Rating: 5 ‘Jack!’ Stars

Publisher: Lucy Lennox

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Age Gap, Romance, Virgin

Length: 291 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon.com

*** This review is spoilerish. ***

Blurb –

Wanted: One night together, no strings attached. Hold me, make love to me, treat me like I’m the most important person in the world. No talking. No names. And don’t be surprised if I’m gone in the morning.

After crushing on my best friend for years, I realize he’ll never want someone inexperienced like me. So I decide to get it over with, play the V-card once and for all with an anonymous hook-up. The terms are simple: no talking, no names.

It isn’t as easy as it seems. Now I can’t get the handsome stranger who greeted me with soft kisses and gentle touches out of my mind. Those hands, those lips… But it was just a one-time thing, and I need to forget about him once and for all.

At least I know I won’t ever see him again—until I board a flight and catch sight of a familiar profile in the cockpit just as the door closes.

Review –

I have a lot of favorite fictional characters but at the moment I’d have a hard time finding one to compare to Jack in Virgin Flyer. I love Teo too, but Jack? Let’s just say that I’ll be remembering him for a long time.

The book starts with Teo at a bar with his best friend of twenty years Chris and other friends. Chris is going on and on about somebody who claimed to be a virgin when nobody is such a loser they’d still be a virgin at twenty-six.

“Who the hell is still a virgin at twenty-six?”

Chris asked the question, gesturing with his overfull beer glass and sloshing some of the foam onto the sticky table below. “I told her that was bullshit. Any guy who claims to still be a virgin at our age is just lying to get into her pants quicker. Or he’s got an embarrassing little problem in his pants. One of the two.”

Yeah, about that.

Teo is twenty-six and has never had sex before. Chris doesn’t know this, of course, because he’d think Teo is one of those losers he’s going on about. Teo has been in love with Chris for as long as he can remember. Maybe he’s old-fashioned but he was hoping for Chris to be his first and his only. Chris has been stringing Teo along for years. He claims to love his best friend, but he makes excuses about why he doesn’t think they should become a couple. There’s something about a homophobic family (they’re not), them being too young to settle down, along with others. Teo, being the sweet guy he is, buys all the b.s. his friend is selling. After Chris makes an insensitive comment to Teo, he leaves the bar and heads home. Believing Chris wouldn’t want him if he knew Teo was so inexperienced, he makes a decision to set up an account on a hookup app. He wants his first time to be on his terms. What he doesn’t expect after he posts his listing on the app is Jack.

Wanted: one night of lovemaking with absolutely no talking. I just want to be held and loved on without chitchat or expectations. I prefer to bottom and would desperately like to be taken care of and treated like I’m the most important thing in your world, at least for a little while. Please stay all night and hold me, but don’t be surprised if I’m gone in the morning. No names exchanged.

Jack’s a pilot for United Airlines and is in Chicago overnight. He does what he does in most places he has layovers – he pulls up his hookup app to find a guy. When he sees a listing from user NurseTee he immediately responds. How perfect can this be? An evening of anonymous sex with a man who just wants to be taken care of before, during, and after sex. He can definitely play Mr. Romantic for a night.

Oh man, does he ever.

When he shows up at Teo’s hotel room he’s blown away when he sees the beautiful man in front of him. It starts with him kissing his hand and moves on to the best sex Jack’s ever had, the best night he’s ever had.

