Confessions of a Gigolo by Richard Godwin

With a name like “Paris Tongue”, you can expect all kinds of sensual delights from this gigolo.

What’s it About? 

Set in five major European cities, this erotic novel absorbs cultural atmosphere against a backdrop of love, lust, betrayal and revenge.

Blonde. Dangerous. Gigolo.

Paris Tongue uses his looks to seduce wealthy women and introduce them to the Secret Hour, that hidden time when they can escape their lives. Using his inheritance to travel, he penetrates the erotic essence of different cities, from London, Paris, to Rome, Madrid and Dusseldorf.

His sexual escapades begin to catch up with him. He sleeps with the wife of a Mafia Boss and is hunted across Europe by hit men. The assassins find him in Spain. By then he is versed in the deeper philosophy of Eros and sees them off. He is, after all, the bastard child of a killer, who knows how to survive.

In Germany he meets Anja from Croatia, the first woman he wants to settle down with, then he realises he inhabits no city at all – just a place of intoxicated night and endless seductions.

First Impressions

Alright ladies and gents, I’m gonna be straight up with y’all right off the bat and say that this read simply was not my cup of tea. It basically just came across as porn to me, with some pretty stiff (pun absolutely intended) and graphic dialogue. Now don’t get me wrong, you all know I am an absolute lover of dirty talk, but this was even out of my realm of comfort. I know dirty talk isn’t for everyone, but at times I feel it can sort of encapsulate the passion of a main couple. But with this read it didn’t seem so much as passion, but rather just dirty for the sake of being shocking. I read this entire book during a 2 hour and 1 minute flight from Sacramento to Denver, and let me tell you I can’t remember the last time I clutched my kindle so close to my chest, with my cover flap acting as a shield, so that the passengers and flight attendants around me wouldn’t see some of the illicit language on the page.

Gigolo vs. Con Artist

My main disappointment with this novel would probably have to be with our main character, and it wasn’t just because he was a gigolo. As a matter of fact, I think this was the aspect of the synopsis which really appealed to me the most! We sort of see through his troubled and uncharacteristic childhood how he fell into this habit of non-committed relationships. But what I was really hoping to see more of were the logistics of him connecting with women as a gigolo. That moment where he goes from flirting with women, to then having to ask for payment for his special kind of services. But we really don’t get any of that.

Instead there’s a brief mention here and there of him being paid afterwards, but for several of the hook-ups which are described here it almost comes across as though he uses these women to get free lodging and gifts as he travels around Europe. Sure, I guess that can fall within the lines of payment, but I think what bothered me with this form of payment is that it wasn’t really evident to the women that this fling with our lead character was going nowhere. Some were so obsessed with him they were willing to leave husbands, and sometimes even commit murder in order to be with him. But he’s used to a life of non-commitment, so he would continually leave them behind to move onto his next city. At that point I almost had to question, are we really reading about the confessions of a gigolo, or a sexually adept con artist?

Avoiding Commitment

Another important thing to keep in mind with this read is that it is far from a romance. Again, I went in with false expectations thinking that we’d meet a gigolo who might eventually find one woman so special he’d want to leave all his previous scheming behind him. Sure, I guess that kind of happens? But it’s more along the lines of one day he just sort of thinks to himself, “hey maybe I should try things out with just one woman”, and the woman he happened to be with at the time was the one he chose to embark on this endeavor with. It’s not like he chose her because he fell in love, or that she was different from every other women who came before. Hell, it didn’t even seem like he was entirely convinced it would last, but it was simply a new adventure he wanted to try out. Doesn’t really fill you with a whole lot of warm and fuzzy feelings.

Temptations Beyond Marriage

One last important thing to keep in mind with this read, which I sort of alluded to earlier, is that it has a dark side to it. Our lead character specifically likes to set his sights on married women, and basically considers his presence in their lives as a service to break them from the shackles of marriage. He never really has to seduce or persuade any of these women to sleep with him, they all come quite willingly to bed, and they all have some pretty exotic tastes. He certainly attracts the same type of women, who can all go for hours on end and come countless times in a plethora of orgasms. But whereas he thinks he’s doing them a service by providing them with the sexual pleasure their husbands can’t provide, I must say I saw his presence as more of a curse. You see, things don’t always…end well for these women.

A few end up killing their husbands, one kills her sister in a jealous rage over access to Paris’s body, and one woman even ends up killing herself. Paris himself also kills a few people who were hired to pursue him for having sex with their mob boss’s wife. Whether it be stabbing them in the chest with a butcher’s knife, or slicing their neck open with a pocket knife, we’ve got some disturbing confessions here. And throughout it all, it never seems as though Paris shows any remorse. True, he never really led these women on by making false promises of forever, and these women weren’t forced into cheating on their husbands. However, he spent a lot of time with these women carrying out the most intimate act two people can engage in. The fact he never looked back, but instead kept looking forward to his next conquest wasn’t that enjoyable to read about if I’m being entirely honest with you.

*A copy of this book was provided for an honest review*

Series: Stand-alone

Final Impressions: I can’t really give my recommendation with this one if you’re looking for a “romance”. If you’re looking for something really really out of the box, with a guy who goes from town to town and woman to woman leaving some pretty questionable results in his wake? Sure, give it a try! It won’t take you long. For my tastes though it was simply too over the top.

Smut Level: My god. This man’s penis must be made of gold with how frantic women can become in order to maintain their access to it. His tongue is also pretty decent. Every woman he comes across tastes like champagne and peaches, but the fancy references end there. We see a level of dirty talk that unfortunately was beyond my comfort level.

Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $2.99 Kindle Price. Amazon Digital Services, LLC. 117 Pages.