Escort: Three Tales of a Silver Fox

How could I not give 4 stars to a book that features MCs in their 50s and shows how sexy men of this age can still be? And yet how can I give 4 stars to a book that uses one of my least favorite tropes, sex worker who falls in love with his client? Ah, the genius of Harper Fox...The Insta!Love between mundane civil servant George and his 50th birthday present Aaron Silver strains belief, and Fox doesn't show the two of them spending enough time together before the rest of the story takes place so that the reader truly feels their love is earned. Plus Silver continues seeing clients after his encounter with George, including a very sweet scene with George's colleague Jamie who is escaping a bad marriage. I hate it when the MCs have sex with anyone but each other, even if Silver spends most of the time thinking about George. And finally, Silver turns out to have a lot of secrets that make the plot even more ridiculous. So all in all, this book shouldn't work at all.And yet it does because Harper Fox writes with such generosity about her characters, even the troubled ones. The perfectly British but obviously close relationship George has with his brother Andrew is perfectly rendered, and even George's ex, Melchior, gets a moment to shine despite being a selfish spoiled git who left the very nice George for a younger hot female model. Even the story's real bad guy has some hidden depths that help explain (although not excuse) his actions. Although I still wanted to see more of George and Silver falling in love, their scenes together are just lovely and reminded me of Tyack and Frayne) from [b:Once Upon A Haunted Moor 18744000 Once Upon A Haunted Moor (Tyack & Frayne, #1) Harper Fox https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1383229264s/18744000.jpg 26624966] et al). While it may be difficult initially to believe that a dashing escort whose car glove box contains “a pair of deluxe padded handcuffs, a copy of Madame Bovary and a box of tissues” could immediately fall for a mild-mannered slightly overweight city planner (and utter such lines as “I normally don't get into it that much with anyone” after they sleep together the first time), if anyone can pull it off with sincerity it would be this author. Fox was open about experiencing a bad case of writer's block recently, and at one point she apparently thought she wouldn't publish again. That would be a horrible shame, because she is one of the strongest writers in the M/M genre. Even if Escort wasn't my favorite book of hers, I'm thankful she wrote it and hope there are still many more to come.