Author: T.J. Hamilton
ISBN: 9781743693858
RRP: $24.99
Buying Thyme is written by former police officer T.J. Hamilton, her fictional works draw on the experiences she had working the streets of Sydney; not the way her characters work those streets though. In her debut with Harlequin Mira we meet Miranda, a high class escort working for a prestigious agency out of a Sydney penthouse.
Miranda is one of Miss Stephanie’s most sought after assets and she has been taught the fine art of seduction, lessons that she learned well. Miranda has perfected her game face, learned her role and is fluent at slipping into her alter ego when she enters the penthouse. Like all the girls at the agency Miranda is not her real name, it’s her working name, and no-one at work knows her real name. Miranda remembers her real name but sometimes she wonders if she remembers the real girl.
Buying Thyme gives us an inside look at the life of a high class escort. Miranda is not comfortable with what she does; the job is exhilarating once she’s doing it but it’s not something she wants anyone knowing about her. Outside of the business the news is only known by her flamboyantly gay best friend Charlie. She has even kept the information from her family, and she shares everything with her brother.
Miranda’s profession is a good indicator of what you will find within these pages. There is a lot of steamy action and some very graphic scenes, some gratuitous but some I think were integral to the flow of the story.
For the right price Miranda can be bought by anyone, as a high class escort it’s usually not by the hour and not a price just anyone can afford. She has a few regulars and there is something about her that captures the attention of her clients, and often has them hankering for more than what’s covered in her job description.
I found Miranda to be an extremely engaging character, I wanted to get to know her and I want to find out what happened to propel her into the world of prostitution. She has never worked in the seedier brothels or worked the streets, her start came in the high class escort agency. I would love to get to know all the girls at the agency a little better, to find out their back stories and what brought them to Miss Stephanie.
Miss Stephanie is the ultimate business woman, nurturing her girls to always show their best sides and present themselves as top dollar – so she can make top dollar. She is very difficult to say no to which leaves Miranda taking jobs she otherwise wouldn’t.
Miranda has always been very good at keeping her emotions out of her working life but Buying Thyme sees the lines starting to blur, with more than one of her clients. This is where we start to see things get interesting.
Miranda is used to the men in her life paying for the privilege, and often allowing their emotions to blur the lines so Miranda has a quick wit and is always on hand with an off the cuff reminder of the way things are between them. Her first client is the American stuntman Michael, only in town for a couple of months and only making one appearance.+
Joe Tench is an interesting client, one who is shrouded in mystery for much of the novel. He is rumoured to be heavily involved in the criminal underground but nothing has ever been said to Miranda for sure. He is certainly not short of a dollar, booking her for a weekend before she takes some time off and then booking her for an entire month when she returns to work.
Tom Smythe is a new client who insists on booking Miranda for the night just before her time off. He is the heir to a mining magnate recently returned widowed and returned from overseas. He is intriguing and charismatic in a completely different way and he is only paying for company which only makes Miranda want him more.
There were times in this book that I was really disappointed in Miranda and her actions, and it had nothing to do with her profession. I can understand why she was doing what she was doing but sometimes I just wanted to shake her.
A personal tragedy sends Miranda off on a new journey of discovery that is sure to change everything, and this is where things got really interesting.
Hamilton takes us on a steamy and seedy ride fraught with danger and deception where no-one is really who they seem and she leaves us desperate to know what’s in store for Miss Miranda next.
20 of our lucky readers are going to be reading Buying Thyme as well so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below. Personally, I can not wait to hear what they think.
Buying Thyme (Harlequin MIRA) is available for purchase at Harlequin or at all good book stores nationally for RRP $24.99/ eRRP $17.99
T.J. Hamilton can be found on her Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
I have 5 words LOVE THE TITLE – VERY CLEVER.
When I lived in a Sydney suburb there was a lady that worked as a prostitute and you would never have known just by looking at her. She was a lovely person but also had some hidden secrets.
This sounds like a facinating book.
I found BUYING THYME to be a very interesting glimpse into a world that is totally alien to me.
I liked being inside Miranda’s head. Knowing her thoughts was very helpful and made the story feel multi-dimensional somehow.
The sex scenes are very explicit, but they did not come as a surprise given the subject matter of the book.
BUYING THYME is very well written and moves along quickly.
A great ending as Mia/Miranda enters a new phase in her life.
