The writing style of this book is what drew me in immediately (I assume it may turn others off), but I felt like it was a informal writing style that I loved. It was a friend talking to me or writing a blog that I was privy to. I knew what Skye was feeling and thinking, regardless of how inappropriate it was.

This book deals with racism in a very real way and has excellent LGBTQ+ representation. The story centers on Skye, who finds out that one of her eggs was used to produce a daughter. She had donated her eggs to her friend when needed (as she didn't want kids) and one of them made Vicky. I loved Vicky, a 12-year-old girl not afraid to speak her mind. The relationship between her and Skye was the best part of this book. Skye doesn't believe she needs people or community... and somehow Vicky may be the one to change her mind.

This is a book about Skye getting to know herself. It's a book about family, friends, trust and children and it was really well done.

“Easy love is hard to come by,” she says.
Truer words, y’all.
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Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie follows Skye, a woman always on the move. As she runs her travel company she is never in once place for long, her connections to people never long lasting. But on her most recent trip back home she ends up running into the only person she can’t run away from, the product of her sperm donation. Her daughter. We follow Skye as she finally plants herself if only for a few months to grow closer to this girl, her mom and brother, and the girl she met in the record store.
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It’s not crazy for two people to have the same birthday. But I guess things like that seem cosmic when you’re twelve.
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I enjoyed this book for a lot of reasons. One, I loved the take on the twenty something year old life. It reminds me of how the New Adult genre is growing and showing how you don’t have to have your life together before your thirty. Life is messy and sometimes things don’t go right and we need to see more people in media who don’t have their shit together.
Two, I really liked how Skye not only had to learn to love and grow closer with the people around her but also with herself. Self love, we love to see it.
Another note, I loved the commentary on the support that the Black community had towards each other. I think there is a lot to be learned there about the indivisibility of a group of people such as this. Especially after living through the BLM movement, it is still really inspiring to see how powerful a community that supports each other can be.
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My only note is the pacing of the book. I wish it had gone a little faster but other than that I really enjoyed this read. A four out of five stars.

So many good things to enjoy in this book!
At first you may think Skye's a bit of a mess, but she's actually a no nonsense, independent, very successful Black woman. She's just got some issues with her family. And now she's met a young girl who is the result of an egg donation from several years back.

I loved all of Skye's relationships with people-her mom, brother, friends, exes, acquaintances and her egg. Even when things were messy, every voice rang true. Normally I dislike how people write kid characters, but Vicky had just the right balance of sweetness and attitude. The author obviously knows kids! Philadelphia is also a major character in the book and if you've never been, you'll be wanting to go.

Through all the trials and tribulations everything came together. There were events and people that I wish had more depth but really, the editing was next to perfect. Maybe for the next book.

I liked this book so much and it was one that had me thinking about it for days after reading it.
#NetGalley

Loved this book. Skye was a great character. She donated eggs to a friend who passed away. Her donor egg child, Vicky hunts her down after her mother’s death. They end up forming a unforgettable relationship. Very moving book.

Super interesting premise of this book and it was different then what I usually read. I'm glad I got the opportunity to read this early and I hope other people enjoy it too!

Skye Falling drops us in Skye’s world, just as she’s home in Philly for a few weeks before her next trip hosting travel adventures around the world. She meets a young girl, Vicky, who has been looking for her after finding out Skye was her egg donor. For much of the book, we accompany Skye as she negotiates what creating a relationship with this kid means, especially as someone who is best at running away. Mia Mckenzie does an excellent job at layering all of the familial and friendship entanglements that challenge Skye. Each relationship has is one tensions and traumas, which McKenzie doesn’t force into healing for the purposes of the storyline, but rather allows the consequences of each persons actions to have weight, while giving each person a space to be human, forgive and grow.

There’s lots of interesting narrative choices in this book as well that puzzled and delighted me as I read from a writer’s lens. There’s chapters where Skye switches into the present tense, directly addresses the reader, and breaks down her internal thoughts in numbered lists. For a dialogue-driven text, it gave a chance for the reader to build a connection to Skye, who could otherwise feel cold or distant, which is smart on McKenzie’s part.

Also representation! McKenzie writes queer love in a way that gave me butterflies, full of the nuances of crushes and consent that I wish we saw more of.

If everyone ultimately lets you down, why should you trust or open up to anyone? This is the philosophy of Skye, whose travel company keeps her constantly on the go, so she can easily keep everyone at arm’s length, until a precocious twelve-year-old approaches her in her hometown of West Philly claiming to be “her egg” from an earlier donation, changing everything.

