I did enjoy this book but I don't think it grabbed me as much as other reviewers. I kept dipping into it but I think it needs reading in a couple of greedy gulps. A great premise, an airline pilot is forced to choose between crashing his plane and his family held hostage on the ground. There's non-stop action and it's very tense but just lacked something extra for me.

In order to enjoy this book, you have to suspend a bit of disbelief. This is a very fast-paced book that I didn't want to put down (hence the four star ranking). I stayed up past my bedtime to finish this, which means that it deserves a better-than-average ranking. However, there are some plot points that are hard to really believe if you think about it too much.

Rather, enjoy this as what it is: an action book based on a simple plot: a pilot is given the choice from a terrorist to either crash the plane or his family dies. A second terrorist has his wife and two kids attached to explosive vests. The terrorists are armed and the whole motive seems a bit far-fetched. The terrorists want to bring awareness to their country, but why did they choose Bill (the pilot)? Why bring his family into it?

Again, if you ignore some of the questions that come up when you start thinking about it, this is a really good book. You get really into the story and want to know more about Bill, Jo, "Daddy" (which is weird) and Kellie on the flight. Definitely a page turner!

Great, great book. What a ride it was reading this. Couldn't put it down. Finished in a day. The tension built from page one to an almost unbearable level. I honestly couldn't figure out anything that happened. I am usually very good at that but not with this book. Great writing, great characters. All in all, a great read. I loved it.

One of my favorite books of the year! An incredibly propulsive read with characters you can root for despite the virtually non-stop action. I loved the short chapters that kept me reading late into the night and the ending was satisfying. Feels like it's meant to be a hit movie ASAP.

This was edge of your seat suspense. How could you choose between your family or a large group of people? I couldn’t put it down. I especially loved reading about the crew members on the plane. I could see this as a movie.

You can save your family... or save an airplane full of people... which would you choose?

Edge of my seat thriller! I was super excited to read this one after reading the synopsis. It has me wondering what I would do in this absolutely impossible situation.

I admit there's some suspension of belief required in this book, but let's be honest - that seems to be the case with most thrillers. If you just sit back and enjoy the ride, it's very entertaining.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Yes, it's a high octane thriller, and has garnered a lot of attention and praise, but I don't feel there's anything that sets it apart from other books, makes it very readable, has me rooting for the characters (they're all bland, basic, very similar to the characters in movies like THE HAPPENING, where Deschanel's main conflict is kissing a guy she works with, and how that will undo her and Wahlberg, etc) and I simply was not invested. I've heard similar things from other people and overall, I was disappointed.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This novel caused me to go through a whole wave of emotions. At times I felt like I could not keep reading because this was difficult and uncomfortable, especially as someone who remembers so much about 9-11 and served in the military. This novel focuses on a pilot who ends up in a compromising situation as terrorist threaten him with his family and wants him to take a plane down.

This was a wave of emotions as the story goes back and forth between the situation on the plane and the situation on the ground. I do love that this novel truly is an action/thriller...while at the same time shows you that a group of strangers really will band together to help each other. Amazing novel to the very end and so worth the read.

Grabbed me from the first sentence. Read like a movie, very good plot, realistic characters.
Highly recommend!
5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher and author for an ARC of this book.The opinions expressed are my own.

PHEW! This debut novel from Newman is chock full of action and suspense and holy hell.... but before I start, props to the narrator, Steven Weber, for a fantastic read that kept me hooked from start to finish. Also, I kept thinking it was the actor but the voice didn't fit and then... realized it wasn't him. I wonder how many people thought the same. 🤣
I love that the author took her own experiences as a flight attendant to incorporate into this novel. It clearly shows and it's something I always applaud in books. And the pacing in this is FAST. Please fasten your seatbelts and keep your tray tables in their locked positions! How do you decide if you'd rather have your family killed or to crash a plane full of people? HOW DO YOU CHOOSE? And honestly, I don't even care how plausible some parts of this may have been... I enjoyed the entire ride

I had some issue keeping up with who was who and what was going on and when and I'm not sure if that's because I listened to this one instead of reading it with my eyes. We did get multiple POVs from air to ground and this cast of characters are fun bunch - especially the flight crew. Jo, I love you! I also appreciate making the "bad guys" not SO bad in certain scenes, depicting that they are also very human.

I kept thinking I would love to see this as a movie and it turns out it got optioned so you bet I'm going to watch the adaptation along with a huge bucket of popcorn. Exactly the read I needed right now.

