Foxed - Audiobook

Loved this story
Heartfelt story with lots of passion, low angst and positive and realistic resolution. It shows how love can come at anytime in your life and just when you need it. So to grab on with both hands and keep it safe. Gary Furlong Amazing!!!!

As a man of "a certain age", this book has become so precious to me. While I'm in a very strong and loving relationship, it's still wonderful to read/listen to a story of love at an experienced age. This book was wonderful. I've already listened to it many times.

As a homosexual "man of a certain age" I can't communicate how much I loved this story. It is so beautiful and so agist positive. I too was not looking for love anymore, it just wasn't going to happen when, WHAM! there it was, staring me in the face with all the love and positivity and POSSIBILITIES of the future. It was mind-blowing. JUST LIKE THIS BOOK.

Romance with older men is hard to come by, and I absolutely loved how the author manages to introduce both Jed and Nash who, though still vibrant and full of life, have a few decades under their belts and both their bodies and minds show it! Though Nash has been trying with all his might to retain the body of a much younger man (something which seems to be required in the gay scene especially when hooking up with much younger men, which was the norm for him) he allows himself to mellow and accept his age when he starts to see Jed. Jed on the other hand, does not have any pretence about his physical appearance, he’s been married to a woman for most of his live and just wants to focus on his kids and his granddaughter. He has suppressed his bisexuality when he married his wife, and though he’s been divorced for many years, he doesn’t see the need to explore that part of himself, especially when the last thing he wants is a new relationship.
The book is so full of emotions, fear but also longing, sweet moments and heart-breaking ones; it shows all that is family: the good, the bad, and sometimes, the ugly!
There’s a reason Jay Hogan is one of my favourite authors and that’s her capability of transporting you so deep into a story you feel like you know the characters, you feel their pain and their joy and everything they go through, you live it with them. No wonder I’m left with such a book hangover the day after!

As someone who is middle-aged myself and who has always been partial to silver foxes (even when I was much younger), this book was right up my alley, and I expected to enjoy it! I did, with a couple of minor caveats.

Jed is a classic car mechanic in his mid-50s, a divorced father, grandfather, and mostly closeted bisexual. While trying to avoid another attempt by one of his adult children to set him up with a woman, he finds himself in an unexpected encounter with Nash, the principal at the school where Jed’s daughter teaches. The mutual attraction is obvious, but at 53, Nash is an out and proud gay man, confident in all the ways that Jed isn’t.

After his divorce, Jed spent a lot of time working on patching things up with his family and wasn’t expecting to get into a new relationship, especially with a man. But Nash is patient and understanding and gorgeous and exactly what Jed needs in a second chance at love.

This was a good read overall. I absolutely loved Nash. His intelligence, confidence, and sexiness made it a bit easier to deal with Jed’s roller coaster of feelings, as well as his interfering family and his reluctance to stand up for himself and his relationship with Nash. The portrayals of being middle-aged are accurate at times, if also a little overdone. There is some tension and conflict (including a homophobe in Jed’s family), but it gets mostly resolved without too much exaggerated drama, and these guys do get their HEA.

I also listened to the audiobook, and it made me a big fan of Gary Furlong! The narration was great and made the story even more immersive. If you read and enjoyed the novel, I’d suggest giving it a listen as well.