Customer Reviews

The Price: My Rise and Fall As Natalia, New York's #1 Escort

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I ordered this book I thought it was about Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the sex escort that brought Eilot Spitzer's political dreams to a blazing crash landing. It wasn't, but it was about her co-worker and friend Natalie "Natalia" McLennan. It was easy for me to get the two of them mixed up because when the Spitzer news story first broke Ashely was trying to stay out of the spotlight--at least until she could turn the publicity into a boost in her singing, acting and modeling career. Natalia on the other hand was sought out to appear on "Larry King Live," "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Today Show." This book seemed at first like it was stealing Ashely's thunder, but while that may have been one of the reasons for it's publication, it will probably only help sell Ashley's own memoir when it is eventually published?
The book's "Prologue: When Natalia Met Ashley" introduces the two soon-to-be very high priced and successful call girls to each other and describes in minute detail how Ashley was easily recruited into the business by Natalia and her pimp Jason to become an important part of the "New York Confidential" Agency.
After that introduction of Ashely, Natalia begins her own tale of her journey into the Sex Escort business. As is the case with so many women caught up in the sex trade, her downfall was drug addiction. However, in Natalia's case she was pretty much a druggy before she began selling her body.
This is the story of relatively shy girl from Canada who dreams of becoming famous and eventually gets swallowed up the meat grinder of New York City. As the National Tap Dancing Champion of Canada she danced with Gregory Hines at the Montreal Jazz Festival and then began her "off-off Broadway" acting career. She is basically mesmerized by the shiny, false glitter of NYC nightlife. She was soon making $2,000 an hour by renting her body.
Anyone who finds this story interesting, which reads much like a Country Western Ballad, will probably enjoy reading "In Good Company: The Escort's Guide," "The Business Side of Escorting II: An Escorts Guide to Intelligently Running Her Business in the Cyber Age," "Call Girl" by Jeannette Angell and "The Last Madam: A Life In The New Orleans Underworld." All of these non-fiction books are surprising well written, as is this memoir. In all of those books the authors warn of the dangers of drugs and advise not falling prey to living the high life and to save money for their retirement, which will be arriving sooner than they think. (Feel free to read my Amazon Reviews of all those books). Even the most successful sex workers, some of whom actually make more money than the President of the United States is paid by the taxpayers, need to develop savings and retirement plans.
It's a shame that Natalie didn't benefit from this common sense advice, but like most people who have never made big money, she thought it would last forever. This is a good read and when Ashely's story is eventually published I'll read it as well. There are some very interesting and unexpected details about the life of a sex worker included in this volume. Sex always sells. Ask Eliot Spitzer!

I liked Natalie's writing style and felt drawn into the crazy life she lived as an escort. I could see where it was headed from the start, however, and was very glad to see that she was able to get out of "the life." I hope she continues to do well and I highly recommend this book as a cautionary tale to young women who want to take the fast track to making lots of money quickly. It's not worth the loss of dignity and self-esteem, and one can sense this even when it seemed like Natalie was having the time of her life.

I chose this product to try something outside of my normal topics of interest. This book was certainly interesting. The author has a unique writing style, very similar to how you would imagine her talking to a friend. It was very informal and accessible after getting used to it in a couple of pages. The author doesn't get into great details about her escapades, and the drug use was just written about in the same way that most of us would write "I tied my shoes." It was just seen as part of her day.

Reading the book I felt the author was trying to provide her own form of therapy, and/or score a new source of income. She didn't seem to be asking for pity which is something to respect. She took ownership of her decisions, and in retrospect seemed to gave a good grasp of her past. The one thing I wish she had covered was how she started doing drugs, from page one it seems they are always just there, and no big deal.

Overall this was a quick, illuminating read about a world most of us could not imagine existed.

Like (I'm guessing) most Americans, I knew nothing about the world of super high end escorts until the Eliot Spitzer case. I must admit that I was fascinated to read the details about call girl Ashley Dupre, the "diamond" ratings her agency gave each of their girls, and the famous clients who used the agency's services. So when I had the opportunity to read "The Price," by a woman who not only worked with Ashley but earned $2000 an hour for her services, I snapped it up -- though I must admit I felt a little bit guilty...

Well, the good thing about Amazon is that no one else needs to see what you're buying, so if you are curious about this world, you'll definitely want to read "The Price." You'll get all the juicy details, and then some.

At her peak, Natalie earned her fee by sleeping with NFL & rock stars, financiers, and political movers & shakers. No, she doesn't name names, which makes me admire her discretion. No wonder she was a top escort.

Unfortunately, Natalie got involved with a pimp named Jason, a self-deluded egomaniac whose dream was to franchise his escort agency like it was Starbucks -- never mind that his business was illegal. He took out big ads in New York magazine and kept a high media profile. Not the smartest thing. He also cheated Natalie out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings.

