Fly with Me

 

Fly with Me
By  Andie Burke

ISBN: 9781250886378
384 Pages
Available in Paperback, Audiobook, and on Kindle
Trigger Warning: On Page Death of a Loved One, Lots of 0Sexism

Synopsis:

A one-way ticket to love or a bumpy ride ahead?

Flying-phobic ER nurse Olive Murphy is still gripping the armrest from her first-ever take-off when the pilot announces an in-flight medical emergency. Olive leaps into action and saves a life, but ends up getting stuck in the airport hours away from the marathon she's running in honor of her brother. Luckily for her, Stella Soriano, the stunning type A copilot, offers to give her a ride.

After the two spend a magical day together, Stella makes a surprising request: Will Olive be her fake girlfriend?

A video of Olive saving a life has gone viral and started generating big sales for Stella's airline. Stella sees their union as the perfect opportunity to get to the boys' club executives at her company who keep overlooking her for a long-deserved promotion. Realizing this arrangement could help her too, Olive dives into memorizing Stella’s comically comprehensive three-ring-binder guide to fake dating. As the two grow closer, what’s supposed to be a ruse feels more and more real. Could this be the romantic ride of their lives, or an epic crash and burn?

My Thoughts:

Fly With Me has been on my to-read list for quite a while. I actually qualified for an ARC from NetGalley before the book was published, but I had a lot going on at the time and never got a chance to download it before it was archived in their system, making it unavailable. So I had to wait for it to be published and become available at my local library, and then sit through months of library (well, Libby really) waitlist. But I feel like it was worth the wait and I am glad that I did not give up on it.

The main character in Fly with Me is Olive, a nurse who is dealing with some serious family drama. Her brother is hospitalized in a coma after an accident and she has found herself at odds with the rest of her family about how his care is being handled. The story opens with her traveling on a plane - which she is absolutely terrified of - to attend a marathon and fulfill a promise she made with her brother before his accident. Mid-flight, another passenger suffers a medical crisis, and Olive uses her nurse training to save the man. Unfortunately, the emergency causes the flight to be diverted, and the inability to secure another flight puts her at risk of missing out on the marathon. Stella, the copilot of the redirected flight, steps in to save the day by offering to drive Olive the rest of the way to the marathon. Olive is initially hesitant, but acquiesces when she realizes that she really has no other options.

The pair hit it off and become friendly, and then return to their normal lives. Soon after, Stella reaches out to Olive with an insane proposal - to be her fake girlfriend. There had been a giant amount of media coverage over the nurse's heroic rescue on the flight, and the airline was getting a lot of media. Stella, who had been repeatedly skipped over for pilot promotions due to the industry sexism, believed that aligning herself with the moment of celebrity could play out in her benefit. Olive considers and decides that the fake relationship could benefit her as well and accepts. This is the plotline that drew me in and made me want to read the book. Fake Dating, or "fauxmance" if you will, is my absolute favorite romance trope. 

Both Olive and Stella are decently likeable characters, though I could definitely relate to Olive more. Most of the narration is from her point of view, and Stella feels a little more distant and detached at times. They both have some variant of trauma; Stella from dealing with rampant career sexism, and Olive from family drama and a loads of anxiety and self-deprecation. Olive's mental hang-ups unquestionably cause their relationship to be slower to develop, but this helps it to evolve naturally in a way that it is believable.

The secondary characters are a mixed bag. Olive's co-workers are super and help her evolve as a person. Derek is a champ. The depiction of Stella's dad is such a refreshing take on a parental role in a contemporary novel like this one, and is a bittersweet yet realistic disability representation. Those characters are all a hit. And then there are the misses. Olive's family are pretty awful. Stella's coworker is a PoS and her boss, while he has a few "maybe he is redeemable" moments, is ultimately garbage. But the worst offender has to be Olive's ex Lindsay. Not just in the "she's supposed to be the villain" way, but the character was just so extra, to an unnecessary degree. And to believe that she could do all the insane stuff that she did and face absolutely no repercussions or comeuppance? It's infuriating.

While the main focus of Fly with Me is clearly to tell a romance story, the book does not forget the non-romance side plots, and even completely throws away the romance for a brief point. There is a lot of additional drama, both family and job related. I would like to say that these side plots are adequately wrapped up at the end of the story, but honestly, some of the outcomes felt underwhelming or less than satisfactory. I don't think this diminished the story overall, but I had a higher expectation at that point.

Overall, I think that Fly with Me was a pleasant read and a nice offering for sapphic romance fans. There are maybe some points that were a little more... meh? But for an introductory book, this was a great showing.

Parent's Guide:

While there isn't anything too graphic in this book, it is a lot of adult situations and sexual banter. There are also some traumatic family situations that would probably be uncomfortable to a younger audience. I would consider this one solidly 16+ at best.