An Honest Woman - Book Review

RICARDO REVIEWS

An Honest Woman: A Memoir of Love and Sex Work, by Charlotte Shane (Simon & Schuster, 2024)

Nonfiction author, Charlotte Shane, MA, brings her writing, literature and publishing experience to expose her experience as a prostitute. The author details her escort lifestyle as someone who can be very loyal to her clientele. Shane's memory includes her determination to satisfy client routine dates with her oral fixation, which kept them around for years. Throughout the book Shane includes detailed examples of the escort lifestyle, which included male enthusiasm, personal props, psychology, and its logistics. Charlotte confesses how men made her feel as if she was unattractive and unwanted, until she found sex work to drive her to prove them all wrong. The author uses her contact with lessons learned as examples and stories for entries. Charlotte was very good at reading other people and learning from them, especially when it came to co-workers personal experiences, as well as, observations. Clients often overlook an escort's overall beauty and will compliment their date as did Roger even after 5-7 years of loyalty to Miss Shane. You will want to add this book to your Sex Work by Numbers: Bridging Economics and Social Sciences to Understand the Hidden World of Commercial Sex (2026), Prostitute Laundry (2023), as well as, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (2014).

5 out of 5 stars