Rating: 
Summary: A great summer read.
Review: So what exactly drives the requirements of a summer novel? Not too deep? Gone from memory once the book is closed? Well, both apply here. The author is indeed a good storyteller, but the formula of the gay summer novel has been done ad nauseum, and this book doesn't add anything fresh to the mix. There will always be celebrity names, there will always be hot guys, there will always be a scandal, and the main character will always triumph with minor struggle/wind damage endured. The author is well aware of the formula, and writes one of the better stories I've seen while using it, but little separates it from the work of Doug Guinan et al. Best advice: buy it used, then recycle accordingly.
Rating: 
Summary: Liz Smith thinks this book will be a movie!
Review: Syndicated columnist Liz Smith wrote on July 23: "I can see some brave producers lining up to snag rights to transplant this lampoon to the movie screen." Wow-impressive comments by Miz Liz (especially for a first-time author...or is he??)! This book is a must read--it's the hotest book among the "cognoscenti" in the Hamptons--and with us "regular-folk" too.
Rating: 
Summary: Witty, gossipy fun
Review: The author, a gay publicist at a huge Hollywood studio, has created a witty, fast-paced novel about a gay publicist at a huge Hollywood studio. Besides the wicked satire, imaginative plot and colorful main characters, half the fun of this book is trying to figure out which real-life stars and studio honchos were the models for the demanding loonies that the hero must placate. (Most are disguised only thinly.)
Rating:
Summary: A Wicked Version of Glamourpuss
Review: This is a great fast read. VERY similar in some ways to the movie "Swimming with Sharks" Nice guy works for evil boss, meets hunky gay stripper, stripper stolen away by promises of scriptwriting stardom. Then there is the nice duel plots of Will boy get back at his boss AND will he stay with the new perfect guy or leave him for the sexually Hotter than Hell rent boy? Even though it was sort of a wacky fun story I found the realtionship portions to be fairly believable and they just added to the reading pleasure.
Rating: 
Summary: The Real Trick is getting through this book!
Review: This is one of the worst books I have ever read. This was my first exposure to Ben Tyler, and it will be my last. Poorly written and poorly edited. Save your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Wanted: Proofreader, To Start Immediately!
Review: This was an interesting book in that I found the writing juvenile and lazy and the subject matter about as deep as a wading pool. Would I read it again? Absolutely!
Tyler shows great promise but could benefit from much closer supervision, story guidance, editing, and believe it or not -- just plain proofreading!
The book starts out as a perfect summer "trash" read. And if the straights have Collins and Binchy and Steele, then damn it, we deserve one too! But better you should spend your time with Kenry (Can't Buy Me Love) or Boyd (Uprising) or Bayard (Endangered Species).
Tyler makes liberal use of metaphors and similes and they are universally strained -- the only question as you go from one to the next is how tortured the prose will be. Some of his metaphors are as painful as a boil on Strom Thurmond's left butt cheek after he's sat for 8 hours in Senate hearings and it's started to infect... (well, you get the drift!)
Most amusing for those of us with a legal background is the cartoonish portrayal of the judge in the last few chapters -- his rantings (threatening measures which no judge could ever take), his childish behavior, and his outright delight at taking an ex parte meeting with the litigants to get himself a date are most amusing. However, don't miss page 250, WHEREIN THE GOOD JUDGE ACTUALLY CHANGES NAMES -- switched with one of the main characters for three paragraphs. (The editor must have been out to lunch that day.)
Despite all this, would I read it again? Absolutely. Hey, we all have a guilty pleasure and this one is cheap and certainly non-addictive.
Rating:
Summary: a fun read
Review: True, this book is no great piece of literature but it is for lack of a better word, fun. I thought the plot was intersting, it s both comical and sexy. The sex scences are steamy and passionate. There is alot of name dropping, but overall I really enjoyed this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not For Me
Review: When I started this book I really thought it'd be a four or five star read. Ben Tyler's smart writing style got me hooked for the first seventy-five pages or so, despite the cheesy cover that looked like an ad for a Palm Springs clothing optional resort. From there it was all downhill. The story of a gay Hollywood studio publicist, Bart Cain quickly softened into a predictable raunchy sexcapade with enough smut to fill an issue of "Honcho." I thought the characters became one dimensional and shallow including a self-involved Latino stud named "Rod"?! I also thought the writing got lazy as the story went along. At one point he describes a character as "beginning to look like Allison Janney's character in 'American Beauty'". This book first came to my attention in Liz Smith's column of the L.A. Times saying how great it was. I think Tyler shows great technical prowess as a writer. Unfortunately for me it was about as shallow as the business he's satirizing. But if what you're looking for is a very light gay summer read with bitchy characters and lots of different descriptions of male genitalia, this could be the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: TRRRASH!!
Review: You don't expect a book with a cover like this to be genuinely good or well written; you're only look for some cheap thrills with a page turner you won't be embarassed to be seen with on the beach. Even on this low level, "Tricks" fails. The depiction of the inner workings of show biz seems to be cribbed from ET outtakes, lots of "bitchy" remarks (many of them wince inducing), not an iota of insight. And the gay material is either smutty or saccharine. The "twists" are so obvious you can see them coming a mile away. A gay Jackie Collins is needed, but Ben Tyler is not a contender. I couldn't even finish this thing. How did it get published?
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