Aussie Sun

Flying Into Love #4

By: C F White

Narrated by: Piers Ryman

Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Can a splash of Aussie sun sway a retired MP to vote one last time...for love?

Retired English MP Jeffrey Gandy has had enough. Of people. Of politics. Of pursuing love. After a lifetime in the public eye, he’s on extended leave in Australia to renew his bond with his long-lost daughter.

Aussie swimming coach Hunter Ford has a race to win. This time he’s out of the pool, and fighting the developers determined to make him and his rescue animals homeless. Without the money to afford a lawyer, he’s no choice but to bury his head in the golden sand of his beloved bay.

When Jeffrey forms an unlikely friendship with his daughter’s swimming coach, the 28-year age gap should be enough of a deterrent for him not to get involved, no matter how gorgeous the athlete with a heart of gold is.

Both Jeffrey and Hunter have been burned before, so trust doesn’t come as easy as their mutual attraction. But Jeffrey is meant to be in Australia for his daughter, not to chase young men, as he's reminded time again by his ex-wife.

Can Hunter make Jeffrey realize he’s allowed to fall in love too? And can he do it before Hunter’s persuaded away by someone else...someone who doesn’t have his best interests at heart?

Aussie Sun (Flying Into Love #4) is a contemporary, low angst, slow-burn, age-gap, MM romance featuring a disgraced English MP hiding from his mistakes and a happy-go-lucky Aussie animal-lover with a desperate need to please.

©2023 CF White (P)2023 C F White

Age gap under the Australian sun.

I love an age gap, and this book has a big one, with Jeffrey being in his fifties and Hunter in his late twenties. To complicate things more, Jeffrey rocky relationship with his daughter and ex-wife, plus the fact that Hunter is none other than Jeffrey’s teenage daughter’s swimming coach.
The book is quite an emotional one, with both men carrying some baggage of hurt, secrets and guilt. But the book, though not fluffy or light-hearted at all, manages never to get too heavy.
As usual, I love the author’s writing style, and this time she regaled us with a very awful villain, whom I’d like to throttle!

Opposites attract with a lovely age-gap

Jeffrey’s got a problem. He’s been forced to resign as an MP in Britain. To get away from…everyone…he heads to the land down under. His daughter and ex-wife live there. The daughter who believes he abandoned her – even though it was her mother who made the move.

Jeffrey’s got another problem. Well, two. One is creatures who want to kill him who seem to be everywhere, and the other is his next door neighbor. Hunter is gorgeous, young, gay, and off limits. As Jeffrey’s daughter’s swim coach, Hunter shouldn’t be the guy Jeffrey’s attracted to. He’s here to make amends – not get his rocks off.

Except…what if he can do both?

I could see the disaster the men are careening toward. The question was, of course, whether they could love each other enough to overcome a massive pile of hurdles put before them.

Well, this is a classic C.F. White romance, so you probably know the answer. The conclusion, however, is never foregone and how the men get to their happily ever after is well worth the read. I was thrilled to see there are more Flying into Love books coming and since I know they’ll be narrated by Piers Ryman, I can’t wait!

Very Enjoyable

Aussie Sun is Book 4 in the Flying into Love series. This is a wonderfully written low angst, slow burn, age gap story about Jeffery, a retired English MP, and Hunter, an animal loving swim coach. Jeffery finds himself in Australia wanting to spend time with his teenage daughter Crissy. He had no intention of falling in love with her swim coach but that is exactly what happened. I really enjoyed this book. Jeffery and Hunter are so sweet together as they form a friendship that turns into so much more. I recommend this book.

Narrator Piers Ryman does a marvelous job in bringing these characters to life. He really is a joy to listen to.

Two hurting souls find each other.

I loved this story when I read it with my eyes and I loved it even more when I listened to the fantastic Piers Ryman perform the audiobook. He always does such a great job with the individual character voices. There really isn't anything else I could say that I didn't put in my original review which is shown below.

Aussie Sun is so good! Jeffrey and Hunter have things in common but not so much in a good way. Hunter was burned by a man he didn’t know was married and Jeffrey hid his sexuality from his now ex-wife and had an affair with a man. Jeffrey has come to Australia to reconnect with his daughter and had no intention of falling for anyone, let alone his daughter’s swim coach.

There are many things I enjoyed about this story. One of them is that the unfortunate pandemic that affected the world over the last few years wasn’t ignored but it also wasn’t beat to death. The pandemic was one of the reasons that Jeffrey hadn’t seen his daughter recently. Now that he’s resigned from politics he wants to try and make up for all of the years he missed.

I love reading books set in countries other than the US. I like how the different variations on the English language gets me learning new words. 😊 I’m happy that I use an e-reader so that I can look up words as I read. I don’t want to put anyone off by thinking you won’t understand the words in context because you will. I just like to look them up so that I know more about the words. 😊

Jeffrey and Hunter have to overcome a few obstacles – namely Hunter’s ex and Jeffrey’s daughter’s reaction to their relationship – but conflict nearly always makes for a good story. For me, this book had just the right amount and was relatively low angst.

😊 Reader advisory – there are a lot of animals in this story including a snake and a somewhat funny scene with a spider. 😊

The Flying Into Love books are connected only by theme so they can be read in any order. I’m looking forward to reading the next book: Jersey Royal, coming later this year!

A complimentary copy of this audiobook was provided to me at my request; my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author and/or narrator.