just jackRating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Fifty years ago, Jack was betrayed by the man he loved and swore off love. His sacrifice was accepted by Mother Nature or Fate or whoever makes those decisions and he was turned into a Frost. Now Jack spends his days playing tricks on unsuspecting people, running a bar with one of the very few people who knows his secret, and sculpting blocks of ice into amazing pieces of art. Then he meets Leo.

When Leo walked in on his boyfriend of four years getting a blowjob from someone who was so obviously not him, he knew it was over. It should have been over the first time Mac cheated, but Leo has a history of falling for Mac’s smooth talking. Not this time. After walking away from Mac, Leo sees a man who he can’t take his eyes off of, until he slips on some ice and hits his head.

Jack doesn’t know why he stopped to help Leo up. It’s not like he felt compassion. Jack hasn’t felt an emotion stronger than indifference in five decades, but something about Leo called to him. And when they part, Jack isn’t sure but maybe he felt warmth, physical warmth from him, but that can’t be right because he’s felt nothing but cold—frozen—since he became a Frost. Then Leo walks into his bar and as much as Jack wants to stay away, certain that he is going crazy and Leo is the beginning of his insanity, he can’t stay away when he sees Leo succumbing to heartbreak of his own. Then Jack saves Leo from a fate similar to his.

Somehow in the middle of Jack struggling to figure out what’s happening to him, why he cares, why he feels at all, and Leo stumbling his way out of a relationship he can’t seem to walk away from fully, Jack and Leo find each other and have more questions than answers. But with the past determined to repeat itself, Jack begins to wonder if his curse will follow him the rest of his life or if Leo is the mysterious way out.

I love winter—the cold, the snow, the crispness of the season. It’s why I wanted to read this book. Very glad I did. Just Jack is an adorable story of a man so heartbroken he gave his heart to the cold and the man who thawed it. I liked it a lot. The funny and sweet mixed with just enough internal and external struggle to keep it from being completely fluffy.

I really liked what this author did with the story of Jack Frost by bringing him to life and giving him choices. Choices that made both who he is and who he will be. The myth this author created for Frost—freezing his heart and taking away all feeling other than cold. Brilliant. I found it absolutely delightful and fun. Then to make Jack human in the eyes of readers by giving him family, friends, an everyday job, and a new love, it’s an inspired idea.
Leo’s role in Jack’s life is only part of his story. He’s the driving force behind Jack’s conflict, but he’s also stuck in the middle of his own storm. Leo is the guy that falls in love way too fast—trust me, it’s said more than once in this story. But along with falling in love so fast, he tends to get his heart broken that much harder. I like Leo and his persistence with Jack, but I wish he could have had a cleaner break with Mac. My problem there is that he kept waffling over whether he should or shouldn’t go back to Mac. One moment he’d say he didn’t want Mac and the next he was contemplating going back. I’m okay with that in the beginning of a break up, but this lasted almost all of the way through the book, making Jack seem like a rebound instead of something solid in Leo’s life.

As much as I liked the story, there was just so much information and world building missing. Like what exactly changed Jack? Why did he lose his memories of his past life? I mean if his heart literally turned to ice because it was broken by betrayal, why is it he didn’t remember that betrayal? That didn’t seem to click with me. A lot of what happens to Jack because of his sudden, unexplained feelings for Leo is just that—unexplained. The author mentions fairies in passing, even lets them fly around for a matter of seconds, but doesn’t go into much detail about what their purpose is. I felt left in the dark by so much.

Overall, I really liked this story but it wasn’t without its faults. I would have liked more, I think, but I can’t deny my adoration for Jack and Leo. Fortunately, they are strong enough to make me overlook everything else.

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