Falling is an action-packed thrill to read. Bill is the pilot of a flight bound to NY from LA. He faces an impossible situation. If he doesn’t crash the plane, his kidnapped family will die. So, readers need to fasten their seatbelts because they are in for a wild ride which builds suspense and surprises. But even beyond this edge of the seat adventure, the author fleshes out characters, backstories, and relationships that make this more than just a white-knuckle action book. Like many readers, I very much enjoyed the book and now look forward to the film! Congrats to a first-time author who persevered, just like the characters in her book! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title to review.

Fasten your seatbelt because we are in for a turbulent ride!
Bill Hoffman is called into work to cover for another pilot. It wasn't sunshine and roses when he left his house. His wife is upset that he is working, but even so, he is surprised when he calls and gets no answer. If only an angry spouse was going to be the biggest problem he faced.
Before departing Los Angeles for New York, he receives a shocking email. A picture of his wife and children being held hostage. Sam, their captor gives him two agonizing choices. Crash the plane or he will kill Bill's family. If Bill and everyone on board die, his family will live. Sounds like a typical flight, right? Well, I certainly hope not! Somehow, Bill must figure out a way to save his family and the plane, but who can he trust?
He makes the smart decision to tell Jo, his friend, and a longtime flight attendant. Jo is able to contact her nephew who works for the FBI, but will that be enough to stop this madman. How many people on board are innocent and how many are working with Sam. The pace is relentless as it really seems like a no-win situation.
No spoilers here, but I predict I will see a lot of copies of this book at the beach this summer. I read it in my backyard on a ninety-degree day, and it was definitely the kind of book that had me setting my Fitbit alarm to remind me to hydrate and apply more sunscreen.
Do they let pilots get personal emails or phone calls before a flight? I hope not because something like this, no actually this would be a nightmare scenario. I am going to have to find out before flying again for the first time since the pandemic began. A really good debut and I hope this is all fiction and something like this never happened while the author was a flight attendant!

What a fast paced, action packed read. There was never a dull moment in this thriller which feels destined to be made into a movie. Much like a Matthew Reilly book, I was constantly asking "What could possibly happen now?" How this was rejected by 41 agents I'll never understand.

I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Oh my goodness but this was a wild ride! Which is unusual for me to say, given that it is utterly implausible and there were about forty seven places where I had to suspend disbelief so hard that it should have irritated me - but it never did. Not once! This was the perfect Beach / Escape read. It was fast-paced, the characters were relatable and enjoyable, and the action was nonstop. I found it to be an utterly fun, horrifying, engaging way to escape from my own life for a day and I absolutely loved it for that!

Oh. Em. Gee!

Falling is SO GOOD! It had me at the edge of my proverbial seat, half-perching, half-falling (nyehehe). And coming from a debut novel, that's quite a feat!

Many many thanks to the publisher and author for the ARC. It made me hyperventilate but I really enjoyed it.

So that was the scariest beginning ever! And trust me it gets faster, better, more terrifying as you go along!

What decision would you make if you found out you were flying a plane that had been hijacked basically before it left the ground? They have your family. Who lives? Who dies?

This story could have only been told by this author. It is a non-stop flight of terror from the beginning until the ending.

The characters were brilliant and brave. I read this so fast you would have thought it was a real news event!

I don’t want to give anything away, but this author hit it out of the park on her first try!

NetGalley/July 6th, 2021, by Avid Reader Press / Simon Schuster

This will make a great independent reading option for my students because of how fast-paced and action-packed it is.

I would rather this have been a movie, though. The characters are too one-note for a satisfying reading experience, and I found some parts to be too insider-baseball for me to get a clear idea of what was happening. Knowing absolutely nothing about piloting a plane, for example, I found it difficult to picture a lot of what was happening in and around the cockpit (there is essentially a whole chapter of "push that button and pull that lever!" descriptions).

And it's just not all that exciting sometimes to read long descriptions of action; like I wouldn't want to sit down with a cup of tea and dive into a script from the Fast & Furious movies, and that's what Falling sometimes felt like.

I can see why people like this (it begs you to keep flipping pages), and I imagine it'll be a huge beach read this summer, but I found it lacking in depth.

