Learning to open up in Winging it with You

So I think Winging it with You by Chip Pons was one of those books that just randomly came up recommended to me since I read a lot of romance books and this is very much another one.

The blurb says that Asher Bennett thought his relationship was just fine. Until he’s unceremoniously dumped at the Boston airport ahead of the word-wide travel competition reality show, The Epic Trek. Armed with only a ticket and righteous indignation, Asher finds the closest solace he can: a mimosa and mozzarella sticks combo at an airport TGI Fridays. Still, Asher is determined to find a new partner and luckily, right in front of him is a smooth-talking airline pilot ready for takeoff. Theo Fernandez has been grounded. He’s the only pilot that has never taken a vacation and the edict has been passed down: Prove you’re prioritising a work-life balance or say goodbye to your wings. As he struggles to bask in his new downtime, he stumbles upon the perfect opportunity. The handsome guy who ‘stole’ his mozzarella sticks at this favourite terminal eatery [that] has a sudden opening for a travel partner… As Theo and Asher buckle up to fake date for the cameras, sparks begin to fly, and the undercurrents of attraction make them wonder if their on-screen chemistry hints at something bigger. Do they have the courage to leave behind their baggage, and wing it together for another chance at love?

One immediate thing I was struck by was the quote at the beginning of the book to set the tone was from Taylor Swift… so that was immediately setting a tone. A very fitting quote, considering there’s a lot of travelling and flying. Thank you, Ms Climate Criminal. But still, Asher gets dumped, shockingly, like the blurb says, when he’s at the departure gate, or the bit where you check your bag, at hashtag the airport (Charli xcx core), by a man named Clint – which is an immediate red flag. Sorry to the Clint’s of the world. And at this TGI Fridays, which I didn’t even know existed in airports. Granted, I’ve not been to one in years, nor is TGI Fridays that big in the UK, but Theo ends up offering to pay Asher twenty dollars for the mozzarella sticks, and Asher says that they’ll flip a coin. If he loses, Theo can have them, and if he wins, Theo has to do something for him. He ends up winning, and Theo just casually agrees to get on a plane with him with very little convincing, which was absolutely wild decision-making, but I also realise no book would have happened had he said no. And ignoring the unfortunate Taylor Swift quote, I found myself not thinking about that in the slightest and was easily swayed away from the bad feelings that left me with.

If you ignore the railing each other on the page, this whole book felt very Hallmark, like I never really felt that anything too bad was going to happen and that they’d be able to work out everything between themselves. After being disappointed by the last two books I read, I needed something like this. Something where I knew exactly what was going to happen, had some of the tropes I liked – I will say, Theo was meant to be an Ashley Tisdale, disappointed there wasn’t more mention of her throughout the book (stream Symptoms by Ashley Tisdale). Like, is this book going to change the world? No. Not in the slightest, but the best way I can describe it is good. It hits everything that it needs to, and it does a really good job of it all. Wherein the last two books I read and talked about, I found myself bored and waiting for it to be over, I never had any of those feelings with this. Even through everything, I found it easy, and like everything would be fine.

Now the fake dating. That’s something that will basically always eat for me, unless it’s done terribly. Theo and Asher – literally hashtag Thasher, as they were dubbed in the book (unrelated, but I’ve been in the BL world, and seeing ship names being just full names slapped together and then seeing Thasher, like a classic ship name is wild) – fake date for the cameras. Girl biting finger dot gif, because let’s be real, it’s fake dating, we all know exactly what’s going to happen, and I’m going to gag, honestly, almost every time it happens. They’re going to develop feelings for each other – even if you do ignore the fact they jerked off over each other within like the first hundred pages and the first stop on the show that they stop in. That was wild. Like, y’all barely know each other and one of you is going to start straight up jorking it the second the other guy goes in the shower, and then the one in the shower is going to leave the door open, wipe the steam away, and you’re going to watch each other? Wild.

Theo definitely did hit the don’t piss me off button a little towards the end. It’s Hallmark-y, it’s a romance book, so we’re going to follow the inevitable beat of there being some form of conflict to drive the leads apart. I won’t spoil what happens, but throughout the book, there is reference to Theo’s response to bad things happening in his life being just running away from them. Does he do that? Yes, he does. Therefore, Theo, don’t piss me off. What pissed me off was that until things began to be resolved, it felt like he was refusing to learn and grow almost. There were things he’d say and I’d just groan. Not that it’s his fault, he’s character and was written to be like that, so I knew what was coming and what he needed to do to make his life easier and better, and he didn’t, so when he wasn’t doing the things he didn’t know he could do, it annoyed me. What a nothing burger thing to say, you’re welcome. And yeah, it was the tea of Asher and Theo made each other better, that’s how Theo was able to learn. Gross, people in love (lol). I will say, there was a little slip in names towards the beginning of the book when we were in Theo’s POV when the book said, “[W]hen neither Theo nor I say anything”, and that had me worried that maybe some of the things I was hoping for wouldn’t get resolved, like Theo learning to not run away from everything, but I was gladly proved wrong.

You didn’t actually end up seeing all that much of The Epic Trek. It was more present earlier in the book, when Theo and Asher had to do a few challenges. I’ve never seen The Amazing Race, so I don’t know if doing challenges in the same way they were done in this book is how it actually happens, but I know that really, The Epic Trek was just a catalyst for Theo and Asher to do things together and for them to be challenged in terms of who they are. It was also quite funny, considering Asher is meant to be this super indoors-y nerd-type, the concept of him even considering to go do The Epic Trek was gagiana grande. Although, he did mention that it was his ex’s idea, so I guess it makes sense.

Like I said, I would say this book was a solid good book. There was nothing major that I had issue with. It was just a solid romance. Big fan.