The Price: My Rise and Fall As Natalia, New York's #1 Escort Kindle Edition

Candid Account of the world of exclusive and expensive escorts.For several years Natalia Commanded the highest price of any New York escort at the city’s most exclusive escort service. There are many details about events in the service’s office, shopping binges and about many clients. The stories are very well written and entertaining. As an adult with libertarian leanings I think that we own and are responsible for what we do with our own bodies. I have never understood why boxers earn millions of dollars legally beating each other to a pulp, But providing services to give people sexual pleasure is illegal nearly everywhere in this country. I think sex work should be legal and an honorable professional Like it is in many countries such as the Netherlands. Men seeking sexual outlets are much safer with escorts in a non-emotionally involved encounter Than with coworkers or acquaintances which usually Do not end well and often involve families breaking up. I think sex workers actually help keep a lot of families together.

Natalia had the world by the balls and threw it all away in a year's time.It wasn't all her fault. Her boyfriend / pimp / escort magnate Jason steals all her credit card earnings and then dares the cops to shut his agency down through ever dumber publicity stunts. His ridiculous delusions of the big time lead him to take out regular half-page ads in New York magazine and get himself and his agency written up in gossip columns, and finally encourage a VH1 reality TV pilot, all of which are finally just too much for the DA. The DA would leave them alone if they stayed out of drug distribution (which they did) and stayed out of the media, but Jason in his delusions finally couldn't stop flaunting his escort business, leaving the DA little choice but to shut it down lest a mockery is made of the law. It didn't have to be this way or end this way.But Natalia was going to self-destruct anyway, it just happened faster with Jason's help. Her constant, escalating drug use and partying off the clock drained her cash and damaged her far worse than her occupation itself did, if the latter damaged her at all. When she wasn't taking drugs and partying, she was spending every dollar she made on ridiculous designer clothing: $500 - $650 shoes (dozens of them), dresses as much as $1200, and so on. She reports having the time of her life doing these things, until she goes from constantly snorting big lines of coke to freebasing coke and finally getting addicted to heroin, which even she recognizes was a step too far. The crash and burn of her agency and getting locked up in Rikers for a month (failing to make bail) probably saved her life from a fatal drug overdose, not that she ever recognizes that.I read the book for the actual escorting experience and what she thought of it. It turns out that she loved it and seems to have no regrets about escorting per se by the end of the book. She even takes time in the final chapter to restate that she sees nothing wrong with escorting and thinks it serves a societal good. That's my opinion as well from the outside (having neither experienced nor been an escort). But the book is a missed opportunity to explore the actual experience and her thoughts about it in more depth. If anything, she damages the pro-escort argument with this book, because she destroys her life and nearly loses her life as "New York's #1 escort." This seems to suggest that even at the top, escorting is self-destructive and horrible for women. But what destroys Natalia are the basic, obvious demons: escalating drug use, excessive partying when not on the clock, absurd spending, and a megalomaniac boyfriend / escort magnate who steals from her and tanks the business by flaunting their business and leaving the DA no choice but to take action. Sure, no one seems to have been actually convicted of prostitution, but it took months and an extended trip to Rikers until the law let Natalia off the hook. (Fittingly, only Jason served serious time on a conviction, and that for money laundering.)I do realize that many escorts and hookers are heavy drug users, so it may be naive to try to separate the two activities. Certainly a number of Natalia's clients bring coke into the sessions, and that's got to be a dangerous gateway. Some of Natalia's wildest escapades on the clock were amped up heavily by mutual drug use by herself, another escort and the client. Is it possible to be a high-end escort (or any escort) and bypass the drugs altogether? I'd like to think so. You'll not get the answer or even the question in this book.In the end, I think Natalie McLennan hasn't learned enough from her intense rise and fall as Natalia to sort out the good and the bad and give us insight into whether a happy and fulfilling life as an escort is possible - even a life to be recommended. She's simply too young to have the right insight and understand what readers like me are looking to learn from a book like this. Nonetheless, she tells a jaw-dropping tale. This was a fast read that I couldn't put down. She writes well and knows how to tell a story. As it turns out, it just wasn't quite the story that I wanted to read.The title ("The Price") suggests that the price of being a high-end escort is crashing and burning, but that inference is never explicit or asserted directly. While it's a good title, it's misleading in my opinion and a little too obeisant to the moral police. I suspect that somewhere out there are loads of happy escorts or happily retired escorts thinking, "It didn't have to be that way." I want to read their books. Where is "The Escort Next Door"? (A true story by that name, not the fiction by Clara James.)

I read the reviews and expected this book to be awful. Other reviews mentioned horrible editing. Sure there were a few grammatical errors, but not too distracting. I find more errors in daily newspaper articles than in this book.I'm glad Natalie discussed her drug use, because I've heard middle school girls talk about following in her footsteps. (I'm a middle school teacher and coach) It's easier to guide those lost girls by asking them if their ready to do lots of drugs and go to jail.In the peaks of her lifestyle was beyond outrageous and to think reasonably like "I should save my money that I'm making" is probably just as ridiculous. When you're 24, you think it's never going to end or I'll start saving tomorrow. Natalie made a lot promises that she'd start tomorrow and tomorrow comes and goes.Natalie went thru many peaks and valleys in her journey thru New York. Good read to offer a look into another world that's dangerous, ruthless, guiltless, and exciting at the same time. In her deepest valley, she fought her way back from abusive relationships, toxic living, drug addiction, materialistic views, estrangement from her family and being a lost soul.

Overall it was an interesting read but I have to wonder what the editor was doing while they were supposed to be proofreading the book, as there were a lot of errors. But I'm guessing that's the least of your concerns and you're more into the details of the escort business. McLennan does a good job of describing how the New York Confidential (or should I say Gotham Steak) business operated and also talks about all the perks and cons that come along with being an escort. If you are looking for details as to who her famous clients were you will be disappointed as she respects their privacy and doesn't blackmail any of her clients, which isn't always the case in the escort world. Overall, it was a fun read but nothing really stood out from the other escort books that I've read.

I like to read books that really take me away from life. This book was great. I enjoy an easy read and non-fiction. She never OVER analyzed her situations and she moves along in a quick but good pace. No matter how much people like to judge others of their choices,this book gives an inside view of how the lifestyle is. I think secretly we all want a peek and that's what you get with THE PRICE. I liked the ending, it was real happily-ever after.

Was recommended by a friend and ate it up in only a few days. You feel like you are living tiny moments along with Nathalie. A beautiful and easy to read piece that gives you a dash of perspective on life and what matters most.

Interesting read into the escort world and about drug addiction and the impact it has on everyone around you. .

Loved it. Detailed and interesting!

Really depressing and boring from another side. Extraordinary life described in very common way. Could be a really good book with the good story, but needs to be developed properly

Ummm OK but didn't feel so much for the characters