Thank you for selecting me to read Buying Thyme, the author T J Hamilton is a brilliant writer, This book is about a high class escort named Miranda opened my eyes to a world I knew existed but new nothing about, I can see how easily it would be to get drawn into this lifestyle, I thought there was more to Tom and Lizzy but wasn’t sure till the last chapters, yes the sex is explicit but would expect in a story like this, I honestly can’t wait till the next book is released in 2016 to find out why Sally was murdered and what happens to Mia / Miranda I hope Mia / Miranda finds love and happiness , I give this book 10 out of 10 I read a lot of books and this has to be one of the best I have read this year congratulations T J Hamilton
Thankyou for the opportunity to review “Buying Thyme”.
I enjoyed this novel, easy to read and credible in some situations.
A little raunchy at times but given the nature of the book quite within the reader’s expectations. The principal character is Amanda, 27years old and a high class escort/prostitute. She has several very wealthy clients in the establishment where Miss Stephanie is the madam. Among them Michael Stephenson a stuntman, Joe Tench Sydney’s formidable organised crime gang head and Tom Smythe a millionaire. All are demanding of her time and she is confused about her feelings. Deciding she is in need of a break she takes several weeks off, during this time she meets with Tom only as a friend. On return from her break she is informed by Miss Stephanie that she has been booked by Joe for a month. Things really heat up after this and the pages are full of excitement. It wasn’t until the end of the novel that I knew why the title was called “Buying Thyme”, so clever! I await the conclusion due in 2016.
From Page 1, I totally dived into the book straight away. We meet this beautiful high class escort named Miranda whose real name is Mia and before we know it we are seeing exactly why she is so fantastic at her profession. She does not like to be compared to a prostitute.
I warmed to Miranda straight away and could not put the book down till I was finished. Her best friend Charlie, her friend Sally from work and her boss Miss Stephanie, you totally want to know more of.
Her intriguing relationship with Joe and her love for another called Tom. Two very different men in her life that will evolve in mystery, love, raunchy sex scenes which are totally explosive on the pages.
For readers that do not like explicit sex scenes, this book would probably aggravate them. It is no Mills and Boon from the old days. I found with the story that it did flow through the chapters quite well. I’ve read many types of other explicit novels by Jackie Collins and Harold Robbins and always loved them.
When Sally disappears is when we see a different change to the story and one of the characters. Someone is not who he seems to be to Miranda and it is then we start dealing with mystery and we then know that we are dealing with the underworld life in Sydney.
The novel is definitely a fast pace and there are no lags amongst the chapters that your mind wanders. I was totally absorbed with the storyline.
I don’t want to give anything away but I can definitely say, I am so looking forward to the next book from T.J. Hamilton. UnfortunateIy though, I have to wait until 2016!!
Thanks Beauty & Lace for giving me another opportunity of reading such an exciting book. I know I am going to enjoy reading more of T.J. Hamilton in the future. I loved the title of the book – thought it was very clever and the cover felt good holding too.
Thank you Beauty & Lace for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel.
Miranda is a high paid escort working for an agency in Sydney and has a number of regular clients. She sometimes struggles with having feelings for some of her clients, which she doesn’t understand and does question her future as an escort and whether it would be possible to actually have a future with one of her clients.
I was uncertain whether I would enjoy this novel, which has erotic scenes, mystery and suspense and certainly keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end, but I definitely did enjoy it and am anxiously awaiting the stunning conclusion to Miranda’s story next year in Finding Thyme.
It is a very well written novel by former police officer T.J. Hamilton and I most definitely do recommend it.
I was really looking forward to reading Buying Thyme, such an interesting title, the implication of a double meaning, written by an ex police officer with experience in the seedier side of Sydney with its criminals and prostitutes. Sadly I didn’t find the book lived up to my expectations.
The book begins strongly enough with an introduction to Miranda, the main character’s alter ego, as she arrives for her “shift” as a high class escort. We meet Miss Stephanie, the parlours madam and initially it seems that she is going to play a major part in the story, some of the other girls who work for the agency are introduced, Sally (Miranda’s closest confidante in the industry), Maricel, Paris and Carmen, Kelly the hair and makeup artist at the agency, and Ben, who drives the girls to their appointments (never less than a four star hotel) and hangs around to make sure they are safe. Miranda comments that none of the girls names are their real ones, and that none of them know each other’s real name.
Miranda’s closest friend Charlie is introduced with the statement that he is the only person outside of prostitution who knows what she does and a comment that not even her brother Simon knows. And then it’s show-time with her first client a stuntman, Michael, who has booked her once before.
Ben drives Miranda to her encounter with Michael and Miranda comments “Ben is always with us, …, I just know he’s there to protect us. … But it’s nice to know Ben is around if we ever need it.” It’s probably being a little picky, but with 4 or 5 girls working from the agency each night I found myself wondering how Ben could possibly escort each of them to their client and be close enough to assist if there was a problem. This dilemma increased for me when Miranda was spending nights or longer with her clients.
