The Strip

Pic courtesy Amazon

I'll admit it. I judged this book by the cover and got suckered into reading it. Even though there wasn't much to captivate me here, curiosity got the better of me. What's 'The Strip'? A Strip Joint? A Street? A Club? The cover tells me nothing!! Which only meant I had to read this book.

The Strip by J.J. Salem is one of those books that I can sum up in two sentences...Yeah...That's how entertaining it is.

What started off as a remotely interesting plot turned into an absolute dud just a few pages into the book. This whole male prostitution - oops, 'Stud' (that's what the book calls it) angle - got real boring real soon. Cam Lawford plays a male gigolo who is supposed to be 'the perfect man'. He is shown as someone who makes no mistakes, always says and does the right things and not ONCE comes across as a real character...and then he dies! (Not a spoiler, it's in the first few pages!) Because such a man is like a unicorn! He doesn't exist! He can also not be called a prostitute because of said qualities. Because calling him a prostitute tarnishes this perfect image we're supposed to have of him. It makes his 'services' dirty.

 I felt like a group of teenage girls talked about what a perfect man should be like and that's how the character Cam Lawford was created. Not even the sex scenes seemed believable. Cam ALWAYS knew how to please his women and at one part talks about how in one night him and his partner came five times. Then he goes off to keep his 'next appointment'. Right! Believable! He's young, fit, has tons of stamina and making a living out of his well endowed penis. But really? Really! For a book that is 90% about him providing satisfaction to women, it sure manages to skip description. I'm not saying I'm looking for smut but if this is what you're teasing the readers with it's probably a good idea to go through with this so called promise.

Back to the story. I felt like I was reading a book that was meant for Junior High Kids because everything was very PG 15/18. There's nothing that makes you feel connected to the characters. It's strange though because it's supposed to be women getting pleased here but it's clearly shown from the perspective of a man, Is the following really what women want? Cam compliments them, builds their self confidence, massages their egos and yeah eventually sleeps with them. The last bit is just something to seal the deal to make him THE PERFECT MAN! *Rolling my eyes*

Apart from our Stud in this book, we have the usual cliché characters. Evil husbands, cheating wives, rebellious kid, ugly relationships to justify cheating...yawn! No one cares. Even when the main characters are facing life threatening situations you can't bring yourself to give a damn.

This next bit really got my goat. The murder in the book was quite pointless. It was pretty clear that it had to be one of the husbands who did it. You can thank me later for this spoiler. The women were too busy getting laid to focus on anything else. The murder is talked about only in the beginning and then you come back to it towards the end of the book. This annoyed me because it promised a murder mystery which turned into smut which then turned into something like chick lit from a man's perspective. The ending was rushed and extremely convenient for everyone except the 'Nice Guy Stud'.