Customer Reviews

A 21st Century Courtesan

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had read The Dark Garden and I was expecting something along the same lines. I was in for a surprise. Yes, the book is as described but it goes way beyond that.

It is a study of a woman who has fallen in love and begins to question the way she has lived her life for the past 10 years. The book is an exploration of the life of Valentine written in the first person. It is very detailed. We learn details of her life from childhood until today. She analyzes the choices she has made in the past and she is trying to deal with new choices for her future.

We follow her journey which is at times painful. I was quite engrossed in her life.

The book is also an erotic love story. I think this is the part that makes it a four star instead of five. This is not your typical romance. Valentine has several sex scenes with different men in her life as well as women. After all, she is a modern-day courtesan. I have never read such detailed sex scenes and I mean detailed. I found them a distraction from the part of the book I really enjoyed.

Valentine Day is rich, beautiful, and educated. She is also one of the highest priced courtesans in Beverly Hills and the surrounding area. Her clients ask for her over and over and pamper her with jewels, clothes and trips around the world. Valentine loves sex and relishes each client for the unique person he/she is. Lately, however, Valentine has been feeling restless. Things are starting to bother her that used to never faze her. When a client she is meeting at the opera is unable to attend, Val decides to enjoy her solitude and attends the opera solo. And this night becomes one that Valentine will remember forever - and his name is Joshua Spencer.

Joshua invokes feelings within Val that she has kept buried for longer than she can remember. Knowing that there is no way Joshua would ever love a woman like her, at first she doesn't tell him what she does for a living. The more time they spend together the harder it is to lie to him until Valentine is unable to keep quiet a minute longer. She figures to leave immediately after telling Joshua the truth. Her heart is breaking but Val in unsure of what to do. Imagine her surprise when Joshua reacts to her news in a way that she never envisioned.

Eden Bradley could write erotic romances on a roll of toilet paper and I would read them. Knowing without a doubt that I wanted to read A 21st CENTURY COURTESAN, I was surprised to find it written in the first person point of view. I forged ahead and thank goodness I did because A 21st CENTURY COURTESAN just might be the most emotionally gripping story I have every read from this extremely talented author.

Valentine Day is without a doubt a product of her upbringing. She grew up poor and with less than perfect parents. In order to get out of the horrific life she is in, at a very young age Val makes the decision to leave and never looks back. Making a life and a name for herself, albeit illegally, is what Val thought would make her happy. And for the most part and for many years, it did. However, the life that Val told herself she wanted paled in comparison to the life she craved with Joshua Spencer. Josh made her think of forever and it that petrified her. I fully expected Val to try and sabotage her relationship - I never thought she would take the chances she did. And I am glad for it.

A 21st CENTURY COURTESAN is almost surreal. No one writes erotic love stories like Eden Bradley. Her characters are educated and smart. The love scenes are erotic and intense. The words flow and the storyline is gripping. I experienced a plethora of emotions while reading A 21st CENTURY COURTESAN and now, days after having finished, I find myself thinking of this amazing story and the two characters that had enough guts to take a chance on love. While love is imperfect and has flaws, these two characters showed me what eroticism and true love are about - imperfections and all. Bravo!

Natalie S.

This is a VERY enjoyable read! But you must be able to suspend belief enough to accept the idea that an expensive call girl cannot orgasm unless she's paid... AND that at nearly 30 years of age she becomes sexually obsessed (and we mean totally) with a stranger she meets by chance at the opera.

If you can manage that much this is a really good story. The character development of the protagonist, Valentine Day, is extensive and (other than the above issues) quite believable. Fortunately, this gal truly revels in sex--she just can't climax (even with masturbation) unless cash is on the dresser top. But, hey, if she can enjoy her work that much, more power to her.

The author is really very talented. In fact the first three or four pages of this novel serve as a superb example of a well-crafted "hook" designed to keep us reading.

By contemporary standards for erotic romance, the sex scenes are quite explicit but not unusually so.

