Review: Just Drive and Afraid to Fly by L.A. Witt

Titles: Just Drive and Afraid to Fly

Author: L.A. Witt

Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Length: 288 Pages/347 Pages

Category: Contemporary

At a Glance: All in all, I think Witt is off to a great start with this series!

Reviewed By: Jules

Blurbs: Just Drive For Sean Wright, driving a cab in the tiny Navy town of Anchor Point isn’t an exciting job . . . until he picks up just-dumped Paul Richards. A drive turns into a walk on the pier, which turns into the hottest hookup Sean’s had in ages.

After a long overdue breakup, Paul can’t believe his luck. Of all the drivers, he’s picked up by the gorgeous, gay, and very willing Sean. Younger guys aren’t usually his thing, but Paul can’t resist.

One taste and neither man can get enough . . . right up until they realize that Paul is Sean’s father’s commanding officer and the last man Sean should be involved with.

With two careers on the line, their only option is to back off. It’s not easy, though; the sex and the emotional connection are exactly what both men have been craving for a long time. But Paul has devoted twenty-four years to his career and his dream of making admiral. If he’s caught with Sean, that’s all over. He has to choose—stay the course, or trade it all for the man who drove off with his heart.

∞*∞*∞

Afraid to Fly Once a fearless fighter pilot, Commander Travis Wilson is now confined to a desk. It’s been eight years since the near-fatal crash that grounded him, and it still rules his life thanks to relentless back pain.

Lieutenant Commander Clint Fraser almost drowned in a bottle after a highly classified catastrophe while piloting a drone. His downward spiral cost him his marriage and kids, but he’s sober now and getting his life back on track. He’s traded drones for a desk, and he’s determined to reconcile with his kids and navigate the choppy waters of PTSD.

Clint has been on Travis’s radar ever since he transferred to Anchor Point. When Clint comes out to his colleagues, it’s a disaster, but there’s a silver lining: now that Travis knows Clint is into men, the chemistry between them explodes.

It’s all fun and games until emotions get involved. Clint’s never been in love with a man before. Travis has, and a decade later, that tragic ending still haunts him. Clint needs to coax him past his fear of crashing and burning again, or their love will be grounded before takeoff.

Review: Just Drive and Afraid to Fly are the first two books in L.A. Witt’s newest series from Riptide Publishing. The series is named after the small, fictional naval town in Oregon that is the setting for the stories, and I must say there are some really good things going on in Anchor Point. We’re talking cute, coastal town, realistic storylines, and Navy pilots. Yep. You heard me right. Navy pilots. *pauses for collective sigh* Not just pilots, though…we also have a cab driver (who’s also a college student), and one of our pilots is the base CO. Pretty hot stuff, folks.

‘Hot’ is definitely a keyword I would use to describe Just Drive in particular. Sean and Paul have an almost immediate connection, and they are smokin’ hot together. Chemistry for dayyyyyys. Their first encounter, in the back of Sean’s cab, was pretty much on fire. I liked these guys a lot—both individually and together—but I have to admit, I need a hefty side of story with my orgasms, and here the side dish was a littttle bit small. Like I said, the ingredients were great—sexy, ex-fighter pilot/naval CO, and a smart, toppy twenty-something with dyed hair—I just wish the portion had been larger.

I definitely would have liked to get to know Paul a little better. I felt like I knew Sean fairly well, but can’t honestly say that about Paul. In fact, I had a sort of funny reaction toward the end of the book, upon learning that Paul adored animals. I thought, “Paul was an animal lover?!?!” I felt like the only thing I knew about him before the last twenty percent of the book was that he loved to shower and reeeeeaaaaally wanted a cigarette! Heh. I’m exaggerating a bit for effect, of course…but, I would have loved to see the author delve a little more into the backstory and the relationship.

Afraid to Fly is completely different, however. Travis and Clint’s book is heavy on the story—but in a really good way. I should probably preface by saying that I have been dealing with chronic back pain for going on fifteen months now, so I felt very tapped into what Travis was going through. Only, in Travis’s case, the duration is much worse. The near-fatal crash that changed his life and caused his battle with daily, debilitating pain was eight years ago. That kind of chronic pain is something that very few of us can imagine, thankfully, and I think L.A. Witt did a fantastic job with Travis’s character, and realistically depicting how the injury affected his life.

One place it impacted his life, obviously, was in the bedroom. Travis hasn’t been able to keep a man or woman in his life because the pressure and disappointment in the bedroom simply added too much stress to the relationships. That is, until Clint.

Clint was so good for Travis. In fact, they were good for each other. Both suffered from pretty severe PTSD—Travis from his crash, of course, and Clint from a traumatic incident involving a drone he was piloting—and they eventually realized that they could help one another with their symptoms and nightmares. Clint was also incredibly understanding of Travis’s situation with his back, and never made him feel like the fact that they couldn’t be adventurous in the sack was a problem. For a couple of older guys who couldn’t do much more than hand jobs, blow jobs, and some epic make-out sessions, I thought they were pretty damn sexy and romantic. I loved how in depth the author covered their backstories, and what it took to make their relationship work.

All in all, I think Witt is off to a great start with this series! I enjoyed Sean and Paul, and the fact that theirs was a May-December romance was a big plus for me. And, I really did love how she told Travis and Clint’s story. I’m looking forward to the third installment!

You can buy Just Drive here:
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You can buy Afraid to Fly here:
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