DNFd at 8%

This book was just not for me but I'm sure would be amazing to someone else.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Fly with Me by Andie Burke

Published: September 5, 2023
St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 376
Genre: Romantic Comedy
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Andie Burke writes books with queer kissing and happily ever afters. She was originally an English major who decided to jump into a pediatric nursing career. Her writing is inspired by over a decade spent working in hospitals with patients of all ages. After the last couple years spent in the pandemic ER, she escaped to an outpatient pediatric sedation unit. Andie lives in a blue house in Maryland with an alarming number of books and an embarrassing number of ultra-fine point pens. When she’s not writing, she’s probably feeding snacks to the two small human creatures who live with her or trying not to kill her chaotic houseplants. You can find her on Bookstagram adding to her ever-expanding TBR or letting her ADHD brain happily dissociate while listening to Taylor Swift.

“Reptilian asshole.”

Olive is trying to check things off her brother's bucket list. He’s been in a coma with little chance of recovery for a while, and this feels like the best way to honor him. Stella is a dedicated and driven pilot, awaiting her opportunity to become captain. She has her eye on the prize- until a medical emergency in the sky thrusts a beautiful stranger into her path.

This was a very slow burn. It took me a while to finish. The writing and storyline were fine, but it felt repetitive and slow until the last five chapters.

I liked the characters; Olive was relatable with her quirks and the light processes. Stella was also relatable as she did not always come across as warm, but she was a good person.

The storyline for this book was multilayered with a lot of emotional weight and handled many situations. From Olive's depression to Stella’s OCD to prolonging life, this was a tad heavy.

There were good bits of humor and spice to break up the heavier moments. Overall, I enjoyed this romance, and I am happy with the ending.

Fly with Me is a sweet (and somewhat steamy) sapphic romance that checks all the boxes. Burke crafts Olive and Stella into two believable and complex characters falling in love with one another, even amidst fake dating confusion, and family drama. If you don't want to give them both a hug and cheer them on, you must be reading the wrong book, because Fly with Me is a delight.

I loved the premise of Fly With Me and the cover drew me right in. I also saw some rave reviews from friends so came in with high expectations! Unfortunately, this wasn’t the right fit for me and I decided to DNF at 92%.

Described as “a sparkling and steamy opposites-attract romance, Fly With Me by Andie Burke is filled with sharp banter and that sweet, swooping feeling of finding ‘the one’ when and where you least expect it.” - this is what I went in expecting and I don’t feel that’s what was delivered at all.

To me this felt more like women’s fiction than romance - the romance felt very secondary to me. It was really a story of two women who very much both need therapy as they are working through a lot of major things in their lives. The “fake dating” situation never really made sense to me here. And the behavior of Olive’s ex also felt so over the top near the end that I decided to stop even though I was so close to the end. I just found myself yelling at the characters and realized it wasn’t enjoyable and I shouldn’t finish just because I was close.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

I loved this book. I thought it was refreshing, captivating, and the story was not the same old same old contemporary romance.

This is the story of Olive, an emergency room nurse who has a very big fear of flying. She is on a plane headed to Orlando when the flight crew calls for a doctor. None raise their hand so she comes to the rescue, literally, when she helps a man who is in anaphylactic shock. The plane diverts, she meets the Captains and oh boy, all of the heart eyes ensue.

This is the story of Stella, one of the pilots of Olive's flight and a whacky plan to get her promoted to Captain.

It is super fun, has great chemistry, among all of the characters, and is just very enjoyable to read. I will read everything this author writes.

My only complaint, and it didn't even take away from the story, was that I needed more details on the financial background between Olive and her brother. It's alluded to many times, but never detailed, and kept nagging at me. Ha.

4 1/2 solid stars!

Loved this cute read! Olive Murphy, a nurse is one of the protagonists who is on her first fight ever. She is flying to Orlando to run in a marathon in honour of her brother. She saves a man’s life on the plane and is applauded by all the passengers and the captain, Stella Soriano.
Stella has been waiting to get her captain’s wings but is always overlooked because she is a woman. While the phone videos from the flight goes viral, Olive begins to get a lot of media attention. She and Stella decide to get into a fake relationship to help Stella advance in her career.
I loved how the author built the relationship between Olive and Stella, showing us their flaws and determination to succeed. They both had family issues, causing them both pain in different ways. The banter between the protagonists was also fun!
This is a beautiful heartfelt rom com that tackles important issues like sexism at one’s workplace.