I can see why this book has been optioned for film and how the action-packed scenes could lend itself to Hollywood. And there’s so much good about it! A high-concept idea where a pilot has to choose between his family and the lives of those on his plane. The FBI is involved. The author is a flight attendant so the setting on a plane feels authentic. There are lots of dramatic scenes with fighting, chemical weapons that the passengers must deactivate.

But there is a lot of stereotypical stuff here (Middle Eastern terrorists), the baseball patriots (you’ll know what I mean if you’ve read this), a flight attendant called Big Daddy (?!), a flight attendant that happened to have an FBI agent nephew (convenient!), so while enjoyable as an action thriller, it did feel a little contrived at times. At the end of the day it almost could’ve been any plane hijacking book. There aren’t a lot of things that can happen in these books/movies that hasn’t already been done.

However, the action scenes were amazing and the characters likeable. If you’re looking for an adrenaline-fueled knuckle biter, this could be the book for you!

143 souls on board, flight plan is loaded, flight attendants are working and pilot is in the cockpit. Also, Highjackers are on board and on the ground the pilot’s family is being held hostage.
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This action packed thriller reads like the 90’s movies I loved a la #passenger57 or #airforceone
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I keep expecting Harrison Ford to pop out and say #GetOffMyPlane
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This was a wild ride and I hope it would make a great book to screen adaptation!

Buckle in for the flight of your life. You board a plane, but there is a secret kept by one of the pilots. Will anyone survive?

I really disliked this book. It was just too ridiculous. I love thrillers with twists and turns. But this was so predictable and far fetched.

Crash your plane or see your wife and kids die. This dilemma faces the Captain who leaves LAX and has to figure out ways to land the plane safely and keep his family alive. With a mole on the plane, and a flight attendant whose brother is a out of favor FBI agent, lots of great twists and turns take place. The passengers play a role, as does clever us of various technologies along the way. It’s a terrific first novel, and a wonderful thriller.

I made the mistake of starting this novel when I didn't have time to finish it in one sitting. When I picked it up again , I allowed plenty of time to make sure that nothing stopped me until the final page.
This is the perfect thriller. The reader knows almost from the start that the pilot of a cross country flight has to decide to crash his plane or sacrifice his family due to the demands of a terrorist who has kidnapped his wife and two children.
The author is a former flight attendant so all the details about the plane and the crew are authentic. If I were on a plane, even without a crisis, I would want to have Jo and Big Daddy in charge.
There are other heroes and heroines along the way who don't always take the easy or proper ways. During the tragedy of 9/11, the terrorist were highjacks. It is scary to think with all of technology that has advanced in the past 21 years, terrorism can happen at a distance.
This is definitely not good reading material for a long plane trip. It is full of twists and suspense that make it a real page turner.
The author states at the end that she had to try 42 times before she found an agent for this remarkable book. I'm sure the ones who turned it down are now kicking themselves at what they let slip through their fingers. Haven't seen yet if there will be a movie adaptation of this story. It would certainly be one that would be a must watch for me.

This is the perfect summer read...in spite of the often written trope: hero faced with an impossible choice - do something that will cause hundreds of people to die or your family will be killed - this story feels fresh and new. An airline pilot refuses to crash a plane...and refuses to let his family die. This pilot is smart and resourceful and he has a marvelous supporting cast of characters in the flight attendants on the plane and contacts on the ground. The plot is fast paced and filled with twists and turns. The characters are surprisingly deep and yet the character background descriptions do not disturb the pace and flow of the story. Time ticks as the FBI and those in the air face dead ends and mistaken identities. The author worked as a flight attendant for many years, in fact, wrote this story while working on long flights, so there is a sense of realness to her depiction of life during a flight and the relationships with pilots and coworkers and passengers. The reason this book lost a star was because of the handling of the terrorists behind the act. Their motivation and back story did disturb the flow and was a bit preachy which detracted. On the other hand, they were human and sympathetic figures which is a positive.

Holy Wow! Falling was non stop action, this thriller was like watching a movie play in my mind.

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot’s family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

The plot may be familiar, but T J NEWMAN did not write the same old story. A pilot's family is kidnapped. He must crash a plane or they die. A dilemna none of us would like to face. A decision to make when there really is only one decision. A very quick read....once you get on this flight, you will stay until the explosive end. While this may be her first book, let's hope it's not her last!!!

I finished this book while waiting for the first flight I had taken since the pandemic began, and the timing was perfect. Knowing a flight attendant wrote this book just made it better, and I felt like I was reading insider information. The premise of a plane being hijacked is nothing new, but when the hijackers are on the ground while the plane is in the air, it creates a new situation that is all too probable and original. This book had a few twists that I didn't see coming and kept me interested all the way to the end. I hope T.J. Newman writes more books!