I hope you like the other books when you get to them! I think that Jack grew on me more as I read/re-read the books, partly because of his Aubreyisms XD and partly because I appreciate a deeply flawed character who's still, deep down, a good person. I guess that the same could be said about Stephen, but I loved him immediately! And I love their friendship, and how it grows with each book. Looking back, I think I saw it as a sort of queerplatonic relationship, years before I heard that term.