Cam Boy

Anderson (Action) sets up this Los Angeles contemporary to be steamy from the start. College dropout Josh Clemmons is working in a coffee house for minimum wage when he get the idea to boost his income by becoming a porn star. He thinks being paid to have sex sounds like fun; he soon realizes he’s wrong. Mike Harwood—better known as porn star Sean Hardwood—doesn’t expect to fall for a naive newbie, but fall he does, and hard. Josh is uncomfortable having sex on camera, but Mike helps him keep his mind on having fun. After a health scare, Josh decides to try a new type of sex work: being a cam boy, paid to masturbate over webcam. He and Mike continue to pursue romance off the set. But when it turns out Mike’s been keeping a big secret, Josh finds it very hard to forgive him. Anderson’s offbeat plot and multilayered heroes are a treat. The novel also nonjudgmentally takes on the topic of HIV, not defining it stereotypically as the inevitable result of being a sex worker or a gay man. This quick, enjoyable story will win Anderson new fans. (Feb.)