Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Damon Thorne is a big, built, tattooed sap. He’s a man with a strong love for Hallmark movies, his family, and the promise of a lasting relationship. That is why all his friends warn him away from Everett Sawyer—Rhett for short. Rhett never wants to settle down. He loves working freelance as a business consultant, moving for months at a time so he can dig deep into a company’s processes and make recommendations to improve their financial standing. He tried a long-distance relationship a couple of years ago, but that ended badly and he’s made it clear to any man he dates that it’s only going to be temporary.

Damon and his brother Jude own a landscaping business—design, plant, and maintain—and while they don’t struggle with the business, they do struggle with the paperwork. The business has outgrown their spreadsheets and paper invoices, but they aren’t sure they can pay a business manager. Rhett’s best friend, Dylan, recommends Rhett’s services to Damon, as they are now linked via some mutual friends and Rhett’s in town between projects for a few months. There’s an instant attraction, but Damon knows Rhett isn’t down for more than a fling. Could he maybe be flingy? For a change? Because finding that forever man hasn’t been working anyway.

Rhett knows he’s a selfish man, keeping relationships on his strict and expiring terms, but also recognizes that he can’t help his deep attraction to Damon. The man ticks all his boxes and their attraction is incendiary. Meeting in the close quarters of Wicked Thorne Landscaping forces them to keep things on the down-low so Jude won’t figure it out, and so their network of friends or family won’t think he’s a creep, playing games with Damon. Everyone is pretty protective of Damon, because he’s such a teddy bear who really deserves a considerate lover to appreciate his bound
ess affection. Rhett is greedy for the passion that he and Damon share, and they wind each other up in the office using paper airplanes to fly sexy messages to one another—outside of Jude’s notice. It’s silly and a little romantic that Damon keeps these aerial love notes. It’s only going to be a few months before Rhett takes another job and moves on, but when the time comes, well, neither man wants to say goodbye.

Can Rhett be the long-distance boyfriend Damon deserves? And, when Rhett’s ex pops back in the picture, will this be the impetus to quit it, or hit it? Is his job more important than the love he and Damon developed during their summer “fling” filled with unexpectedly delicious sleepovers and nights in watching the Hallmark channel together?

Paper Airplanes is the second book in the Perspectives series, but can be enjoyed on its own.This is a very sexy read, with so much sex and dirty talk I was a little worried the character development would not bear up. Damon is a treasure of a man, though, and he really connected with Rhett on a level Rhett didn’t appreciate until separation pulled at their bonds. Damon’s really careful not to demand anything extra, and revels in the little victories that hint at them being more than sex buddies. Rhett gets antsy, but it’s too good between them to walk away for someone else, even as he knows he’s becoming too attached to Damon. He felt a bit one-dimensional, for most of the book. In the climax, it’s Damon’s creativity that wakes the wounded part of Rhett’s heart, forcing him to acknowledge his reservations and his selfishness—to see that his decisions do not have to be so self-serving. That was a big moment of growth for Rhett, who had never really been in a position to be so introspective. I really did start to connect with him then, but it was really late in the story. I kept waiting and waiting for him to have that experience, and I think I might have gotten frustrated with his slow development as a partner. Part of my frustration was surely magnified by the startling contrast from Damon, who is all about others, while Rhett is so much about himself.

It’s a happy ending, with a solid connection between Damon and Rhett as true partners to one another, as they build a life together. There is the sweet and tender wedding of their mutual friends, Tyler and Chance from book one of the series, and we get a look at the next couple of the series, Dylan, Rhett’s BFF, who will surely fall hard for a new acquaintance he makes in the epilogue. Meanwhile, there is a bonus epilogue for newsletter subscribers with even more sexytimes. That one did cap off the love story for Damon and Rhett better than the epilogue that’s in the book.

Veronica sig