Rating: 5 ‘Mac’ Stars

Publisher: Lily Morton

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Age Gap, Opposites Attract, Romance

TW: Attempted Sexual Assault

Length: 432 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

Blurb –

Kiss him, sleep with him, but don’t ever fall in love with him.

The first time Wes Archer steps into Jack of Clubs, an exclusive London pleasure club, he’s completely confident he can heed the tried-and-true advice about becoming an escort. Wes gives himself away for free with casual hookups all the time. Why not make some cash doing what he already loves? And cash is something he desperately needs. His brother’s gambling addiction has taken their family’s home, saddled Wes with insurmountable debts, and compromised his chances for finishing his degree.

Accepting an offer to spend a few hours of fun with a rich bloke will be a simple business transaction, right?

Wrong.

Wes’s first client is Cormac Reilly. The handsome billionaire is grumpy, funny, and commanding in a way that unlocks desires Wes never knew he had. Cormac is icily determined to keep their arrangement strictly business, but that doesn’t stop Wes from finding him fascinating.

As their one-night contract becomes something much more, Wes can’t deny he’s falling for his client. He knows he’s flouting all the rules, but breaking down Cormac’s barriers is an irresistible challenge, and his reward might be the best prize of all — love.

From bestselling author Lily Morton comes a passionate love story set in London and Paris about two astonishingly different men and one very pretty mess.

Please see the disclaimer at the beginning of the book for content some readers may find triggering.

Review –

I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I think sometimes you meet someone who’s meant for you. And Mac is that person for me. We started as a mess, albeit a pretty one, and maybe a small part of us will always be that. But we’re our pretty mess, with all our sharp angles and edges that somehow mesh perfectly. And I would move the world to keep that safe.

I have a love/hate relationship with this author. Before Pretty Mess, I read three of her books that were 4.5-stars or above reads, and I read three that were 3-stars or below. It’s the bottom three that had me taking the author completely off my ‘authors I read’ list. I’d rather stick with a tried and true author favorite than continue to read one whose books could go either way for me.

I took a chance with this one because the reviews and ratings were good, and honestly, look at that cover. And I do love a good rent boy book, though Wes isn’t exactly your typical rent boy.

I am not a fan of the 432 page count.

Wes has problems. Because of a gambling addiction, his brother Tyler has cost them and Tyler’s wife their family home, the same home Tyler and Wes’ late mother worked hard for. It wasn’t just the house. All bank accounts have been wiped out, including Wes’ college accounts and his personal ones. In other words, Tyler stole any money he could access. The wife has family to stay with, and Tyler has a friend. Wes has nowhere to go and nowhere to stay. Thanks to his brother, he also has no money for a hotel.

This changes when he bumps into Julian, a classmate of his, who offers him a place to stay, and later, a solution to his money problems. That solution? An exclusive club where super wealthy men go to spend a whole lot of money for a night or more with a hot rent boy. Julian’s extremely successful doing it, so why not Wes?

I absolutely adored Julian and his so-called rules about how to act with the clients. The main one is don’t fall in love with them. Well, Wes isn’t exactly known for following rules. 😉

“I don’t like sex worker. It makes me sound like I have a clocking-in card.” His eyes twinkle. “Maybe I have a cocking-in card. How about calling me an escort if your sensitive nature hates the word whore.”

They’re barely in the club before a creepy guy is hitting on Wes, but that’s not the way it’s done. Each ‘offer’ has to go through the club. Thankfully, a handsome man Wes noticed before has requested him – using the proper channels – and he’s made an offer Wes would be stupid to refuse.

Wes breaks all of Julian’s rules within minutes of meeting the man, Cormac; or Mac to Wes. Poor Mac didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he decided he wanted to play with Wes. They have sex in one of the club’s rooms, and Wes gets a lot of money to help with the debts caused by Tyler. Cormac is known as, according to Julian, a one and done. There are never any repeats. So imagine Wes’ surprise when a day or so later he’s being asked to enter into an arrangement with the other man. Mac provides a fancy apartment, and more money than Wes could ask for, as long as he’s available when Mac wants him. No problem there. The sex with Mac is the best he’s ever had.

