Last year I added Janine Amesta to my long list of authors I wish more people would read. I love her writing and the characters she creates. If you haven’t read her yet, Love at First Flight is a good place to start and it’s out mid April. If you don’t want to wait until then, I highly recommend Lucky Strike, which was one of my favorite reads last year.
Selah Moreno was on her way to flight school when she got a call from her mother that her father had just died. Now she’s (temporarily) running the family hot air balloon business and trying to keep her mother and two younger sisters afloat. Dex Westerly is a park ranger at Smith Rock State Park. Dex has decided he’s ready to get married so he arranges a surprise hot air balloon ride to propose to his girlfriend. It goes, well, very badly. Selah and Dex meet several times before they develop a friendship. Selah is grieving for her father and frustrated with her family. Dex’s unemotional and introverted parents left him feeling like he doesn’t know how to build relationships and the rejection of his marriage proposal reinforces his insecurity. As attracted to each other as they are, first they build a friendship. And Harper, the crow Dex rehabilitated, who has adopted him, is central to that friendship.
I love the way Janine Amesta writes, especially her characters. Dex feels like he is awkward and fumbling, but he demonstrates that he can read a situation and handle it, even after a few drinks. He delivers the competency p*rn. Selah feels like she owes it to her father’s memory to achieve certain things, like becoming a commercial pilot. Her grief focuses her on an idea of her future, blinding her to the life she has in front of her. Selah, like Amesta’s other heroines is complex and driven, and her desire to reach her goals is being thwarted. I absolutely loved the relationship that grew between Dex and Selah even as they tried not to have feelings.
I really can’t wait to see where Janine Amesta goes with this series. It already feels like it’s going to be more interconnected than her Love in Eldorado series. I’m looking forward to the ways grief, growth and falling in love will be handled in the next two books, The Wedding Con and The Love Feud.
I received this advance reader copy from the author. Through persistence and some light social media stalking (I’m joking), I’ve become friendly with the author. My review has been entirely honest, though unbiased simply isn’t possible.