A screaming rush of a novel - There was hardly a moment to catch your breath! This was an excellent airplane thriller that just didn’t let up.

This book has you turning the pages faster then the plane is flying. With a full plane, the captain is put in an untenable position. His family has been kidnapped. He must crash the plane in order to save his family. It is his choice: save the passengers or his family. With a talented crew keeping passengers informed and calm, a family that believes in his ability, he must work out a solution to save everyone. This is a gripping first novel from an author I hope to read more of in the future.

Really enjoyed this one. Definitely an action packed thriller and kept up the pace until the end. Very well done for a debut author and I am definitely interested in seeing what she writes next.

I recommend reading it but you might not want to read it on a flight across the country. :)

4.5 stars, rounded up
This book starts with one of the scariest scenes I’ve ever read. I had no clue where the book would go from there. But it does…
Captain Bill Hoffman is the pilot on an LA to NYC flight when he gets an email from his wife. A picture of her and their son, bags over their heads and explosives around her waist. His choice - crash the plane he’s flying or have his family killed. It’s a wild ride to see how he plans to get out of this situation. There’s never a lull in the suspense. It’s got a flat out mile a minute pace with no pauses.
This is one story that might make you afraid to fly. But it might also make you appreciate the pilots and flight attendants a lot more. I loved that most of the characters are just regular folks dealing with a crisis. Yes, maybe trained for it, but never expecting it to land in their laps. And kudos to Newman for giving the terrorists some good talking points. Americans do have the privilege of not caring about what’s happening elsewhere in the world, about having the luxury to look away.
This would make a fabulous movie. But I hope if it is made, they don’t lose the nuances of the characters involved. Because this is more than just an action story.
I tore through this one in just slightly over a day.
It shocked me that it took 41 rejections before this book found a home, because I was really impressed by this debut effort.
My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.

What would you do if you had to choose between the lives of your precious family, and a plane full of strangers? It's not an easy answer, but that is the choice Bill Hoffman has to make in this thriller. I was quickly drawn in, and finished the book in just a few days. The author is a flight attendant, and sometimes that is a bad thing - too much experience with something means that sometimes you use too many terms the average person doesn't know and it makes the book too confusing. I think the author did an excellent job avoiding that, and the book was a fantastic debut! I would definitely recommend it, and look forward to more from this author.

Pilot Bill Hoffman is having the worst day of his career - a terrorist has given him the choice of crashing a plane with 143 souls on board OR saving the plane but letting his family die. Bill is determined to save both his passengers and his family, enlisting the help of the cabin crew to outwit the terrorist. In this airplane version of Speed, will he be a hero or lose everything?

How could you not be sucked in by the description of this book? These trolley problem-type dilemmas are really interesting, and the high stakes here make for a wild ride. I really liked Bill and the cabin crew, namely flight attendants Jo and Big Daddy (side note: I would totally read a Big Daddy flight attendant spinoff novel). The author T.J. Newman was a flight attendant for many years, and she clearly drew on her experience in creating these great crew members. The plot is as twisty as the blurbs suggest - there are lots of surprises crammed into a relatively short novel, and I didn't see most of them coming.

This is a hard book for me to rate as I did enjoy it, but certain parts were problematic. The writing is a bit choppy, and I had trouble getting into the book for that reason. The terrorist's motivations and actions also didn't make much sense to me and veered into stereotypical territory. There was also a lot of graphic content - squeamish readers may want to skip this one.

I bet this will still be a big book this summer, and if you liked movies like Speed and Top Gun, or books like No Exit, you may enjoy this one more than I did! 3 stars.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a great premise and some memorable characters. It is suspenseful most of the time, although some scenes were predictable. The author's experience as a flight attendant lent authenticity to the scenes on the plane. I found the character of Theo to be the most problematic for me. He seemed immature for an FBI agent and acted impulsively which put other people in danger. This will be a great book for the beach this summer (but definitely not for a plane trip)!

FALLING by T.J. Newman lives up to the hype this debut has been receiving. The author uses her knowledge as a former flight attendant to create a compelling premise! Set to release July 6, #Falling gives the chilling tale of veteran pilot Bill Hoffman who must make the impossible decision- save the lives of his kidnapped family by crashing the full plane he is flying. This book kept me turning the pages long into the night! Reader, be prepared to read this in one sitting! Highly recommended!

