TEST
Harper Fox’s latest novel is a beautiful sweeping story of love, dedication and betrayal. We start on a Peace Warrior ship in the Norwegian Fiords with Keir Mallory (aka Mallory or Mal) attempting a publicity stunt that goes terribly wrong and results in the loss of two of his ship-mates. Mallory returns home to his unwelcoming Scottish Highland home of Kerra. As expected, he is given no refuge from his drunken father, retiring mother or neighbours who all know what has happened and blame him for the death of one of their own.
He runs from this emotional rejection to a childhood retreat, a dilapidated artist colony called Spindrift, a few miles from his home on the coast. Here he encounters its only resident, Vivian (Viv) Calder. Vivian is a brilliant, but emotionally detached scientist who believes he has mastered the holy grail of environmentalists, and greatest fear of the oil companies – Cold Fusion. A bond begins to form between the two men both of whom have their secrets and fragilities. However, when betrayal and an explosion destroys Viv’s work and nearly kills them both, they go on the run, hiding out in a shack in the Highlands that belongs to Mallory’s deceased Aunt Lilian. Snowed in together, they have to make this remote, derelict, wooden house their temporary home.
The locations and settings for this story give Harper Fox the chance to do what she does best, and she lavishes this story with environmental descriptions and metaphors:
The wind had died, allowing the snow to fall direct from a sky whose belly you could touch with a stretch of your hand. The pines were muffled in swags of white, their sea music hushed. As Mallory starts to see that the fragile soul he is protecting is also a very attractive man, it imbibes his every physical action, even cutting logs, with erotic appeal:
After the first few back-and-forth strokes of my blade…I began to hear the thump of my heart instead. One step, two. Systole and diastole, God’s own music, the bass beat for every song on Earth. Warmth spread across my back like sheltering wings. Viv would be gorgeous in that kind of action, wouldn’t he?
While snowed in, they start to reveal facets of themselves – Mallory’s guilt and fears of becoming like his drunken father; how he desires to do something to help the world and its sea life, and his neglected but wonderful poetry. Vivian reveals his virgin status, why he is as he is, and what that means should Mallory and he begin a serious relationship. When Vivian feels able to trust Mallory wholly and wants to have sex – he tells Mallory to meet him and who wouldn’t wish that moment to be somewhere like this…
Rills and ripples of music from unseen birds only served to counterpoint the hush. The thick carpet of needles- viridian from the pines, the larches rich umber- absorbed my tread. Sunlight drifted in shafts. There in the brightest of them was Vivian, curled in the curve of the great larch branch where Lilian had used to sit. The place felt utterly sacred.
Needless to say they have a rather gorgeous sexual encounter here, and pretty much everywhere after this. It is sexy, but also romantic, totally believable in this setting, and very necessary to the plot. When they are discovered in their hideaway, a further twist means finding a safe place is not their only – or most serious – problem.
Another wonderful novel from Harper Fox Cold Fusion includes some lovely humorous touches, and a terrific secondary character in the form of the endearing, dour Alfred – Vivian’s Steward. The ending is slightly contrived, but in no way spoiled either the story, my enjoyment or the beautiful writing.
Grade: A-
Book Type: Queer Romance|Science Fiction Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 28/12/15
Publication Date: 01/2016
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I'm an English romantic, and an author who simply adores reading and writing books. I believe that all love has equal status, and all humans need and deserve romance. So, I am thrilled to be able to review LGBTQ+ novels for AAR and introduce more readers to some gorgeous LGBTQ+ romances and fascinating stories.
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I just started reading Tyack and Frayne last week, and I’m already on book 4. If this author’s stand-alone books are as tightly written, insightful, funny, sexy…then my TBR list just grew!
They are! I loved Seven Summer Nights, and while Driftwood is a little uneven, I liked that too. I listened to both as audiobooks – and listened to all the T&F titles recently, too, and the narrators are excellent, so they’re well worth listening to.
Em, I’m so glad you have discovered Harper. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met and writes books I can never put down. Brothers of the Wild North Sea has been a favourite of mine for years, happy to say I have a signed copy. Tyack and Frayne I guarantee you will fall in love with. The series is very English in the way KJ Charles Spectred Isle is. We have our own nature magic in the UK and I even have a locally made Green Man on my house wall and a statue of a hare staring at the Moon in the woodland part of my garden. There is still a lot of earth magic in the rural parts of the UK and Harper channels it into lots of her books. So excited she has a new fan!
I’ve fallen hard for Harper Fox. I just finished listening/reading to the brilliant Brothers of the Wild North Sea, and before I delve into the Tyack and Frayne series, I want to read a few more standalones. Her writing… It’s sooo good. Her books engage all the senses – tender, moving & just wonderful in every way.