Of course, even though Jason took much of her cash, Natalie still had tons of money to buy $650 pairs of shoes, designer clothes, and most of all, drugs. She did lots and lots of drugs, and eventually became a heroin addict. Some aspects of her life do come across as glamorous, but she doesn't sugarcoat her addiction (the results of her constant cocaine snorting are particularly disgusting!) and I was rooting for her to get clean, which she eventually does.

This isn't a book for people who are judgmental about Natalie's life choices; she ultimately declares that she feels escorting is a viable lifestyle (they don't call it the world's oldest profession for nothing), but obviously she made a lot of mistakes along the way, especially getting caught in Jason's web and becoming addicted to drugs. She lays everything out straightforwardly, both the highs and the lows.

Natalie McLennan wants you to like her. Because she's a nice girl. Really. She never blackmailed her married clients by calling their wives and she never bled them dry like she could have. It's a "soul thing."

If this kind of drivel sounds good to you you might like "The Price," at least if you've never read a hooker tell-all book. The book has neither the humor and intelligence of "Mayflower Madam" nor the gritty if depressing reality of "Going Down." McLennan isn't unlikeable, she's just not that interesting. You don't love her, you don't hate her. You just can't really care what happens to her because "The Price" is as phony as a prostitute pretending to be what she thinks you want. Even the descriptions of sex read like someone's idea of what a reader might think is hot -- I'd reproduce some of them here but Amazon's naughty word detector would probably ding them. Still, you can probably write them yourself: "He was so hot and huge," "My _____ was so wet," "Her ____s were so ______," "I couldn't keep myself from _____ing repeatedly at the sight of his/her _______ ________s." Yawn.

There is almost zero insight here into either the mind of a high-priced call girl or the men willing to pay four figures an hour for one. But then, how much insight can you expect from a woman who writes that her boyfriend who beat her up didn't deserve to to be arrested? No explanation why, no past tense involved, just that he didn't deserve it.

At least if this book were well-written, it might make up for its lack of depth. I probably could have overlooked the book's numerous grammatical errors if the author hadn't made such a big deal about how intelligent she is, and I can't imagine anyone other than serious fashionistas being interested in loving descriptions of designer clothing that go on for paragraphs at a time. The best I can say is that the writing is pretty good for a prostitute, but it's not very good for an author, and while the accounts of sex are, I suppose, not too bad for an author, they aren't very good for a prostitute.

As I said, if you've never read a call girl tell-all and are interested in some of the details, you might find this interesting. But given all the great books out there, including some truly good guilty-pleasure non-fiction (The Dirt comes to mind), why waste time with a book that seems like nothing more than a quickly dashed off attempt to cash in on the Spitzer scandal?

This is a curious book, a memoir by one of Manhattan's top escorts who happened to have introduced Elliot Spitzer's escort into the business.

For those of you looking for a high-end look at the high life, with bars, brands, shoes, stars, lots of sex and name-dropping galore, this book is for you. It's light, fun, and easy to read, despite the rather depressing account of Ms. McLennan's slide into addiction and incarceration.

And yet it is that very contradiction that makes the book so curious. Despite reading and enjoying Ms. McLennan's tale, I found myself knowing very little about her as a person, her interior life, motivations, desires, and personality. I think perhaps that is because she wrote this book too soon, and her publisher is rushing it out to cash in on the Spitzer scandal.

Accordingly, I don't think Natalia has fully come to grips with her life, and how she wound up where she is. It's that piece that I would like to know more of. Instead, she is encouraged to write about the lifestyle of the rich in Manhattan, or at least those who partied with her or employed her services. And that is all fun and enjoyable.

Still, it's only in the final chapter do I sense that Natalia is attempting to self-reflect on her life, and to share some of herself with the reader. I personally would have liked more of that, and hope she has another opportunity to check in with us and let us know how she is doing on her road to recovery.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the writing in this book. The author is clearly intelligent and reflective and able to tell a good story. It's nice to hear from a sex-industry worker who freely admits to enjoying her job, although I'm not certain how much the drug use played a part in that enjoyment.
All around good read.

This book is written well and was a very easy read. Natalie's story is so captivating you will not want to let go of the book and will most probably read it within a few days.
She shares many intimate details about herself and her life which gives the reader a taste of what her lifestyle could've felt like.
Knowing what Natalie is up to today and how she's turned her life around and how different it is from this chapter of her life is quite fascinating as well.

An interesting and well written book that takes the reader on the inside of the world of high price escorts. Loved it!

I like to read books that really take me away from life. This book was great. I enjoy an easy read and non-fiction. She never OVER analyzed her situations and she moves along in a quick but good pace. No matter how much people like to judge others of their choices,this book gives an inside view of how the lifestyle is. I think secretly we all want a peek and that's what you get with THE PRICE. I liked the ending, it was real happily-ever after.