Book Review: Romance Costs Extra By Sara St. Clair

March 16, 2024
NAOMI LEROY

Grab this book and your favorite sex toy and drift into the glamorous world of an adult performer!

Hey Fleshbot fans! I’ve got a sizzling and smutty read to tell you about, so gather round! Romance Costs Extra is the AVN-nominated book detailing the adventures of adult performer and professional service provider Sara St. Clair, written by the lady herself (who is also known as “Hardcore Barbie”) and co-author Danielle Aimie. Shut the door and get comfortable, you're going to want to read this one in private! (Side note, be sure to check out her podcast appearances too.)

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In her book, Sara delves right into how she got into the adult industry from the very first chapter. She recounts how she was hand-selected to be an entertaining and attractive female guest at private poker games. The agreement was that she was paid to be there to look pretty, chat guys up, and keep the players happy and their wallets open but that any discreet arrangements she made with individuals she met there were her own business. Being as hot and charming as she is, Sara had rich men eating out of her hand almost immediately and that very night landed some of her first clients as a service provider.

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I love how she just went almost straight into the spicy bits that everyone wants to know. A lot of times biographies get bogged down in talking about the entire origin story of the subject, right down to where their parents grew up or where their family came from and all sorts of historical context and detail, which works for those stories, but this is a salacious and breezy memoir, not a scholarly tome and it was absolutely the right choice. Sara genuinely seems to love sex so it seems her career choices have been good for her.

Sara tells us about the rules and boundaries she created for herself and there were three main rules she made for interacting with her clients: No kissing on the lips, condoms must always be used for penetration, and she would not allow herself to develop romantic feelings for any clients. Guess which one of those was the hardest to follow?

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Sara recounts many spicy tales of her clients -- like hooking up with a doctor in the special sex dungeon he used on the hospital campus. She tells us about her friend Rose -- who is also in the companionship business -- and the fun threesomes they enjoyed, as well as a boy-girl-girl with a client and his wife. Sara takes us with her on her adventures in the strip club, in a radio studio, and many more places, and tells us how she navigated everyday life and relationships through it all. This is Sara’s first book and I for one would love to read anything else she may want to tell us in the future.

Sara’s porn career is still going strong with new scenes coming out all the time, plus she’s traveling and having a great time, if her socials are any indication. When she’s not working, Sara enjoys watching sports, especially the New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Guardians, and she can also be found in her downtime watching horror movies or playing Minecraft -- so be respectful if you reach out, because she knows how to dispose of a “creeper”!