Eden Bradley has taken a chance with her latest book about a high class escort in A 21st Century Courtesan. Definitely an erotica, but still very much a romance, Eden puts a face to the name of many women who get paid for sex. Perhaps A 21st Century Courtesan is a bit too fairy tale like in its telling from the call girl heroine being rescued by her Prince Charming who is so understanding, from her clients who are attractive, well to do men who appreciate Valentine for her body and beauty as well as her mind and her creativeness in accepting their sexual quirks and desires.

Valentine Day is a high-class call girl who lives in the Hollywood Hills of California. She loves her life as a prostitute, getting paid to pleasure men and getting pleasure in return. The only way she can have an orgasm is if she gets money. Valentine loves the power she has over these men and will never go back to a life begging for love or money. She is a woman who makes her own decisions and lives by her own rules. She makes no excuses for the life she lives.

One night, Valentine attends the opera and is seated next to a man who sends jolts of lust through her body. She has never reacted to another man like this unless she is working. His name is Joshua Spencer and he is a real estate developer. Valentine is so turned on by Joshua that it unnerves her. They share some conversation and a drink. He gives her his card hoping she will call him.

Joshua is on Valentine's mind all the time now. She can't stop thinking about him even when she's with a client. As she is alone in her own bed and in the shower, she pleasures herself imaging it is Joshua touching and kissing her. Soon her work is suffering and Valentine is not sure if she can continue being a whore. Even her madam is concerned and has her go talk to a therapist. Valentine becomes depressed and unsure. Finally she breaks down and makes a date with Josh. Josh loves to listen to her talk about herself and he wants to get to know Valentine more. Eventually these two do end up in bed and from her experience with Joshua, she feels whole and clean. Joshua wants a future with Valentine and it is up to Valentine to tell him what she does for a living or to keep living the lie.

Eden Bradley's blunt and risqué tale of a high class call girl taps into the reader's emotion. You can't help but care for Valentine even as she sells her body to the highest bidder. She is a not a bitter woman because she enjoys her work and the men she is with. Some reader will think A 21st Century Courtesan is a bit too perfect because all of Valentine's clients seem too handsome, rich and respectful.

Valentine's clients vary between Enzo Alighieri, the Italian film producer who introduced Valentine to her line of work. He is her mentor, friend and lover to whom she has always turned. Louis is a blind rich man who is one of Valentine's favorite clients with such wonderful hands. Colin Harper is a gorgeous movie producer who likes anal sex in motel rooms. Then there is Zayed Bin Saleh Al-Rahman, a member of the Middle Eastern nobility who loves the harem fantasy and expects Valentine to play into it along with two other girls who must act out the ultimate in girl on girl action.

As you can see, Valentine is an expert of everything sex. I wonder if she studied the Kama Sutra?

Joshua seems too good to be true, but he is the catalyst for Valentine to reevaluate her life as a daughter of an alcoholic mother who was in a cycle of destructive behavior at the hands of Valentine's father. Joshua becomes Valentine's savior and his reasons for accepting Valentine make sense. Joshua is all about forgiveness and spreading the love.

A 21st Century Courtesan does open your mind to a lifestyle that breaks many of the stereotypes, especially about the women involved. Valentine's story is an eye-opener and I give Eden Bradley major kudos for taking a chance in writing about such a topic in this mature erotic romance.

Katiebabs

Valentine Day is a high-class call girl and she knows she is adored by her clients, pampered and spoiled. All of this is good and fine, but for Val, there is something missing in her world and that is true pleasure outside of the boudoir. She wants this to change and so she is going to take control of her destiny by seeking her own erotic journey that begins one night with the aid of handsome Joshua Spencer. Of course she experiences everything she has ever wanted but Joshua has no idea who Val is or what she does. Can she trust him not to shatter her hard earned freedom or will she risk all for the one man that makes her feel more then she has ever before?

Ms. Eden is the queen of erotic and sensual prose and in her latest effort nothing has changed. Told in the 1st person, this title is an interesting tale of a woman's journey in finding what she knows is missing and is willing to grasp her future. This is a title I have no problem recommending.

