort, decides to do a story on the life of an escort. And who better than to interview than the best of the best? With the help of Adrian, she hopes to get an inside view of what it's like to cater pleasure to elite women all over the world.
Billie goes into this with her eyes open, but even she can't help but fall under Adrian's allure.
"All you have to do is say three little words, Billie. I want you. You can whisper them in my ear, and nobody has to know but you and me."
"I simply enjoy sex, enjoy giving pleasure, especially when the woman appears to have known so little in her life."
Adrain is every women's dream. He's sexy, confident, and greatbetween the sheets. He has everything he needs, and everything he wants. His dark, soul-searing eyes have a way of discovering a woman's needs and exploiting it. He was everything and anything you wanted him to be.
“She grabbed her briefcase and took a step toward him. “You don’t have a last name?”
“Everyone has a last name.” His hand hovered in the air, waiting. He was forcing her to cross the marble floor to meet him, and like a Luna moth drawn to a midnight moon, she drifted toward him.
When she reached him, she took his hand and looked up into his face. “Is it Jones? Smith? Or Brown?”
His lips twitched. “None of the above.”
“And you won’t tell me?”
“It’s not necessary information.”
She tilted her head, studying his angular features. “You don’t look like an Adrian.”
His smile broadened. “Imagine that.”
“More like a Carlos, or a Juan, or a Diego.”
“Those are Hispanic names.”
“Aren’t you Hispanic?”
“I’m anything you want me to be.”
I didn't like Billie. There was nothing apparent that made me dislike her, but I just didn't feel connected to her. She was portrayed as confident, but even from the beginning, I wasn't seeing that. I felt that she was self-conscious and too trusting, like she was a pretty little lamb and the big, bad wolf was ready to snatch her up at any second.
She was real. A glimpse of the past, when life was simpler, cleaner and more truthful. She was vulnerable and pretty.
I liked that this book had alternating POV. It gave me a chance to really know what both Billie and Adrain felt and experienced.
I also liked that Adrain chose to become an escort. There wasn't some sort of past trauma that made him chose this lifestyle for self-degradation .
I din't connect with the story, though. It was like I was just a spectator, watching everything that unfolded without feeling like I was going through everything with them. It was almost like being told the story secondhand without reading it myself.
One of the biggest issues I had was drama. It was all too angst-y for me. It was back and forth "we can make it work, no we can't" "she'll never accept me, he'll never open up" "but I need her, I love him". Like chose a side and stick with it. If they really wanted things to work, they would have put more effort. Or maybe they could have communicated. Something that had seemed to fly out the window once they met each other. About 3/4 of the way through I just said 'You know what?'
Things do get settled in the end, and there's a HEA, but the ride there was exhausting.
"I love you..."
"Then make love to me.
Show me how, Billie."