I thought Falling by T J Newman was a very good thriller. I liked the characters, they were interesting, and you wanted to know more about them and their interactions with the other characters. I enjoyed the airplane setting, different than my usual read of police detectives. The writing was good, I kept reading past my bedtime, and started the next day. I often let books languish after the first read, so this had me hooked.

This was an action packed thrill ride! Pulled me in right from page one. If you're apprehensive about flying, be warned, but this is so worth the read.

143 people board a flight from Los Angeles to NYC. Everything is going as planned, until the captain, of the plane gets and email telling him his family has been kidnapped and bombs are attached to them. He has orders to crash the plane he's flying and kill everyone on board, including himself, or his wife and 2 children will die. He's not supposed to let anyone know, but this smart pilot figures out a plan and puts it into action!

This book was so fun and entertaining. I thought the characters and plot were great. This book would make an awesome movie. Lots of intensity, and I loved the way it all played out! This one is not to be missed!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own!

Do you ever finish reading a book, and you loved it so much, it's hard to write the review? You know, when you can't even put into words how much you enjoyed it? Falling, by TJ Newman, is that book!

I've wanted to read Falling since I first heard about this in-flight thriller written by a former flight attendant. The author's story of creating the idea of Falling while working as a fight attendant, having the manuscript rejected so many times, and then finally finding success is an amazing journey. I was sold before I even got my hands on the book.

Falling is the story of airline Captain Bill Hoffman, who must choose between saving his family who is being held hostage on the ground, and saving the 149 souls on the plane he is piloting. But, it's also the story of Jo, lead flight attendant, because, while it is Captain Hoffman's responsibility to take care of the plane, it is Jo's responsibility to take care of the cabin and her passengers.

Read this book! Prepare yourself for every possible emotion. Be ready to cry on nearly every page. This is one of the most emotional books I've read recently. Yes, it is an action thriller, but it is also a study in how people react in the worst possible scenario, and why people make their choices (right and wrong). I absolutely loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley, author TJ Newman, and publisher Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ready for takeoff? Then secure your baggage in the overheads and order a vodka gimlet because once Falling gets going there is no stopping.

Former flight attendant TJ Newman crafts a ridiculously-fun premise with a unique spin on airline hijacking. Get this one. The terrorist kidnaps the pilot’s family. And his message is a simple one: crash the plane or your family dies.

Ah, decisions, decisions.

The pilot in question is Bill Hoffman, a veteran pilot who is comfortable with the pressure of his profession. But when there is a bullet with your name on it and a loved family in peril, then the grip on that yoke gets all the more tighter. Luckily, Jo, the head of the crew, is also cool under fire. They devise a plan that is as footloose as Kevin Bacon - albeit one convenient as a Jerry Bruckheimer movie – that might actually save them.

Newman keeps the action, and dialogue, flying. She paces her scenes between the action in the cockpit, the plight of the crew, the dismay of the captured family, and a showcase of heroism surrounding a certain spoiler-free destination. Perhaps the only stall is the terrorists’ final execution as an otherwise meticulous plan all-too-easily borders on cartoon-land crazy. The quick action and page-turning frenzy becomes adequate reconciliation.

Falling is an easy, enjoyable read. Be sure to pick up a copy at a Hudson News. This will make a great companion for that non-stop LAX – JFK getaway.


Thanks to Netgalley and Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for the great trip. And a nod and wink to the great Don Winslow for the recommendation.

I should admit beforehand how much I love airplane thrillers, disasters, etc. There are also a lot of REALLY BAD ones out there. Luckily, this isn't one of them. This book is a lot of fun, has a lot of thrills, and is definitely a page-turner. What sets this apart for me, though, is that Newman does such a good job with characterization. and gives even minor characters a chance to show some depths. Seeing as how Newman worked as a flight attendant it's not a surprise that I found my favorite parts of the book were about what's going on in the main cabin with the flight attendants and the passengers. When the inevitable movie of this is made, I would think that Jo will be a pretty sought-after part. All in all, this was a great (almost summer) read. I’m very grateful that I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.