You Know Me As Lad

I would give this novel all of the stars in the sky if I could. Five stars doesn't even begin to cover the beauty of this book. It's hard to find a copy and it's a bit expensive but it's worth it.

This was a romance but it was more than that. For me, this was the story of Ryan.

Ryan is a high-priced prostitute, a fact that's made clear from the very first page. The author leaves no room for Ryan's profession to be glossed over by the reader. The book starts out with him having sex with a client and this was where I knew Fallen From Grace was going to be different.

The first scene of the novel was sad on so many levels. Laura Leone could have written a gritty book about homeless prostitutes. She went a completely different route by creating the character of Ryan. The first sex scene is not obscene, vicious or violent. It's business and there's something very unsettling about that.

Right up until the last page of the prologue, Ryan comes off as being somewhat numb to how he makes his living. I thought I was going to get a character who's been hardened by his job. It would have been an interesting character study. Right at the end though, Ryan calls himself a whore in a way that's off-handed yet full of self-loathing. At that point Ryan became more than an interesting character. He became a character that my heart went out to.

There is a certain innocence about Ryan that really sucked me in. He's very matter-of-fact and honest with himself about what he does. At the same time there's a piece of him untouched by the ugliness of the life he's lived. A life that was full of abuse both sexual and physical, sexual exploitation and homelessness. Despite all of that he's sweet. He has a lazy dog that he carries up the stairs and a crazy parrot he loves even though it's always biting him.

Through Ryan's interaction with Sara, his new neighbor who's an author, the reader gets to see how intelligent he is. Through his interaction with Catherine, his pimp, we get to see how Ryan's self-image has been horribly twisted.

Laura Leone does an excellent job of creating completely realistic characters. Sara and Ryan fall in love without Sara knowing that Ryan's a prostitute. When she finds out and steps away from him, I was torn about whether or not I liked her character. I understood her feelings but I felt for Ryan, so I really wanted to hate Sara. She was hurting herself and Ryan. At the same time she was doing the right thing for herself. Sometimes doing the right thing hurts.

Catherine, the pimp, was another complicated character. She took Ryan off the streets but in the end she was simply the lesser of two evils. Ryan's loyal to her and in a twisted way he's thankful. Their warped relationship was painful to read.

As I said earlier, there's a romance between Sara and Ryan. It's full of angst and the emotions were engrossing. Still, the romance was second to Ryan's personal growth.

Look for this book and when you find it make sure to buy it. It's one of the best contemporaries out there. It proves what great things can be written when authors think outside of the box.