REVIEW: Geisha for Hire by Shawn Bailey

Geisha for Hire by Shawn Bailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

CAUTION: Long Review

Reasons To Hate This Book

1. The female characters, Jayce’s best friend and mother, were pushy and hugely insensitive to his feelings. They forced Jayce to crossdress and pimped him out as the party entertainment for drunk dudes.

2. Jayce, the main character, was basically a dumb bottom. It took him late in the story and a couple sex scenes to realize he — the adult virgin who never once found a girl sexually attractive — liked dudes, that he especially liked his boss. He is completely unaware of how attractive he is to other men and cannot recognize flirting or sexual harassment until it gets physical. And even then...

3. Reuben and Jayce weren’t an official couple until late in the story but that didn't stop Reuben from claiming Jayce in the beginning of the story. Reuben acted possessive of and aggressive towards Jayce. The alpha dude detested the sexual attention Jayce unwittingly attracted and thus Reuben was prone to stabs of jealousy.

4. Genji liked the Jayce too so, yes, there was a love triangle. The issue wasn’t completely resolved as much as, near the end, sidestepped and overlooked in favor of Jayce’s Coming-Out-To-Family issue. There was never a rejection scene between Jayce and Genji.

5. There was an extreme lack of regard for rules at the Jayce’s workplace. Given the multiple romantic entanglements between bosses and their subordinates, professionals and their clients, and the noticeable absence of female workers, the workplace truthfully served as a convenient place for hot gay guys to gather and mingle. Not that there weren't business activities going on — there were, but it was apparent that realism was not a goal of the story.

6. Speaking of realism, the Japanese characters and actions were depicted in a rather exaggerated manner.

7. A few scenes could have stand to be rewritten because they were a tad confusing. I had to reread one non-smutty scene to comprehend.

But This Is A Positive Review

In spite of all these reasons, any one of them enough on their own for me to dislike the book, I enjoyed it. No, seriously, I really did.

Reasons Why I Liked This Book

1. The female characters didn't annoyed me. I actually enjoyed the shenanigans they forced upon Jayce. In spite of their teasing, I saw that they truly loved him. I liked how they gradually made him aware that he wasn’t straight and that the guy he loved was the guy he loved.

2. Jayce was endearing and wasn't totally dumb and passive as I thought. I liked how he stood up and came out to his father near the end. I wholly expected the plot to sidestep the Coming-Out-To-Family issue and, honestly, I would have preferred it, because I wanted the story to stay silly and smutty. However, I’m glad Jayce didn’t have to hide who he was and who his lover was. It was nice bow to the HEA present.

3. Reuben didn't push or near the line that separates Alphas and Abusive Assholes. I enjoyed his reactions towards Jayce. It made for some hot smut; those pages definitely encouraged some leering and rereading from me.

4. The story was written in alternating 3rd PoV between Jayce and Reuben, with Jayce’s PoV as the dominant PoV. With a few other reasons, the story made it really obvious who Jayce was going to end up with so I wasn’t bothered much by the Love Triangle issue fizzling out at the end.

5. Once the book mentioned yaoi early in the story, I knew immediately what the book's intention was: to indulge the readers with a smutty, silly story. I adjusted my expectation and so the lack of realism barely bothered me. This book was actually a lot more realistic, beyond my low expectation, than many of the yaoi-wannabe stories I have read.

6. I thought the American characters and actions were also depicted in a rather exaggerated manner. For the most part, I thought the story did a pretty accurate and considerate job portraying culture differences. Best of all, I liked the depiction that drunk gropey men will be drunk gropey men regardless of their nationality.

7. The book compensated in other ways: the writing was decent, the pacing was fast, and the smut was ample.

In Conclusion

I rate the wannabe-yaoi book 4-stars for I really liked it, because I really did like it. So much in fact that I reread it multiple times after I finished the book.

Honestly, the high rating might have been due to my good mood at the time and the fact that it has been a long while since I read a decent smut. Nonetheless, the story left a very good impression on, and it would be definitely be one of those stories I would reread whenever I need a pick-me-up.