I found the sex scenes to be predictably steamy and written at fantasy rather than reality level, with men who had the capacity to produce erection after erection, and intensity of coitus that would leave most women incapable of walking for a day or two!!
The next client is Joe Tench, portrayed as Sydney’s equivalent of The Godfather, dangerous, demanding, sexy and quite quite charming. Miranda flips between wondering what it would be like to live a life with him, being confused by his uncharacteristic solicitousness, and feeling a little uncomfortable about his lifestyle and what he does to attain his wealth.
And then Tom Smythe enters the picture, heir to a wealthy mining company, amazingly gorgeous, recently bereaved; he books Miranda for top dollar, and yet doesn’t appear to want sex.
From this point on Hamilton appears to be trying to build intrigue, but for me the unreality of the way she goes about it turns the book into a third rate crime story, then towards the end of the book it begins to develop a little meaty substance only to finish abruptly on what appears to be a “to be continued” basis.
Overall I found the characters lacked real substance, some introduced as if they were to play a role in the story yet never to be heard of again. Great emphasis is made of the “health checks” each client is required to produce in order to book a girl, and yet apparently these health checks don’t require an identity check. For someone who has studied criminology and worked in the roles that Hamilton’s biography states, I found the flaws in the story to be disappointing. I was left thinking that Hamilton would have been better writing this as a crime novel involving a high end escort, with some incidental sex, rather than what appears to have been an attempt to write Mills and Boon meets 50 Shades of Grey meets The Godfather.
Thanks to the Beauty and Lace Book Club for another opportunity to read a new book!
When I first started reading this I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy it – it started with some very lengthy and descriptive erotic scenes, which I expected (some of at least), but I was concerned the whole book was basically just going to be like this which was not quite what I wanted to read. The topic does change though and build up a story of substance, but of course touches on sex a lot given that Miranda is a high class escort – so I definitely would not recommend this book if you are not comfortable with that kind of content. Unfortunately though as another reviewer Marcia said, I also thought these sex scenes were very fantasy based rather than reality as the number and intensity of the encounters seemed very high and unbelievable. That is not necessarily a bad thing, however I did think even though the book is fiction that it was going to be a little more based on fact and drawn from true stories.
I liked Miranda has a character as the story brought across the fact that she is still a “real human” underneath and despite her career choice is no different to you or I. I found myself disagreeing with some of her decisions and wishing she had made other choices at times, but overall found her quite likable. I despised Joe Tench for most of the novel, even though he came across as quite sweet when he is first introduced in the book but my gut feeling was confirmed later in the book. I loved Tom as a character though and hope we see a lot more of him in the sequel even though his true identity was a surprise, and also that we learn about Sally.
I found the first half of the book was an enjoyable read but I wasn’t really hooked. I could quite easily put the book down and at some points had to force myself to keep reading. After that though a few exciting or shocking things did happen, some of which evoked real emotion in me and I became more hooked on the story. I am glad the book picked up in the second half, and I am reasonably keen to read the sequel. I am a very confused though as it seems the Thyme Trilogy was released a couple of years ago, with the first book called the same and having a very similar blurb, but now Buying Thyme has only just been released (again?). The novel we read said the sequel is to be released in 2016 called Finding Thyme, yet the trilogy has a second book called ‘Taking Thyme’ which has a blurb that is what would be expected for the 2nd book. I am confused if this is just a re-release or if the books have changed at all. Do I need to wait for finding thyme, or can I go read taking thyme?!
Steph, great pickup. I found the same info.
Originally Buying Thyme was released digitally as a self-published effort as the beginning of a trilogy.
Now that the book has been picked up by Harlequin and gone through rigorous editing it has changed a little and is now only 2 books.
You could go read Taking Thyme, I will by waiting for Finding Thyme. It will be different but I’m not sure how different.
Oh thanks for the quick reply Michelle! I have been googling it but couldn’t find the answer, so I’m glad I asked. I think I will wait for Finding Thyme then 🙂
I spoke to the publisher. 🙂
Different from my favourite genre – psychological thrillers I looked forward to reading Buying Thyme. Once I received it, and got a chance to start it the next night when the kids were in bed, I could not put it down!
Fast paced and intriguing it was like nothing I’ve read before. For me, being written by an ex-police officer and set in Sydney added to my fascination.
TJ Hamilton’s descriptions of Miranda and her clients had me ‘hooked’ and I found this book better than expected. There were times when I said out loud “Miranda! WHAT are you doing?” and felt I was on a bit of a emotional roller coaster but that just added to making it a real page turner for me, and I felt pleased when he life changed at the end of the book.
Probably not one I’d donate to my local Retirement home as I do with a lot of books…or maybe I should 😉