Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Stuart Jenner’s job is high stress, high stakes, and everything he’s strived for. So why, when the apex of his career is within reach, does he stumble? At his doctor’s insistence, he books a privately chartered yacht to sail around the Whitsundays for two weeks of sun, surf, and sex. When his friend-with-benefits bails on him at the last minute, Stuart decides to go alone.
Foster Knight left the rat race behind six years ago, bought a yacht, and now calls the Great Barrier Reef his home. Sailing tourists around tropical waters is all in a day’s work, and he’s never been happier. When his next client arrives alone, the two-week charter will be the most private job he’s ever had.
Foster can see how stressed and exhausted Stuart is, and he promises him extensive rest and relaxation. Stuart slowly realises his original plan for two weeks of sun, surf, and sex might not be lost yet. Confined to a yacht, isolated by aqua-coloured oceans and the sweltering sun, Stuart and Foster are about to find out just how hot the tropics can get.
I hate to admit how many times I’ve reread this story already, especially that ending! Something about Private Charter by N.R. Walker has just gotten under my skin. When I need something happy to think about before closing my eyes, I reach for my Kindle and that fabulously moving ending that I know now by heart. True, I believe I can recite it!
If you had asked me if I would have had that reaction from reading that blurb, I probably would have said no, not even with N.R. Walker as the author. The timeline seems too short and the plot a little light. I should have known better. This is N.R. Walker after all, one of my favorite author’s and this story is so much more than it seems.
Stuart isn’t just stressed out and exhausted. He is at a crossroads in his life and a particular set of circumstances have led him to a sailing yacht and man who might be the only one to understand his dilemma and situation. Against a gorgeous background of sailing and the ocean, Walker brings us two men oddly not that different from each other. The characters of Foster Knight, owner and Captain of the White Knight and Stuart Jenner, corporate financier, are carefully crafted and so well layered that I was into both men immediately. I was pulled onto their lives as they sailed the Whitsundays, exploring each other, letting Stuart experience the f freedom of being himself and revelling in it.
We did as well. The chemistry that builds with them is amazing. We feel the power and beauty of being under sail, the awe of the sea, and the joy it brings them both. Plus the terrible pull of the deadline that the end of the voyage has on them both.
I was so caught up in every part of this story that I didn’t realize how quickly it was flying by. When that incredible ending came (not the epilogue mind you, love that) but the ending that made my heart swell …well I wasn’t ready to let go of these men. I wanted a movie, another book, anything!!!
Yep, hooked but good.
So I settle for rereading it. Over and over.
Yes, I absolutely recommend this to all lovers of contemporary romance. It’s turned out to be one of my favorites. See if it will be one of yours.
Cover art is sexy, hot, but doesn’t really make me think of Stuart.
Sales Links: Amazon
Book Details:
Kindle Edition, 1st edition, 244 pages
Published August 22nd 2018
ASINB07GSKKVTT
Edition LanguageEnglish
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 