Faking It [Paperback]

Elisa Lorello (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2009

What happens when a writing professor and a male escort become friends? Thirty-four-year old professor Andi Cutrone has broken up with her fiancé in Massachusetts, moved back to her native New York, and wants to be a better lover. So after meeting Devin, a handsome, charming escort, she proposes an unusual arrangement: lessons about writing in exchange for lessons about sex. When Devin accepts Andi's proposal, he draws up a contract in which the two are forbidden to see each other socially. There's just one problem: Andi also wants Devin. Faking It is a witty, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching story about relationships, writing, and getting real.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Book Description: After breaking off her engagement, thirty-something writing professor Andi Cutrone abandons New England for her native Long Island to focus on her career and start over. When she meets Devin at a cocktail party, the sight of an honest-to-goodness male escort shocks her—and fascinates her more than a little. Months later, Andi impulsively calls Devin. Over cheesecake in Brooklyn, she offers him a proposition: he will teach her how to be a better lover, and in return, she will give him writing lessons. He agrees, and together they embark upon an intense partnership that proves to be as instructive as it is arousing. For in the midst of lessons in rhetorical theory and foreplay, Andi and Devin delve into deeper questions about truth, beauty, and self, gradually coming face-to-face with the issues at the core of their emotional limitations. Smart, witty, and introspective, Faking It is an engrossing novel about two people discovering their authentic selves.

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Amazon Exclusive: Elisa Lorello on Faking It

Every writer I’ve ever met or seen or read about talks about the relationships s/he has with her/his characters. They love them, be they men or women or heroes and villains. As readers we all have favorite characters, people we can imagine running into at the grocery store on a Tuesday, or whisking us off to a tropical island. We fall in love with characters in books as easily as we fall in love with characters from TV or films, or even in real life.

Back in 2005, when I had finished the first draft of Faking It, I read a sample chapter to my freshman composition students at the end of the semester (something I used to do to show that I, too, had messy first drafts, and that when it came to writing and revision, I practiced what I taught). No sooner had I finished reading the scene in which Devin and Andi meet at Junior’s did a female student blurt out, "Oh yeah. I’m in love with this guy. I want him."

The class and I laughed, of course, but I nodded my head and added, "Me too." And later, when a reader told me how much she was in love with Sam, I nodded and replied, "Me too."

In fact, if you total all the male protagonists and supporting characters I’ve written to date (including my latest work in progress), I’m completely in love with almost a dozen men. Every single one of them. And I may have a crush on a few women, too.

Like characters in dreams, almost every character I write, male or female, embodies some aspect of me, be it my greatest fear (like flying), strength (writing, or teaching), weakness (who, me--weak? never!), or attribute (thoughtful). That’s not to say that they’re autobiographical, but it certainly opens the door to my empathy for them. Some characters show confidence in certain abilities or aspects of themselves that I’ve never had, while others are completely insecure in ways that I am not. Some have done things I’ve never done, like play jazz or own a coffeeshop. Others share my taste in music and books and TV shows. Some are people I’d love to hang out with, date, or even be. Not a single one of them are even close to perfect. The fun in writing these characters is the ability to make them say or do or be anything I want.

Except I don’t.

At some point, the characters take on a life of their own, and instead of my putting words into their mouths, they’re whispering in my ear. Instead of my telling them where to go, they’re three steps ahead of me. My characters constantly surprise me, and there always comes a point when I know I have to just get out of their way and let them be. I may not always agree with their actions, and I may be shocked by their secrets, but in the end I love them dearly and would stand by any one of them.

The other day, my hairdresser (who’s been reading my latest novel, Why I Love Singlehood) said to me, "I just love Kenny. Was he based on anyone you know in real life?"

"No," I replied, "but if you ever meet someone like him, let me know and give him my phone number." --Elisa Lorello

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--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Andi Cutrone harbors a shameful secret. The 34-year-old writing professor is sexually inexperienced, to put it mildly. Enter Devin, a male escort with chiseled features Michelangelo would admire. The two reach an unusual agreement. She'll teach him about writing, and he'll help her lose her inhibitions in the bedroom. In short order, Andi's prancing about in bra and panties, and Devin is enthralled by her rhetoric lectures (an academic fantasy if ever there was one). Though the two are contractually obligated to maintain a strictly-business relationship, it doesn't take a PhD to see where this is heading. As they expose more of themselves to each other, and not just physically, they draw closer. But can Andi trust her feelings? Or Devin's? Once you get past the contrivance of the premise, it's clear that these characters have a certain charm as they fumble toward happiness. There is also appeal in the message that the most uptight of women can be taught to channel her Sex and the City inner vixen. --Patty Wetli --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Elisa Lorello (June 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0578000512
• ISBN-13: 978-0578000510
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (202 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,361,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

230 of 235 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than meets the eye, August 8, 2009

By 

Jill Weinberger (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Faking It (Paperback)

From the description on the back cover of this book, I was expecting a light summer romantic read. And that would have been enjoyable enough -- woman with dating issues meets attractive but seemingly unattainable man who ends up seeing more in her than she sees in herself, etc, etc. We've all read books like that and we all enjoy a well written one every once in a while. But "Faking It" goes beyond the genre to something smarter, more sophisticated, something with a little more bite and substance. Andi and Devin are complex characters with an unexpected journey. Lorello's writing is witty and makes for a fun, fast read, but along the way she covers more than romance and sex -- her characters each have fully fleshed out personalities, making sharp observations of their own about everything from art to gender roles to sexual politics. Yes, it's still a great beach book -- you may have trouble putting it down -- but it's a beach book with a brain, and one with characters you care about.

Looking forward to the sequel!

127 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good to the Last Page, June 20, 2009

By 

M. Webb (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Faking It (Kindle Edition)

When I first dove into Faking It I worried that the premise--Andi Cutrone, a young urbanite takes `love lessons' from a male escort--might be a little too Sex and the City for me. But the weekly lessons surprised me. Instead of sex, they focus on Andi's feeling about herself, her body, her relationships. Somewhere in that tangle of confused emotions every female reader will recognize either the woman she is or the woman she once was.

Then, about a third of the way through the book(yes, I checked the page number)I realized that the weekly lessons, although illuminating and the hook that pulled me in, had become secondary. Instead characters had become paramount. I wondered more about what Andi and her love tutor/platonic friend Devin would do on the other six days of the week. This book could have become an excuse to lurch from love scene to love scene but author Elisa Lorello created believable people that eclipsed their careers(one boring and one naughty). Ultimately, a book that seemed to be about taboo subjects like sex for money was really about something much more prosaic--changes. Changing attitudes. Changing careers. Changing partners.

My biggest round of applause goes out to Lorello for keeping me guessing. Too often books that contain romances follow a predictable formula. We know who the good boyfriend is. We know who the bad boyfriend is. We know who she'll wind up with. The only question mark is what will happen along the way. Faking It kept me guessing until the last page. Really! Thank you Elisa for characters and complex personalities that propelled me to the last page.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A nice ride, June 4, 2009

By 

Larry H. Leitner "LarryLHF75" (Westland Mi) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Faking It (Kindle Edition)

A short time into this book I was really taken by Andi. She is someone you know, Got it going professionally but a mess personally. No confidence in herself. Then she works out an arrangement with an escort named Devin. He begins to help her gain some confidence in herself despite not having as much self confidence as he seems to have himself. You really start to root for this girl. You want to tell her to get it together and go after what she wants. She does come close a couple times as things get rolling but she falls short at first. The story really takes you a nice ride from there. A few surprises along the way and a beautiful ending.