LADY FIRST

Ambitious city kid is personally and professionally tested after taking a job with a glamorous actress old enough to be his mother.

Spencer Lewis and his brother learn early on that honest work will provide them with things they lack: money and direction. But while Spencer’s brother Troy plays it safe, working his way up in a fast-food joint to help keep his family fed, Spencer has higher aspirations. His eager-to-please attitude gets him noticed by more than his employers at a local grocery store. One day he finds himself helping Mrs. Tia Stern, a well-known but washed-up bombshell actress who offers him a job he cannot refuse. Intrigued by her lavish lifestyle and connections, Spencer soon learns that being Tia’s personal assistant in a house where Mr. Stern is absent will make him work harder than he ever has—but the pay is great. Tia makes outlandish requests (she asks him to prune her flowers, then her pubic hairs) and hints that a romp in the sack is around the corner. Spencer’s bank account, meanwhile, keeps growing, and all he has to do is hang in there—but can he? Tia is crazy, moody and enticing at the same time. When her bitter, very public divorce becomes final (after a little help from Spencer), he rises (literally) to the occasion, going from assistant to boy-toy. Tia further capitalizes on her power by bankrolling Spencer’s dream business—a modeling agency—forming a partnership that keeps him in her debt. She moves ten aspiring models into their posh love shack, and, when Spencer finds himself in compromising positions, his boss becomes the jealous, possessive woman she always hinted she could be.

An entertaining if predictable street-lit novel for Relentless Aaron (Push, 2007, etc.) fans that often reads like the fantasy diary of a man with a sexually vivid imagination.