With family and relationships at the heart of this novel with a touch of romance, the characters really shine, each well-developed and easy to root for. The tone is everything in this novel. Fun, personable and upbeat but still capable of addressing serious topics, such as race, gentrification and police brutality. Written in first-person, it feels as if Skye is talking to you as one of her closest friends.

Highly recommended for those in the mood for a book centered on strong characters, connection and opening your heart.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

An absolute wonder of a book. I couldn't stop laughing, but it's also such a tender and and honest examination of trauma, and learning how to love and forgive and do hard things. Absolutely loved the queer family aspects, the perfect characterization, the way Philly came to life. An utter joy to read.

Skye is on of the most nuanced and interesting characters I've read all year. She is also unlike most characters I find on the page. I won't ever forget her. And for that, I'd say this book was a win!

Funny, brash, and touching. #skyefalling was fun and emotional and unexpected. Skye is an unlikeable narrator. She seems unaware of how she impacts other people. Out of nowhere a 12 year old who is 50% her biologically shows up and turns her life upside down. The book is hilarious, sad, and loving. The characters are interesting and real. Definitely give it a read.

Thank you to #netgalley for the eARC of Skye Falling

Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie is a nuanced, sometimes hilarious story about self-discovery in middle age. Skye is a queer black woman in her late 30s from Philadelphia, who runs a small travel company and leads expeditions all over the world. She spends the majority of her time traveling. While on leave in Philadelphia, she runs into Vicky, a 12 year old girl who informs Skye that she’s her “egg.” About 13 years prior, Skye donated her eggs to her married friend to conceive a child. Vicky’s mother has recently passed from cancer and want to get to know Skye. She decides to take a break from leading travel expeditions to get to know Vicky and it becomes such a heartwarming story about building new relationships. At the beginning, I was getting frustrated with Skye as she could be incredibly self-centered and immature, but I loved her journey through the book. We learn the reasons behind Skye’s behavior and complicated past relationships. The dialogue and Skye’s internal monologue are so sharply written and hilarious at times. I loved the character-driven story and getting to know Skye, Vicky, her guardian Aunt Faye, and Viva.

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This book wasn’t what I was expecting it to be, but it ended up being so much more. I loved the journey of self-discovery and how Skye went from avoiding her family and every problem she ever faced, to actually staying in one place long enough to even catch feelings. She never wanted to admit it, but she pushed everyone away and was always lonely. This all changed when she met the girl who was once the egg she donated to a friend who couldn’t have kids. The story was funny and heartwarming and I really truly enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Skye Falling is a solid contemporary fiction read. I probably would not have read it had it not been for Book of the Month, but I'm glad I did.

The character development is what makes the book worth reading. Skye starts out as a woman with a ton of walls built up around her, full of resentment and unable to trust the people in her life. But slowly through the book, we get to witness her journey in being able to let people in.

There's serious topics in the book, but the way Skye narrates, there's humor with it too. I found myself chuckling out loud at various parts of the book. It had a nice balance of serious story lines and humor.

Years ago Skye donated an egg to her friend Cynthia and then lost touch with her. Now here we are and the egg is now a child named Vicky. Having recently lost her mother, Vicky has come looking for Skye. Skye is a travel guide who travels most months of the year and stays at her friend’s B&B in her hometown of Philadelphia when she is back. Skye has few connections to the community or family and only a few friends. When Vicky enters her life looking for a relationship, Skye sees this an opportunity to do better and leave a legacy.

This is a heartwarming story of Skye taking stock of her life and what she wants but has been telling herself she doesn’t need. Skye Falling has themes of family, love, obligation and growth.

Many humorous moments also pepper the story, like when she meets a woman in a record store who she finds attractive and they both vie for the same album with their tearjerker stories that are BS.

The dialogue is clever and fresh. The messages about racism and police brutality were powerful and felt genuine. There is a scene where an angry white man calls the police on a group of individuals enjoying home based church services. The reverend calls upon her congregation to record any involvement by the police. The white man thinks he is just making a noise complaint and the true danger of the police doesn’t seem to cross his mind because he is not a person of colour.

Skye is chasing nostalgia throughout the book and her character arc is refreshing. I felt for Vicky who was so young and had been through so much. Skye’s best friend Viva watches out for Skye and has a maternal energy for Skye’s mother and Vicky and is a good friend who tells Skye as it is.

This is also a great read for Pride month (or anytime for that matter) as it has characters who are gay, trans and bisexual.

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Skye Falling is available now.

While curled up on my couch this morning, I finally finished SKYE FALLING by Mia McKenzie - thank you to @netgalley for the eARC to read! I’m not going to lie, it took me a hot second to get through because the main character starts off so so unlikeable. However, during the course of the book, she slowly realizes that the way she had been living her life wasn’t fulfilling - and the pace picked up.

