Book Review: Stuck with My Secret Billionaire Construction Worker

Title: Stuck with My Secret Billionaire Construction Worker

Author: Kasia Kain

Date: 2023

Quote: "'Just take your shirt off, nothing else,' she instructs...When her brown eyes raise to meet my gaze, I see lust in their depths."

Alana is supposed to be a professional masseuse. But since she knows Landon is a billionaire and calls her brother a friend, she can't even finish massaging his muscular back before she's reassuring him that it's safe to do what makes babies because she's on the Pill. The next few pages are not a thorough discussion of how his muscle groups responded to pressure as distinct from light strokes as distinct from heat as distinct from ice, which might be interesting to read, but they are just a list of body parts interspersed with formerly unprintable words. In other words, it's porn.

Right. At this point, I know:

1."Kasia Kain" is a man. Finding an attractive woman who's as eager to rut as he is seemed, when I did some research on the subject, to be the male fantasy. Being that woman is not so high on the popularity charts for females, and it's not what we mean when we say "romance." A woman writing a male fantasy as a novel would know better than to market it to women.

2. If these characters were real, Alana would lose her license, and legitimate massage therapists would be the first to charge her with criminal prostitution. That's NOT what we do. Not ever. Some massage therapists may give a patient a hand job--not for therapeutic purposes, just to avoid an unpleasant scene if they think a patient is likely to throw one. Some will use an uncomfortable move to redirect the patient's mind. And digging into a trigger point is actually considered to be a better practice, as far as treating muscle cramps is concerned. 

What people seeking massage therapy need to know: Sexual pleasure involves a release of prostaglandins into the bloodstream. Prostaglandins are biochemicals that increase sensitivity. The birds sing more sweetly and the sky seems bluer for a healthy person. The pain increases for a person with a painful condition. Whereas trigger points can usually be worked out. So, if we indulge a patient's whim, the patient goes home feeling worse, whereas if we make per arm or leg hurt for a minute or two, the patient goes home feeling better. So, patients should take care of their "need" for sexual pleasure before a massage, in order to get the best results from the massage. 

I will speak plainly. As a legitimate massage therapist I appreciated that, at the time, Washington had decriminalized prostitution; if that was what a caller obviously wanted, I'd tell him to call someone who was doing it. I don't give a flip what some other woman does to finance her collection of hog-trotter-shaped shoes. I'm glad I've never even thought I needed to do that, but I don't feel called to judge those who do. But I was, and still am, directly insulted when people claim to be doing massage as a front for prostitution. Most of us are. 

3. My interest in this book is now at absolute zero. I know where the alleged story is going, and I don't care. It's a sick male fantasy that would do harm, not good, if anyone tried to enact it in real life. 

I would not sell this book in a store and I'm glad I only wasted the time it took to read the first few chapters of a Book Funnel freebie. 

This web site likes to encourage writers so let's say that all writers are hereby encouraged not to write fiction that slanders a health care profession. If you want to bash health care providers, bash the chemists who want everybody to be "hooked on" some sort of prescription medication for life. (It's not slander if it's supported by facts.) If you want to write a romance about a masseuse, make it a slow burn story where the man recovers strength and health but keeps looking for ways to see the woman again in a social context. Real massage therapists like when that happens. Sex is not our business but most of us do appreciate all the things that keep a great set of muscles feeling good...long walks by the beach, and chess games, and good healthy food, and whatever those may lead to when the people involved are young and fertile.

Oh, and 4. A lot of people my age and younger came into this world while their mothers were on the Pill. Effective birth control is a responsibility nature handed to men.