Valentine Day is a high class hooker whose clientele is wealthy and caring. One of her favorite customers is Hollywood producer Enzo Alighieri who has a wife and a mistress, but loves to pamper Valentine; whom he set up at the elite of the profession. Another client Bennett is taking her to a production of La Travolta at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, but due to work is unable to make it. He insists she attend as he knows she loves the opera.

Sitting next to her at the show is Joshua Spencer who also attends alone as his guest, his mom, could not make it. They talk and realize they share in common a love of art. He gives his card to her and asks her to call. Valentine wants to ignore Joshua because he stirs feelings she has never had, but she cannot stop herself from calling. In fact she masturbates dreaming of him and has an orgasm for the first time in her life without someone paying her to do so. As they fall in love, she knows her profession disqualifies her for any normal relationship.

This Pretty Woman spin is an enjoyable contemporary romance starring an engaging half Jewish former Valley girl and the men in her life especially the first non-paying male who makes her come. Val's clients are too nice as any woman would relish the pampering that Bennett and Enzo provides Val while the danger of her profession is ignored except for an aside or two involving some other woman. Still A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY COURTESAN is an engaging character study as Val knows she is not good enough for the man she loves just by the simple fact she hides her profession from her Joshua.

Harriet Klausner

STORY BRIEF:
Valentine (Val) has been a prostitute/high class call girl for 10 years. She came from a dysfunctional family. She could never achieve sexual pleasure with a boyfriend or by herself until she discovered being paid for sex was her solution. She appears happy with her life until she meets Joshua. He doesn't know she is a call girl, they begin a relationship. They fall in love. She decides to quit her job and have a normal life with him. She tells him of her past. He can handle it. Then while on a date with Joshua, they run into one of her former clients. She can't handle it and breaks up with Joshua while she tries to get her head straight.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The book is primarily about Val's frustrations, desires, fears and feelings of guilt. It is written in the first person point of view (Val's). I felt like a therapist reading this, listening to the ponderings in her mind about what to do. There were a lot of sex scenes and she is tired and sleeps a lot. I felt like there was no story. I was bored during some of the sex scenes probably because I wasn't emotionally pulled into the characters. I need more story and more character development to enjoy a book. For readers who want a lot of explicit sex and don't care as much about the story, you might like this. There is self pleasuring, rear door activity, women with women and group sex.

An example of Val's thinking follows. Page 240: "I'm going to try to believe that love is enough, that it will get us through this. That we can survive not only the reality of what I've done, but my own shame. I wish I could make the heavy pit sitting in my stomach go away. That pit still holding on tight to the belief that things will be over, sooner or later. That I am not worthy of his love. You do not deserve him. Oh, yes, that is the thought running through my mind like a broken record. Even now. No matter how much I've thought things through, faced the issues of my past. How much stronger I've been feeling lately, how determined. I don't know how I will ever make it stop."

I am annoyed with the cover picture not matching the story. The cover shows a woman with shoulder-length hair. In the book, her hair goes to the waist. Does the publisher not value this book enough? Ever hear of Photoshop?

DATA:
Story length: 291 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 18. Total number of sex scene pages: 60. Setting: current day Los Angeles area, California, New York City and Rome, Italy. Copyright: 2009. Genre: erotic contemporary romance.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Eden Bradley books, see my 4.5 star review of "Forbidden Fruit" posted 10/31/08.

"Of course, I've never been a prostitute, but there are so many aspects in her that are purely me." -- Author bio

Um, okay. Well, speaking as someone who actually has worked in the sex industry (and written about it) extensively for nearly ten years, let me make one thing crystal clear, Eden Bradley: some stories are not yours to tell. Some worlds are truly not meant to be infiltrated by those outside of them. And if you insist on exploiting the complicated and very real career choice of the high-class courtesan, you may want to put forth a bit more effort in your research, so that actual sex workers can read it without laughing (or losing their very expensive and diamond-studded lunches).

And also, maybe don't dedicate your hooker fantasy erotica novel TO YOUR FATHER. Even I think that's creepy, and I have a very open mind. Just saying.