… AND THERE’S NOT A TOP GUN JOKE IN SIGHT.
One of the rules you must follow if you plan on writing romance is this: If you name a character in a book and they speak to your main character you must consider them for a sequel. Bam, waddaya know it’s Matt and he is horny for sailor but he’s confused. Isn’t he straight? Jon (who is not a sailor, he’s a navy pilot – which makes as much sense as infantry in the RAF) walks in drunk as a skunk with his buddies and he’s getting an arse tattoo. Much to my relief Matt just takes a deposit and doesn’t tattoo the drunk lads. Jon though, is a serial slut (which we get constantly reminded about) and isn’t one for settling down (which we get constantly reminded about).
What I liked about this story was the first encounter between them wasn’t just a sex-at-first-sight. The characters had a chance to get to know each other before getting to know each other. It meant when Jon left the shop you did squirm a little looking forward to both of them meeting again. The conversation between the two was natural, and when Jon straight up asked Matt for a drink it was good to see that he wasn’t right about the sexual orientation on the first hit.
I take great joy in playing “Guess who gets the next book” when reading a romance novel. Nora Roberts is particularly obvious about it, often having the third couple basically all set up to get going by the end of the second book of a trilogy.