How the hell was I supposed to let this sweet man go after only one night? And why am I having this reaction when I was so damned experienced in one-night stands?

~~~

It was pretend. I knew it wasn’t real. But just for a moment, I wished to hell it was.

For the first time in years he’s wanting more than a quickie to take the edge off. But the guy in the hotel room specifically said no names, no talking. When he wakes up the next morning he’s alone.

Teo has a hard time leaving the man asleep as he sneaks out of the hotel. Not only is he no longer a virgin, but he couldn’t imagine his first time going any differently. The man took his time making sure that Teo was well taken care of, not even knowing that Teo was a virgin. Teo starts regretting the no names thing as time goes by and he’s unable to stop thinking about the man. He’s still in love with Chris, but the man who unknowingly took his virginity seems to always be there.

Chris, ever the selfish jerk, talks him into leaving his full time job as a nurse at a nursing home to work in Chris’ family business to mostly sit behind a desk. He’ll still be doing something in medicine but what it boils down to is Chris and his family want Teo to be Chris’ grandfather’s private nurse, though that’s not the position he’s promised. Chris talks him into it by saying they’ll be spending more time together and can start dating and move on to being the real couple that Teo has wanted for years. Poor Teo was so naive. He gives up a job he loves for a man who treats him like dirt and breaks every promise he ever makes.

For Jack, the sweet young man he spent the night with won’t leave his head. He’s finding himself not even wanting to hook up with random guys in the cities where he has layovers. He has no way of getting in touch with the guy but he can’t stop thinking about him. As the weeks pass, Jack leaves his job at United to fly private planes so he can have predictable work hours and live closer to his pregnant sister and her husband (Millie and Kirk). It’s on one of those private planes when he sees the mysterious man from the hotel room again right before the cockpit door closes.

Teo is shocked when the pilot of the small plane is the man who took his virginity months before. Teo doesn’t fly – ever. He never has and didn’t want to this time. It’s a trip that’s thrown on him to go to Frankfurt with Chris’ grandfather to sign some kind of paperwork. More promises by Chris broken. More of Chris being the selfish ass he is. More of Chris not taking into consideration that Teo doesn’t fly for a reason.

Mid flight something happens and they have to make an emergency landing in Canada. Not a good experience for someone who’s never flown because of his fear of flying. Even worse, Chris’ grandfather has a heart attack and has to be rushed to the hospital immediately upon landing.

I thought Jack was perfect before? No. Once official intros are made between them, Jack jumps in and handles arrangements for the grandfather, even going to the hospital to ensure he’s able to be flown to a more equipped facility that can better handle his needs. Teo, unable to fit in the air ambulance, stays in Canada. Chris, being the total twit that he is, doesn’t exactly rush to meet his grandfather after Teo is finally able to get him on the phone.

Seriously, Chris was a total jerk.

And this is where Teo and Jack really begin.

There are no hotel rooms available because of some kind of festival going on. Jack, being the good man he is, offers to allow Teo to stay with him. They waste no time once the hotel room door is closed before they’re picking up where they left off months before.

The sex was amazing. Jack was amazing. One night turns into two as they wait for repairs to be made on the plane. When Teo accidentally overshares something, Jack wants to know more – he wants to know everything about Teo – so they have a bit of a drinking slash tell some truths type of game. This is how Jack finds out about Chris and that he (Jack) was Teo’s first. A few shots in, Jack offers to help Teo make Chris jealous. They’re living in the same city now, so why not? Jack does this because he’s not ready to let Teo go. He’s not looking for a relationship – and he honestly believes he doesn’t want one at the time – but he ends up falling in love anyway, even when he knows that Teo is in love with his horrible so-called best friend.

In Chicago, they spend a lot of nights together at Teo’s place. They even meet up at a Cubs game to meet Chris and other friends. Chris knows who Jack is because he’s the pilot of the company’s plane. He didn’t even know that Teo was dating somebody. This is the first time he’s ever brought a date to one of their get togethers. They may not be a real couple (yeah, right) but Chris thinks they are and doesn’t take it well. He acts like a jealous idiot, which is to be expected. When they leave, Teo’s in tears and Jack is forcing himself to not beat the hell out of Chris.

I’m pretty sure everybody around would’ve offered to pay his bail money had it happened and he got arrested for it.

Things are starting to look good for Jack and Teo. They’re both secretly falling for the other. They’re spending all their free time together. And Teo is starting to see Chris as the user he is – a man who doesn’t want Teo but doesn’t want anybody else to have him. Things are finally looking up for Jack and Teo.

Until it’s not.

There’s an emergency that pulls them away, taking Teo to Chris and his family. There are unanswered texts and unanswered phone calls. Jack’s missing Teo more than he has a right to. He makes a decision to do something to force Teo to talk to him. That something ends up breaking his heart in two.

That’s all I can say about that.

I absolutely loved Jack and Teo together. Normally I’d be rolling my eyes at a character who, like Teo, holds on for so long for a man like he Chris. It was obvious to everyone around them that Chris wanted to have his cake and eat it too with Teo. But loving Chris was all Teo had ever known.

The ending of this book was one of the best endings I’ve ever read. When Jack and Teo finally declared their love for each other I was sitting here crying like a baby. My husband thought I’d lost my mind. You just can’t help but feel it. If there ever was a perfect ending for a book it’s the one in Virgin Flyer.

There’s a ten year age gap between Jack and Teo. There’s an ex of Jack’s who makes an appearance. There’s even sweet Teo doing something that freaks Jack out. Teo’s heart’s in the right place – and Jack was a bit irrational over it – but the reader understands both sides. Then there’s one of those total Aww! moments that I’ve reread several times since I finished the book. It gets to me every time.

Outstanding characters. Outstanding book. Jack even takes care of Teo’s cats, Socrates and Waffles. Who wouldn’t love a man like that? Nothing Chris did had me liking him even a little bit. When he finally realized that he was losing Teo, and that Teo was no longer waiting for him to come around, he did some things that were inexcusable and unforgivable. And he’s known about Teo’s fear of flying since they were kids. Not only was Teo terrified but he was forced on a last minute flight that his horrible best friend couldn’t even discuss with him. You know why? Because Chris only cared about Chris, nobody else.

My first by this author but it definitely won’t be the last. This book has been added to my short list of books I call my comfort reads, books that I reread often. Definitely one of my new all-time favorites.

An easy 5 stars. If I could give it more I would.