This was a cute and steamy read that also had some emotional moments. There was opportunity for drama, but it ended up being somewhat anticlimactic. Olive and Stella had great chemistry. I did enjoy the story, though I would have also liked to have had Stella’s POV.

Thanks to the publisher + author for providing me with this arc but I just couldn’t get into this read. DNFd at about 40% - I didn’t connect with either MC and the didn’t love their dialogue. I hope others love because this is the first sapphic read I’ve snagged where the MCs have these professions but it just wasn’t for me!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️🌶️🌶️
✈️🩺🧑‍✈️🗂️🏳️‍🌈°o°

I loved this fake-dating rom-com between a nurse and a pilot. Olive and Stella are amazing strong characters, and despite their previous history of family and exes, they come together (hah) to make a great (fake) couple.

Olive is petrified of flying, but on her first-ever flight to Florida to go to the Disney half-marathon in honor of her brother, there is a medical emergency and she saves the life of Mickey Mouse (he wasn't Mickey Mouse). Here, she goes viral after several videos get on the internet and she meets the pilot of the flight, Stella, after diverting to the man could get to a hospital. However, because there was no other flight to her final destination in time of the face, she feels rather emotional about it. Stella comes to the rescue though and offers to drive her.

The rest of the book is about the two of them banking the fame of the viral video, Stella, for her chance to become captain for her sexiest airline, and to make her father, Hector, proud, and for Olive to get her Hosptial donors from the VIP.

It's your typical fake-dating book, with the not-so-fake feelings, but what I loved about this one was the self-lesson these two women learned. Olive had a toxic ex-girlfriend who made her think her panic attacks and depression with everything that was going on with her brother and her family made her too needy, and too emotional. Stella, on the other hand, thought she was the toxic one because her exes had their heart broken because Stella was too determined to be Captain. But these two learned from each other that wasn't the case, and they brought each other love and acceptance and they both learned what was important.

I loved the writing, the scenes, the plot. I loved everything about this book. The characters were well-written, and loveable (with the exception of a few of course.) This was such a great debut by Andie Burke. It's hard to believe that this was her first book.

P.S I secretly hope there is a part 2 epilogue where Olive's family apologies. It made my heart break that she went through all that.

Thank you to NetGalley, and St Matrins Press for a copy of this ebook. This review is left voluntarily.

This is such a beautiful debut! I love the fake dating trope, but this book also has so many more elements to it. There are definitely some heavier moments with family and workplace situations and a toxic ex. But there are also so many wonderful moments of Olive and Stella forming a strong bond through their fake dating. Loved Olive's best friend Derek too!

I appreciate this book and love the characters and love sapphic rom coms but also wish I could magically make it 200 pages shorter. As it stands, I haven’t finished because it’s too long. I want to believe I will come back to it as I adore the author (and am friends with her) and I will update this review if I do! Andie I looooove you! It’s not you, it’s me!

I loved this book! It felt like Emily Henry, but for the sapphics! The writing was solid, the characters well-developed, and the romance was believable and steamy! I loved that it had some substance and focused on other issues, like mental health and caring for family, while also having top-notch chemistry!

I’ve already recommended this to several friends and my husband also read it. This will be a great addition to my sapphic book collection!

This was a cute romance. I was worried when I read the content warnings at the beginning, but it wasn't as dark as I expected from those. I enjoyed Olive as a character and she had a lot of depth. I don't think I got a good enough feeling for Stella as a character though. I also didn't enjoy the evil ex-girlfriend element. It was overall an enjoyable read though.

One of my besties is besties with Andie, so I was so excited to follow her journey to publication! I absolutely loved this debut, and thought it was such a sweet story!

This debut features a nurse and a pilot fake dating duo, queer and bi representation, and a charming cast of characters that will delight lovers of rom-coms! I loved Stella and Olive's messy dynamic and loved following their story. A must-read for anyone who loves the opposites attract trope, found family, and sweet & steamy sapphic stories!

