Fourth Attempt

I am a sucker for romance novels involving sex workers. I’m not ashamed to say that, considering there are myriad other romance novel tropes I won’t necessarily admit to many people. I’m all pro-sex worker over here, though, so I feel safe in admitting my love for rent boys, escorts, and call girls.

Fourth Attempt is the introductory novel to Lynn Burke’s latest romance novel series, Elite Escorts, which is indeed about a male escort agency. Our MMC in this story, Blake, is not an escort, however. He’s friends with the owner and sometimes fills in as a pinch hitter for non-sexual encounters from time to time though when asked. So I wouldn’t classify this story to be a male escort romance but more of a taster, if you will, of the Elite Escorts world and all the books to follow coming up in the series.

Fourth Attempt follows Wren, a touch-starved, poor, fiercely independent, and very hard-working pharmacology student at the local college who also works part-time at a local pharmacy. She’s got less than a year until she graduates and she’s just trying to keep her eyes on the prize. When her eyes get tired of looking at the prize, they stray across the street to where a construction company is building a luxury condo building that will eventually block her beloved view of the river. Yeah, she’s a little salty, but she knows there’s nothing to be done about it. In the meantime, though, she can ogle the workers, especially the man in charge, Blake. Blake is definitely something like a swift-moving river: look, but don’t touch. Dangerous to her fragile heart and her laser focus. So Wren keeps to herself and lets her fantasies stay where she thinks they belong: firmly in her head.

The hitch in Wren’s plans to be left alone to fantasize in private about Blake first come about when the two run into each other briefly in front of the Victorian she rents out the attic apartment on, and then again when Blake comes into her pharmacy to buy some sinus medication and realizes how attracted he is to her.

From this point on, Fourth Attempt alternates from being fluffy and sweet, emotional and endearing, and spicy hot. Not in any certain order, mind you, it simply has ups and downs and happy middles. The characters go through transformations, of course, and they have their highs, lows, and very lows. They also have their sweet, sour, gloomy, and absolutely desperate for one another moments.

I thought the pacing was a little off on the book as a whole, but it wasn’t bad enough to affect my enjoyment of the book. It’s a sweet, fluffy, racy romance that’s meant to let you escape the world for a while. Enjoy!

I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All ideas, thoughts, views, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

Lynn did it again. Blake and Wren made my heart so happy. I never thought Blake Harper could end up book bovfriend material but there he is. The struggles they face separately and alone are so intense and relatable and the spice is undeniable!
Would 100% recommend!