All the central characters are soundly drawn and fully fleshed-out.
In this particular efforts, the author, Harper Fox, has put together a compelling story with two strong central characters which sidesteps many of the pitfalls often plaguing writing in this genre. As a gay man, I find it all a bit unsettling and usually unsatisfying. Often the stories are little but a collection of the type of time-tested romantic tropes that have titillated women readers for decades. The universe of gay male romance fiction written by women is quite a mixed bag. And Rufus and Archie's seven summer nights have just begun.Ī very sound and satisfying bit of writing. It's summer on the South Downs, the air full of sunshine and enchantment. As he and Archie begin to unfold the archaeological mystery of Droyton, their growing friendship makes Rufus believe he might one day recapture his lost memories of the war, and find his way back from the edge of insanity to love.
Rufus is a combat case, amnesiac and shellshocked. He's a lonely man, and Rufus's arrival soon sparks off in him a lifetime of repressed desires. The Reverend Archie Thorne has tasted action too, as a motorcycle-riding army chaplain, and is struggling to readjust to the little world around him. It's an ordinary task, but Droyton is in the hands of a most extraordinary vicar. With nothing but his satchel and a mongrel dog he's rescued from a bomb site, he sets out to investigate an ancient church in the sleepy village of Droyton Parva. It's a refuge, and the only means left to him of scraping a living. He's used to the most glamorous of excavations, but can't turn down the offer of a job in rural Sussex. When famous archaeologist Rufus Denby returns to London, his life and reputation are as devastated as the city around him. Harper has recently returned from Cornwall to her native Northumberland, and already the bleak moorlands around her home are providing a wealth of new ideas for future work.It's 1946, and the dust of World War Two has just begun to settle. She also runs her own publishing imprint, FoxTales. Harper takes her inspiration from a wide range of British settings – wild countryside, edgy urban and most things in between – and loves to use these backdrops for stories about sexy gay men sharing passion, adventure and happy endings. Over the past four years, she’s delivered eighteen critically acclaimed novels and novellae, including Brothers Of The Wild North Sea (Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2013), Stonewall Award-nominated Scrap Metal and the enduringly popular Life After Joe. Bestselling British author Harper Fox has established herself as a firm favourite with readers of M/M romance.
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