This is a lovely story. It has quite an unusual beginning for a romance. On her thirtieth birthday Elise goes out for a run, and when she arrives home to her lonely and luxurious penthouse there is a man, dressed in a tuxedo and a large red ribbon, waiting for her, holding an enormous bouquet of red roses. Nikau works for an escort agency, Casanovas, and has been hired by Elise’s best friend Sarah, to spend the evening with Elise. She has become something of a recluse since her world imploded around seven and a half years before. She almost only goes out for the occasional run.
Elise’s first thought is to get rid of him, she doesn’t need company; but Nikau is persistent, and persuasive, and they have a lovely evening together. Nikau tells her about himself, why he has taken a job as an escort after leaving the army, and she is very touched by his honesty and his story. She cannot stop thinking about him, and a couple of days later she telephones the escort agency to book his services for two weeks, twenty four hours a day, and has paid up-front, he will earn $268,800, enough to pay for all the things he needs to do. She is very wealthy, it is no hardship for her, and she wants to help him, knowing he wouldn’t just accept the money as a gift. Nikau goes to see her to discuss it. He has responsibilities, and once she has persuaded him to take this opportunity they agree that he will stay from 6pm to 6am every night for a month.
They get on very well, falling for each other without ever mentioning it. Mostly they stay in, but do go out together, once for dinner with her friends, where Nikau gets offered the chance of a good job, but regretfully turns it down because he would need to admit his current employment and doesn’t want to embarrass Elise. Their other outing becomes exceedingly embarrassing and almost breaks them up. However, almost at the end of their time together events cause Elise to tell Nikau to go, and he just doesn’t understand why. He sends her flowers every day, but she won’t speak to him, her telephone is always switched off. Of course, this is a love story, it cannot end there. With just a little help from her friend, Nikau saves the day, we are going to have a happy ever after!
This is an extremely emotional book, both characters make you laugh and cry in equal measure. Nikau is a wonderful character, life has been hard for him in recent years, and although he needed a lot of money none of it was for himself. When he left the army he had extreme difficulty in finding a decent job that would pay for his needs, which is why he took the job as an escort. Elise had several events, all close together, that broke her, and made her determined to never make herself open to such unhappiness ever again. Serenity Woods is so good at writing emotion, you feel you are there, part of the story.
This is a quite unputdownable story, well worth reading.