Title: Rented Heart
Author: Garrett Leigh
Page count: 190 pages
Genre: M/M Romance, Contemporary
Blurb:
Ex-surfer-turned-businessman Liam Mallaney moved back to Holkham, Norfolk, to mourn the loss of his husband. Grief and loneliness keep him a solitary figure, and he likes it that way. There’s no room in his broken heart for anything else.
Rentboy Zac Payne left London and most of his demons behind, but he still only knows one way to make a living. When he spots Liam in a club one night, it seems he’s found his mark. But Liam proves nicer — and their connection far deeper — than he’d bargained for.
Their arrangement quickly becomes too complicated for Zac, who has other things on his mind: namely his BFF and wayward flatmate, Jamie. Zac owes Jamie the world, and even as Jamie’s drug addiction destroys all they have, Zac won’t leave him behind.
Besides, Liam knows nothing of Zac’s home life, too caught up in his own head to think much beyond the crazy heat he and Zac share. But when trouble comes to Zac’s door, putting his life in danger, Liam must set his grief and anger aside to pick up the pieces of Zac’s shattered heart and his own.
YASH! I’m so glad I started this year with this book. Hopefully, most of the books I’ll read this year will be as good as this one!
This is not a new book and I have no idea why I didn’t read it till now, especially since I dig the whole rent-boy theme. But it’s better later than ever!
The story is about Zac, a gorgeous rent-boy who goes out one day to look for a new “john”, and manages to catch Liam, a hot and rich older man. Liam is a widower, and hasn’t been with anyone since his husband’s death. He’s shocked to find out that he was picked up by a hooker, but Zac is pretty irresistible.
They have sex and go on their separate ways. But pretty quickly they find out that they can’t stop thinking about each other, so they meet again, and again, and their relationship soon becomes much more intimate and emotional. They just want to be with each other, even without the sex, and it scares them both.
This story has angst, but I have to admit that I expected it to be a lot more angsty. Not that I’m complaining or anything, I think that the level of angst was just right, and the book still broke my heart a little. There are a LOT of sexy times, and I’m definitely not complaining about that either. These two were HOT together, and even though I sometimes feel like skipping when there’s too much sex in a book, I didn’t feel like skipping anything in this case, it didn’t feel repetitive at all.
I do have a small warning though. Zac didn’t quit his job after he hooked up with Liam, he continued to have sex with other johns. I thought it was pretty realistic, but I know that some people will be bothered by it. So consider yourself warned.
There’s also the issue of drug abuse. Zac is a former junkie, but his roommate and bff, Jamie, is still an addict. And even though he annoyed me at times because he constantly hurt Zac, I did feel sorry for Jamie, and was curious to know how he found himself in that situation. So glad that he’s going to get his own book, and we’ll get to read his story.
Overall, this is a great, not-too-long emotional story, that left me feeling happy and hopeful. A very recommended read.
