REVIEW: Escort by Harper Fox
B Reviews Category / Book Reviewsm/m romance / male escort / Suspense9 Comments
On the eve of his fiftieth birthday, George’s world is pretty much a wreck. His husband of twenty years is divorcing him for a woman, a baby and a second try at life. He’s lost his job and his home, and he’s living in his brother Andrew’s spare room.
But if George has given up on himself, Drew is more optimistic. He’s hit on a daring idea for George’s fiftieth, a present he won’t soon forget.
When a handsome sex-worker called Silver knocks on the hotel-room door, George tries to send him away. But Sil is persuasive and kind, and George’s inhibitions melt away to a night of unimagined pleasures. Stranger still, when daylight comes, George’s one-night-stand man-for-hire shows every sign of wanting to stay.
But these two men are from different worlds, and George is sure it’s too late for second chances. Silver’s a mystery to him, dashing and dangerous, walking the wild side of life. A trap is closing around the silver-fox escort: will George learn to trust himself in time for Silver to be saved?
WARNING: attempted rape
Review:
Dear Harper Fox,
I stumbled upon this story by accident when I was commiserating with some book friends on the board I frequent about trying to find something good to read. I saw your book and thought why not. It seemed quiet, intimate and not as over the top as I found a lot of your books to be.
I dove in and overall I really liked it, but I should have known better because the secret that Silver keeps did seem very over the top and not too plausible. But while I was reading, I rolled with it and it more or less worked for me within the constraints of the story. I also really really liked the main characters – I had read one Amazon review before purchasing the book and I completely agree that both George and Aaron Silver a/k/a Sil are kind souls who try to treat the world around them with kindness.
The story is written from both George and Silver’s POV, however George is narrating in the first person and when we are in Silver’s head we are in third person POV. It worked well enough for me, although I do wish for a more distinct difference between their voices.
As the blurb tells you in the beginning of the story, George is not in a very good place, because his husband of twenty years left him for a young model. And with his fiftieth birthday closing up on him, he feels all alone in the world. Although of course we do know right away that George is NOT completely alone – his brother Drew loves him dearly and would do anything to help him, to support him, even to purchase a night with the escort service.
George is also an architect and while his brother offered him a job at his start up architect firm, Drew initially cannot afford to pay much and George knows that he would have to find something else soon.
The night with the handsome escort who is several years older than George (I took Silver to be fifty five or fifty six) turns into the mutual desire to continue their acquaintance, only George is reluctant for several reasons and for now they part ways. I was frankly amazed how this author convinced me that the feelings they had for each other after one night – one night could turn into something bigger if both men would want it.
Aaron Silver is a sweet kind man as well, and he charmed his way into my heart just as much as George did.
Then strange things started to happen in the story. Actually no, the strange things start to happen later. First we see that Drew, bless his kind heart helps another mutual friend to hire Silver for the night and we see the night of Silver working as in really working without any extra feelings involved and in a way that was a very sweet and kind event as well.
Don’t worry, I don’t think you would find this story too sugary, because shortly thereafter the narrative becomes a suspense and it did give me a little whiplash I won’t deny it, but as I said above within the constraints of the story it worked for me . It worked for me while I was not thinking too much about it.
And of course the ending was lovely, pretty good HFN likely to turn in HEA I thought .
Grade: B
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This does sound intriguing, Sirius. Thanks for the review. I see on the cover ‘Three Tales of a Silver Fox’ and wonder if this is the beginning of a series.
Oh! I have really enjoyed some of Harper Fox’s books and I am a big fan of silver foxes (I’m married to one myself! LOL) and I’m a bit of a sucker for an escort story too. I’m even more intrigued because Sil continues working during the course of the book and so many other escort type stories gloss over that. I’ll check it out.
Kareni of course I cannot be sure what author planned and I would love to meet George and Sil again but to me the story sounded complete .
Kaetrin yes he definitely was working through the story . Hope it works for you.
I’m so happy to see Harper Fox’s book reviewed here, I have enjoyed everything she’s written, and would love to see her get more recognition. Along with the wonderful Tyack and Frayne series, she has so many great standalones. Her characters are genuine and warm and people I would want to know. In fact, even the characters in Escort that could be portrayed as awful (ex-husband) are actually put in a better light, and are more three dimensional. In some ways, her voice reminds me of Grace Burrowes, another author who has a distinctive voice and gentle characters I could easily love in real life.
Regarding Escort, I was under the impression that there were three parts within the book, but I could be wrong. I wouldn’t mind reading more of George and Sil, but the story definitely stands by itself.
@JulieB: No I think you are correct, the story does have three parts, I just did not read it as separate stories, but parts of the single one if that makes sense.
Yes, I was happy too that she did not go for caricature villains, or any villains, really, although I think she went a little too far the other way with the new wife.Let me be as clear as possible, I don’t like villainous women in m/m stories if they are the only woman in the story and of course she was not a villain anymore than an ex-husband was, but I guess to me she came off as a bit too entitled of George’s attention and rather than coming off as naïve, she came off as a way too insensitive to me ( Why did you stop coming around, George? Seriously? Sit down for a second and think about it why he stopped coming around. ) But otherwise yeah, agreed.
GAH, I guess my previous comment could be considered a very minor spoiler and I am trying to hide that part and can’t. Sorry!
@JulieB: Tyack and Frayne are great. I also really enjoyed Driftwood and Priddy’s Tale on audio last year.
@Sirius, yes, I do agree that the new wife was at the very least, clueless. A good match for the ex-husband, I thought. And @Kaetrin, Priddy’s Tale is one of my all time favorites. Just such a sweet story. One of the things I love best about Harper’s books is her settings. They all make me want to go play tourist in places I’ve never been before. The settings are almost another character, they are so much a part of the tales.
@JulieB: Agreed on both counts!