Toy: a contemporary m/m romance.
Troy the toy isn’t looking for a relationship. He gets all the sex he needs whilst working at Priapus: a brothel in inner city Melbourne.
Over the past three years, he has learned to turn himself off and load his Tommy program whenever he is with a client. A saleable commodity in today’s consumer society, he is well aware that his cute twink appeal has an expiry date, but he is content for now with the status quo.
That is, until his homophobic high school bully books an appointment.
Seeing Nick Stephanides again after all these years gives Troy’s operating system a bit of a jolt. Troy has always assumed that Nick is straight, but Nick is gay, lonely and determined to start a bromance with Troy. How can Troy say no to those broad shoulders?
Troy and Nick begin a tentative friendship, whilst Troy continues to provide good customer service to his clients, some of whom have very interesting requests.
Offering advice and support are his friends at Priapus: Melissa, his manager, who keeps a maternal eye on her boys, Brett, the bear and Ari, the surfie dude, whose passionate love affair is the catalyst for much soul searching, Qiu, the cheery Goth and Damien, the beautiful redhead who, for some reason, tenses up at the mere suggestion that Troy might one day break his dating embargo.
And then there’s Desmond the politician, who pays to watch Troy dance.
Of course, Troy’s operating system is bound to glitch sooner or later. Will it be Nick who finally sneaks under his defences? There is that ancient proverb about Greeks bearing gifts…
Word count: 90,000 words
Note: For illustrations, pinch and zoom. My illustrations are in colour, which won't show up on a standard Kindle or Kindle Paperwhite eReader. You can view in colour with the Kindle App on your phone, tablet or desktop, or with a Kindle Fire device.
(contains spoilers)
A VVivacious Review: Toy by R Parr
Troy works as a sex worker at a licensed brothel, Priapus where one day a client turns out to be his old high school bully, Nick. Things immediately go south but Nick decides to make things right and apologises for mistreating Troy when they were in high school. Nick proposes they start a bromance but things get messy when Troy realises a bromance isn’t all he wants.
With a whole host of characters, Toy is a romance about taking chances and putting yourself out there.
I really liked this story, even though it used the miscommunication trope which I really hate but it made it work. Even though all I really wanted was for Nick and Troy to talk about their feelings the fact they didn’t till the end wasn’t such a stretch of imagination and works very well given the plot.
Troy starts working part-time as a brothel as a way to support his mother while still going to Uni but when Uni gets over and Troy finds himself overqualified and under-experienced for most job opportunities and he decides to take up the work full time. I really liked the way the author handles this accept of Troy’s characterisation. I really liked the level of maturity that this book has while dealing with this topic. Also, I instantly liked Troy.
Troy is a very likeable character and I found myself invested in him very quickly. He is really lovable and fun. He radiates so much positivity that you can’t help but gravitate towards him.
I really loved all the characters at the brothel, Brett, Ari, Qiu, Melissa and Damien and even their various clients with their quirks. All those conversations in the staff room made for a lot of fun moments. Also, it was really good to revel in the level of friendship these characters share.
Nick is a nice guy and mostly I am not miffed about him and Troy getting together but it is pretty obvious from the beginning that Damien also likes Troy and while Damien’s feelings are handled very respectfully I really wanted Damien to have more of a chance because I was really intrigued with that idea. So, my opinion of Nick is very biased even though I can objectively point out the author works hard and succeeds at making Nick a three-dimensional character while limited to Troy’s POV.
In the end, this was a real slice-of-life kind of fiction, salty and sweet with all the emotions mixed it. In the end, I was really satisfied with this book and the ending we got.
This book has a bunch of illustrations and photographs that didn’t show up well on a kindle but despite that hindrance, they really added to the story and I liked the personal touch. Also, the author hid a heart in every illustration and it was fun to go back and try to find each one in the end. Overall, I had a great time reading this book.
Cover Art by R. Parr. I like the cover, I think the illustration of Troy on the cover really lends to his character and how he perceives himself.
