Curtis Larkin is a senior astronaut and public hero on his last trip to space. As his CAPCOM (their communication liaison) has a stroke on their first mission day, she gets replaced by the young engineer Patrick. It takes a bit of adjusting to the new situation, but Patrick soon gets along well with the astronauts, especially with Curtis, his idol. The two just get each other and soon Patrick finds himself falling for a man he's never even met before.
I adore this book. It is one of the more perfect romances for me. It has all I want: slow burn, lots of conversations, character development, little angst.
I'm not a fan of space flight, but the setting just makes the book a lot more awesome. There is an obvious passion for it in the book that just got to me and made me more invested in the story. It's not a hard science book, so there aren't all that many details about space flight in it, just enough to paint a good picture and tell about the day to day live.
I just loved Curt and Patrick together, how they talked together, how they just clicked right and understood stuff about each other. How that understanding and friendship slowly drifted into more. That was really touching, especially since they had never seen each other face to face before.
There was a little angst from both of them "Do I imagine that connection? Is it one-sided?" but other than that there is very little negativity. Any drama is more circumstantial, as will happen on a space mission. Some dangerous situations, some illness, but nothing big.
The scene when they meet for the first time is probably the most movie-worthy scene in any book ever. So romantic and cute.
Well, the whole book is very romantic and sweet. Once they meet on earth it just cements how good they are together. I thought there might be some starting pains, but they just fall in with each other. I can understand why some find it do saccharine, since there's little to temper it, but I liked it. Sometimes I just enjoy a story about two people who are so perfectly right together that nothing can impact that.
There's not a lot of sex, though. Some small scenes, but it's more about the emotional connection than the physical.
The one thing I did not really care for where the background information delivered as a TV show script. It was a bit distracting in it's format, and I did not feel that it was all that important to the story.