The arrangement works out well until feelings get involved. On Wes’ part anyway. Mac, on the other hand, is all business. They don’t discuss anything personal, and Mac never stays when the sex is over. There’s no spending the night or even cuddling. It’s sex, period. Mac knows nothing about why Wes was at the club that night, or what’s going on with his family, or that Wes is even in college. He doesn’t know because he doesn’t want to know. That’s too personal. Wes knows even less about Mac.

Even so, they have a good relationship of sorts even outside of the sex. Wes makes Mac laugh, something he obviously doesn’t do often. Mac has snarky wit and hilarious comebacks. He kept me smiling throughout the book. Every time I’d be thinking he’s too serious, his dry humor would come out.

When Mac asks Wes to accompany him on a business trip to Paris, everything changes. This is when Wes knows he’s fallen in love. Mac, on the other hand, still won’t even sleep in the same bed with him.

Secrets come out one night when Tyler makes an appearance and Mac is accidentally brought into the family drama. For the first time since they met, Mac encourages Wes to open up about everything – Tyler’s gambling, losing the family home and money, everything. Until now, he didn’t ask questions nor did he answer any.

Everything comes to a head when Wes is attacked and almost not rescued in time. This is when the reader sees a softer side of Mac. There are a few endearments thrown out, something he’d been conscious not to do before, and he’s sweet, caring. He’s acting like a partner, not just a lover.

That night is when Wes realizes that he can’t keep going the way they have been, so he walks away. And, honestly, he needed to. There was no silly ‘big misunderstanding’ or anything like that. It was simply Wes guarding his heart.

My heart hurt for both of these guys. Even with the ‘relationship’ over, Mac still went out of his way to protect Wes. He did so many things in the background, which was his way of telling and showing Wes how he really felt about him. He wasn’t pushy or annoying, nor did he love bomb. He simply took care of things and made life easier for Wes without being so in your face about it.

Wes was pretty much an open book. Mac wasn’t even close. He’d never been one to show emotions, to allow himself to feel, so he had a difficult time doing it with Wes. I got a little misty-eyed when everything finally came together for these two men, especially when Mac finally opened up about his family, his past.

What a beautiful, beautiful love story. This is no Pretty Woman or Cinderella type story. Sure the rich man and the poor rent boy – though calling Wes that is almost laughable – come together and fall in love. But it’s completely different from most billionaire/rent boy books or movies. This is full of emotions, both good and bad.

For a moment, I was concerned that there would be an issue with another character who is introduced on the night of Wes’ attack. Thankfully, that didn’t play out the way I was worried it would. That line of thinking would not be a stretch. It wouldn’t have been the first time one of the author’s books was going so well only to take a turn that, to be blunt, pissed me off. It happened in Rule Breaker and Milo.

Every single thing played out exactly as I’d hoped for Wes and Mac. When the business arrangement was no longer part of it, they came together beautifully. It took a little bit to get there, but when it did? Absolutely perfect.

Again, I’m not a fan of the length. The story could’ve easily been told in a lot less pages than 432. As for Tyler and his situation, I never could bring myself to like him, nor could I sympathize with him. I get that he had an addiction. I understand addictions well, but that doesn’t change the fact that he put his family and his best friend in the predicament they were in. I just can’t get beyond the stealing. I’d have a hard time coming back from that. Also, I know there’s an age gap between Wes and Mac, but I don’t think the author gave ages of the characters. I’m weird about needing to know the ages, expecially when there’s an age gap involved.

The cover model is so Wes.

Definitely one of my favorite books of 2025. I’m glad I took another chance with the author. I hope to see Julian and Fox’s story someday.