Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: Love in the Clouds

AUTHOR: Sarah Hadley Brook

PUBLISHER: JMS Books

LENGTH: 178 pages

RELEASE DATE:  September 1, 2018

BLURB:

Rafael Patino has a great life in Rain Valley. He’s a teacher at the high school, has a great group of friends, and enjoys the occasional baseball game. Other than the sporadic call from his drunken mother, he’s pretty content. He’s also been in love with his best friend for nearly a decade. Years of keeping those feelings under control are put to the test when they begin a summer project together.

Dustin Vance builds furniture for a living, just earned his pilot’s license, and has an amazing best friend. When he buys a 1976 Cessna Skyhawk, he asks Rafael to help restore it, then travel with him to Wisconsin for the largest aviation convention in the world.

As they spend their days working on the plane, they begin to spend their nights together, too. Can they find love in the clouds or will they stall before they even take off?

REVIEW:

Rafael and Dustin had been friends for years and had never thought or looked at the other in any way associated with lust. But, one comment from a friend and a vision in nothing but a towel, had each man thinking lustful thoughts that had no place in their friendship.

Told in the third person, with chapters alternating between Rafael and Dustin’s viewpoints, this is a sweet tale of the soul-searching style, rather than, angst and dramatics. Both men are openly gay. Dustin has a history of loving and leaving his men. That is one of the reasons why Raf and Dusty stay friends instead of date. Things take a turn when Raf admits that if Dustin did that to him, it would kill him.

It is abundantly clear that they care for each other. It also seems that everyone in the known district can tell they are in love, except neither man either accepts it or is willing to lose a friend on the possibility they could be wrong.

Many of the characters in this story are decent people, though there are a couple of rotten eggs that add conflict to the arc. Dustin makes furniture and is a newly passed pilot, refurbing his own Cessna. Raf is a teacher and a one that cares for his students. I couldn’t help liking both – I wanted to munch them. While reading there was a lot of inner turmoil and revisiting of arguments for and against becoming more. I also learned a lot about flying, to the point where, if I had to, I could probably do an Indiana Jones impression of “fly yes, land no.” I like learning new things, so this for me was a definite plus.

Love In The Clouds was a sweet sexy tale with the main backdrop of friends renovating an aircraft. For me, I’d have preferred more to get my heart pumping. On the other hand, it would be a super read for anyone who wants their heart warmed on one of those nights that are getting colder.

RATING:

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