Lance Packhard is a sex therapist. He helps women discover their sexuality and enjoy it. He never actually has sex with women in order to accomplish that, but rather considers himself a "sexual surrogate". He just passes along the know-how.
He is an interesting character in a book full of complex characters. He's very charming and friendly but at the same time he is a little jaded when it comes to relationships. At the opening of the book, he is approached by Mrs. Deafly to get her daughter pregnant.
As shocking as her proposition is, for me the most shocking element is the reason she wants him to do it. It's for matters of business rather than simply a desire for grandchildren that motivates her. She comes off as a total harpy in the book. It's amazing that her daughter, Millie, is such a good person. Lance doesn't want to take the assignment. He does not prostitute himself in his career.
However, he has to pay for constant care for his grandmother in addition to a mortgage and other expenses. His plan is to assume another identity and seduce Millie but not take things as far as her mother would like. The money paid to him would be a loan which he would return when his book is published. He ends up getting close to Millie by getting a job working at her exclusive culinary club -- Guilty Pleasures.
I truly enjoyed this story. It's not a quick read but worth the time. The scenes between Millie and Lance's alter-ego "Will" were sweet and sexy, but there was always an underlying tension because you knew that Lance's deception would blow up in his face at some point. She would have to find out that he wasn't who he said he was, even if he was being very emotionally honest with her.
In spite of any differences between them, Lance and Millie are both very sensual -- just in different ways. For Lance, it's about sex, but for Millie it's about food and fabrics. The secondary character Serge -- cook and father-figure to Millie -- grew on me as the story progressed. It was obvious that he cared more about Millie than her own mother did. I wouldn't mind reading more stories set in this world the author created, and perhaps get to check in on Lance and Millie to see how they're doing.
Gorgeous, narcissistic, self-absorbed Lance Packhard is a
sex therapist specializing in Awakenings, helping anorgasmic
women find sexual fulfillment.
Lanceโs spare time is dedicated to the cult of his body and
writing a how-not-to book entitled Sexual Secrets of a
Sexual Surrogate. His personal life consists of Sunday tea
with his grandmother and a monthly night out with his best
friend, George. Oh, and no sex, none whatsoever.
When a wealthy, ruthless mother offers him an enormous sum
to seduce and impregnate her thirty-six-year-old daughter,
Millicent Deafly, a debt-ridden Lance hesitantly agrees.
However, Millicent is not into sex, and definitely not into
Lance. Sheโs chosen the other end of the sensuality spectrum
and is heavily into food. She is bright, bouncy and joyous,
uninhibitedly plump, natural, and completely dedicated to
her palate. The only way Lance will get her attention is if
he dabs soy sauce on his pulse points.
Determined to get close to her, Lance creates an alter
egoโsweetly shy Wilfred Peckliseโand takes a job at
Millicentโs dinner club, Guilty Pleasures.
Guilty Pleasures caters to the flamboyant and the eccentric:
supermodels pigging out, trash-metal rock stars with
penis-piercings and their loving grannies, the widows of
billionaires, and many more oddities.
Lance finds himself immersed in a sensuous world of scents,
tastes, and color, and befriended by Serge Morenoโa
homosexual black dwarf who has had a colorful life as a
prostitute in Istanbul, a fluffer in skin flicks in Vegas,
and is now a celebrity chef in London.
Ironically, Lance isnโt just failing to seduce Millie, but
falling madly in love with her.
Balancing the two lives of Lance and Wilfred becomes next to
impossible when his geeky best friend, George, suddenly
marries and decides to hold the reception at Guilty
Pleasures. Will the truth be uncovered?
No excerpt available.
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