This book is a memoir of an actual call girl who, from what I've gathered from Google, has moved on to being a full time author and speaker about sexy-time related topics. While still working as a call girl, Belle started a blog and used it as a sort of diary, writing about her personal life, work life, and anything else that seemed worth writing about. The blog was highly popular and a book deal was made. There are six books in the series and the series has been made into a TV series that is actually how I heard about the books. The series is pretty good, but they stepped up the sex content a bunch, which isn't surprising.
Putting aside my initial confusion regarding the lack of steamy sex scenes I was expecting, I actually liked Intimate Adventures quite a lot. I thought the characters were well done and I didn't have a hard time distinguishing between them, even though she would only use the first letter of their first name, which got confusing at times. Belle was especially well developed, as can be expected. There wasn't a whole lot of first person explanation of who she is as a person, which I liked. The reader is pretty much just left to grab on to tidbits here and there about Belle's past and her personality. Belle is sharp and funny and her voice is always present, even in the most mundane of circumstances. The secondary characters aren't as well developed, but that's to be expected. I think I just needed more scenes with them and Belle together to really get to know these other characters but I guess that's what books 2-6 are for.
At the beginning of the book, I thought that maybe I'd accidentally picked up the second book in the series because it seemed like I was missing some essential information. There was missing back story to these characters and their relation to Belle, missing information that did eventually come through, but for about the first third of the book, every few entries, I was left with a feeling that I'd missed something important. Also, I found the sparse diary entries a little off-putting. I know that this is a memoir and mostly taken directly from Belle's original blog, but I wanted more. There were times where there was a sudden shift in a relationship or some other big life event that I could tell happened in the time between entries, but that continuity issue never quite sat right. I think my slight annoyance with this part is because I'm used to reading fiction where we would see whatever family drama unfold as it happens, or we would get a long, detailed diary entry. Where as this memoir-diary style was very much dropping information into the readers' laps and then backing away and leaving the readers to put together these little puzzle pieces of information. I'm not sure if this is just the way Belle writes or if she did it this way so as to not be super obvious about her identity. In any case, it took some getting used to, but by about half way though, I was so wrapped up in the characters and developing relationships that the sparse diary entries stopped bothering me.
All my little nit picks aside, I thought this was a fun read. It was something different than what I normally read, but I enjoyed trying something new. It reads quick, is entertaining, and would be a perfect summer beach read. I will be picking up the second book in the series for sure.
The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl - Belle de Jour
Sexy summer beach read, a perfect guilty pleasure book.
288 pages
Rating: 3/5. A bit lacking in plot , but fun nonetheless.