Skye is mostly broke, but in charge of her own successful travel company, and is definitely all about catching flights, not feelings. However, when a twelve-year-old kid shows up on her doorstep and tells Skye she is the result of her egg donation years ago, Skye is forced to reevaluating her priorities and relationships.

At the end of the day, this was a sweet, slower story. I enjoyed that it touched on important issues like police brutality, activism, racism and homophobia - but the core of the story was about relationships, found family, and growing up. The twelve-year-old, Vicky Valentine, was by far my favorite character - she’s funny and written in such a dimensional way (something that I feel is sometimes missing when a kid is a side character in a story).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Skye, a woman in her late 30’s, sold her eggs to someone she knew over a decade earlier for some cash. She’s a single woman, who travels the world for work, who visits her hometown of Philly and stays with her friend Viva at her B&B. When she visits one day, and a 12 year old girl says she was from the egg she sold, things get interesting. From waking up next to a man (she’s homosexual), meeting her donor child’s aunt, a past failed friendship, and her relationship with her brother and mother, there’s a lot going on!

I really enjoyed Skye. She made me laugh out loud, smile, and she just seemed like a fun train wreck of a person. I found her to be likable even though at times you wanted to smack her through the pages for her dumb decisions in life. You learn with her, and grow with her. I enjoyed the characters in this book too.

Skye has a problem with staying in one place. She travels around the world for the travel company that she owns and settles in at a friend's B&B in Philly, in between trips. On one of her brief stays, she is found by Vicky, a 12-year-old, who tells Skye, she is her "egg", the one she donated years ago to a friend for some quick cash. Vicky isn't the only fresh face in her life, upsetting her routine. Turns out Vicky's aunt is a woman Skye tried and failed to pick up in a record store the other day. Skye has to work out what this means for her while also trying to dodge her brother who is trying to get Skye to visit their mom and coming to terms with how all of Philly is changing around her.

What I liked:
- Casual queer, the MC's identity and the identity of her friends and those around her are just there, not a focus of the story, but just a fact and I wish more books did this
- Atmospheric descriptions, I've never been to Philly, but with how it was described, I felt the feelings of nostalgia and home that Skye was also feeling
- A prickly MC, who doesn't really change their nature. Skye might learn to be a little more open and understanding, but her entire personality doesn't get a complete overhaul.
- A flawless weaving of current and past social issues into the story

What I didn't like:
- The length! I would have loved for the story to be longer. I feel some resolutions wrapped up faster to make the book shorter and I would have loved to see them a little more fleshed out.

I loved this book! I felt like I got to know these characters and what makes them tick and the vibe of Philly and the picture the author created was perfect.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me this eARC for my honest review!!

Skye Falling was not written for me. I am not its target audience. The voice was annoying, the story was predictable, and the characters were unlikable. This Peter Pan Syndrome that generation is really earning its reputation. And I’m not talking about the situation. This has been done to death, though usually with men as sperm donors. So good on you for making the woman the flake. It wasn’t really that. It was the voice. If I knew any of these people in person I would immediately cut off that friendship.

I really liked this book! I think it hits a lot of topics (transphobia, homophobia, police brutality) and handles them all with care. I also really did like Skye; I saw a lot of reviews saying she's a hard protagonist to like but to me she was just a normal, flawed person who was working through her own trauma. The one downside I found to this book is that every conflict that comes up is pretty quickly resolved with no real consequences or lacking some explanation. I think that works okay in this book as it's clearly not meant to be about those conflicts but some of them seemed a little forced. The one that comes to mind most readily is Skye's whole past with Tasha - we spend the first half of the book focussing on this conflict and then its resolved on a bus in like 2 paragraphs? It was just a little weirdly paced for me. Other than that it is a super enjoyable and generally easy read that I would recommend to others!

Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie features my hometown of Philadelphia which was sooooo good to read about since I've been homesick lately. As somebody from Philly, I can verify it's pretty legit, down to the soft pretzels they used to go around to our classrooms to sell while I was in elementary school. There's parts of it I didn't grow up with that I was sort of reintroduced to; I left before the gentrification got serious.

I loved the storyline, as well. Skye finds it hard to walk away from her twelve year old "egg", Vicky, when she tracks Skye down after Vicky's mother passes away. Skye grows to like Vicky's aunt, Faye, but finds those feelings get complicated when she discovers exactly who Faye's fiance is. Skye also really can't stand to go visit her mother, in the hospital or otherwise, because of her childhood in their dysfunctional family.