Tropes
✔️ 3rd Person POV
✔️ Fake Dating
✔️ Sapphic Romance

This was a cute, quick read. The book is in 3rd person POV, just a heads up. I honestly did not mind it all though. I loved that Olive is a Nurse because that’s the profession I want to go into, and it’s always great reading about things you’re interested in.

The chapters are short, which is one of my favorite things. It makes it so much easier to read, and it feels like you’re flying through the book as well. The characters were funny as well. Olive rambled a lot in her head, and I think that makes characters a lot more believable to me.

I enjoyed the book, and I look forward to more books by this author.

This book was an incredible debut! Andie Burke knocked it out of the park with this one. Olive hates flying and Stella is a pilot. That should tell you how the opposites attract romance will go.

The fake dating trope is starting to become one of my favorites, it was done so well in this.
I’m usually not a fan of slow burn but damn was it good in this. The spicy scenes were just amazing 🥵

While this is a romance, the story is very heavy. I was not expecting to find myself crying throughout. The author did fantastic with balancing out the heavy with the fun banter. I appreciated that so much.

Cannot recommend this book enough! I was not expecting to love it this much.
If you’re looking for a good sapphic romance then this is for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed Andie Burke’s debut Sapphic romance, Fly with Me, following flying- phobic ER nurse Olive Murphy and button-upped pilot, Stella Soriano. Olive is petrified of flying but challenges herself to embark on her first flight to honor her brother’s memory. She gets more than she bargained for when a passenger suffers a medical emergency and Olive steps in to save the passenger’s life, going viral in the process. Unfortunately for Olive, the flight deplanes early, and she is stranded without transportation until Stella offers to drive her the rest of the way.

Thus begins a magical marathon weekend in Disney while Olive finishes her first half marathon and gets swept up in Disney magic with Stella. When they return to Maryland, Stella asks Olive to be her fake girlfriend, so she can use the good press from Olive’s rescue to help make Captain. It becomes a rocky ride when fake feelings turn real- will they reach the destination together?

Fly with Me contains some heavy subject matter including parental estrangement, terminal illness of a loved one, traumatic brain injury of a sibling, homophobia, sexual harassment in the workplace, misogyny, internet bullying, Alzheimer’s (parent), parental abandonment, panic attacks, depression, and harassment from a former partner.

Burke tugged at all my heart strings with this one. Stella and Olive are both dealing with lots of family issues, especially Olive, and I wanted to wrap them both up in a hug and take all their pain away. I am so thankful that Olive has a strong support system in her best friend, co-worker, and prior college peer. Her mother made me furious, and I wish we had gotten more closure on her familial estrangement from the ending. However, not every family issue can be tied up in a neat little bow, that isn’t how life works, so I understand the artistic choice that Burke made.

Despite the heaviness, there is no shortage of laughs or the magical moments of falling in love with your person. There is blushing and fumbling, references to She’s All That and Legally Blonde (which older millennials will love) and beautiful representation. Andie has written a love letter to nurses, anxiety warriors and those of us who are dealing with complicated family dynamics. Thank you so much to SMP Romance for the e-ARC; all thoughts are my own.

This was a DNF for me - I just couldn't get into this book. Part of this may be that the themes are just too heavy for me right now; please take note of the warnings. I didn't realize how much of that material was going to be in it. I didn't like any of the characters. Stella talks about being underestimated as a female pilot while simultaneously saying that Olive is 'just a nurse.' I know a lot of people really liked this book, but it just wasn't for me.

Every book should be about sapphics finding love on the go. I loved every bit of this book and was BLUSHINGGGG. So freaking good!

I enjoyed the representation the author provided positive exposure to (LGBTQ+, mental health) and I think the premise of the story was a good one. But despite that, I had some issues with the presentation that were troubling.

Olive was constantly objectifying Stella; every time they were in any kind of contact she made every tiny little thing sexual about her. This was meant to be a real life experience but it felt more like a soft p*rn fairytale. Gave some pretty creepy vibes. The other big issue was that there was no real depth to the other characters or the background issues. To go from a tight-knit family dynamic to basically no contact in a year and to be totally fine with it felt unrealistic, especially given Olive's personality. It would have been stronger if the issues and characters were better developed instead of just kind of *poof* disappearing. I think the story had good bones but the meat wasn't there for me.

My thanks to St. Martin's, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.