Wow I really enjoyed this! Stella and Olive are so cute together! Truly fake dating at its finest! I gotta read more Andie Burke books because this story hit for me!!

This was a binge in one sitting book that I went into with no expectations as it was one that was either offered to me or I requested based on the blurb and then forgot about. All that to say: I very much enjoyed the story of two women dealing with high-pressure careers (one an ER nurse and the other a pilot), family issues (care of I'll family members, etc.), and mental health, who meet unexpectedly and decide to fake date (one of my fave tropes!). I was rooting for them both individually and as a couple, and overall was super impressed with this author's debut novel.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC! Find this book when it's released on Sept 5/23. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Stella and Olive forever. I stayed up way too late because I needed to finish this story and was almost crying in my hotel room at the end. There were many layers to their story that warmed my heart

This book was unfortunately a Do Not Finish for me. I really wanted to enjoy it but I found the characters hard to read and a tad bit annoying. I also found the plot and storyline a bit odd and difficult to get into. I hoped that it maybe was just the way that it started but I was never able to get into it.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: death of a loved one (on page), caring for a loved one in a vegetative state, grief, sick parent (Parkinson's), toxic relationship with family, ableist language, homophobia, fear of flying, allergic reaction (peanuts, on page, side character)

Read if you're looking for
-f/f contemporary romance
-fake dating
-insta attraction
-road trip

Steam: 3.25

I...am a sucker for these 'pilot related tropes', although, am not extremely into the whole MC being deadly afraid of flying and have to overcome their fear for xyz type of storyline.
I have no patience for it, but, Fly with Me surprised me.

The main story is interesting (steamy parts are hot), the bantering is cute, side plots are not a drag (sometimes, sometimes it is...), I genuinely enjoyed reading it and finished it within a couple of seating. It's light enough that you don't have to be 'in the mood' in order to pick it up and it's not seriously all fluff that you feel like you just read the marshmallow version of a book and it leaves you still hungry (but not in a good way).

This is a solid debut from Andie Burke! I'll be keeping an eye out for her work in the future.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Well this was just a delightful debut. It’s a sapphic love story with an ER nurse and a pilot with fake dating? Sign me up!

This had so much heart behind it in the story and Olive and Stella were really well-developed characters. Both women experience family difficulties during the book and find common ground in support for each other. The representations of anxiety and depression for Olive were done so carefully and realistically. Plus, the grief. The author writes with great emotional intelligence and it made the story come alive and have so much depth.

Fly with Me by Andie Burke was a slow burn in all the best ways. It meanders beautifully through the life and growth of Olive Murphy and shows her finally falling in love not just with sexy pilot Stella Soriano, but also with herself. Olive knows tragedy and sadness. She knows hurt and betrayal. She knows cruelty and resentment. This has all led her to doubt herself and her worth, but in an unlikely way, she learns that she deserves so much more than she’s settled for in life. She deserves to face her fears and get a little more comfortable being uncomfortable and it’s such an amazing journey to witness.

The flirty romance and between Olive and Stella is also perfectly balanced. Their banter is at times hilarious and heartwarming. And it’s so clear that while they both are amazing on their own, as partners, they’re absolutely unstoppable.

Love love love! I have read this book twice and cannot wait to have a physical copy. I don’t usually chose LGBTQ+ romance even though I identify in the community but something about this book was different. I love both of the characters and think they are lovely together. I will definitely be looking into more books by this author.

I loved this book and thought it was a great debut from a new author! I liked the spin on the fake dating trope -- where Olive and Stella clearly had feelings before each other before they became fake girlfriends. This plot also felt fairly believable to me and nothing felt "too convenient" as books sometimes do. I also loved the commentary on the challenges of navigating a male dominated career as a woman. Overall, and fun and easy yet thought-provoking read!

I'm actually glad I didn't know anything about Fly With Me, besides the fact that it was a queer romance, when I went into it, because when it jumped into the Fake Dating Trope about a third of the way through, I screamed. Right out loud. And then I spent the rest of the book making swoony sighing sounds. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Stella is an Allied Airlines pilot whose dream is to be a Captain. And her dream is her main driver in life. Olive is an ER nurse who is terrified of flying, but finds herself on one of Stella's planes en route to run a half-marathon at Disney World to honor her brother. They meet-cute when Olive answers the call to save a man's life mid-flight. Their chemistry is instant and it is sizzling! It never relents, not throughout the whole book! After a magical weekend at Disney, Stella asks Olive to be her fake girlfriend, so they can use her viral moment on the plane to both advance their careers. But SURPRISE! Neither one of them want to be fake dating! They want to be real dating! But they've both got so much trauma and baggage they can't see themselves clearly enough to do anything about it.

It's actually the hard stuff going on in Stella and Olive's lives that really made this book work for me. I mean, their longing and pining would have carried an entire novel on its own, but watching them navigate different family griefs and also different terrible experiences from their past dating lives — it made the whole thing so much more satisfying. It gave their love story even more heft. This is one of those books I know I'm going to read twenty times, and I honestly can't believe it's Andie Burke's first. You can go ahead and sign me up for an auto-subscription of whatever she writes in the future.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGallery for the opportunity to read this book and write an honest review.

This book was such an easy fun read for me. the characters were so refreshing as they really seems to have real traits that i could relate to. the book did have a mellow/sad undertone but not so much that i could not handle it and it made it hard to read. i felt sympathy for the characters and the storyline. i would definitely recover d this book to others looking for a book like this.

loved stella and olives relationship and sooo much. especially when she took care of olive when she was sick :(. this book touches on a lot of hard topics sich as grief and taking care of a family member with parkinsons, even though the author tackles these hard topics its still lighthearted when the light shines on stella and olive!!

A big thank you to Andie Burke, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Fly with Me comes out September 5, 2023!

Fly with Me was a great mix of opposites-attract, fake-dating, humor, and romance mixed in with very real-world topics like grief, depression and anxiety. Olive is an ER nurse who is very afraid of flying and on her first attempt she saves the life of a fellow passenger. Stella is an ambitious pilot, who steps-up in a bug way when Olive needs her. In exchange Stella asks Olive to fake date her to help with a promotion, Olive is only having a problem with the fact she wants their relationship to be anything but fake. I really liked both Olive and Stella, I thought they were very likable and realistic characters. I loved the development of their relationship over time. The only thing I would have loved is if it was dual POV, but it still was an amazing novel even without that.

I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A great combination of a fun romance, some steamy scenes and serious life events going on in the background for both Olive and Stella. I liked how both grew in realistic ways as thirty-somethings in ways that were not dependent on the other person.

One highlight of the book for me was the excellent characterizatio for both our leading ladies. I could feel Olive’s anxiety in everything she did - her actions, her dialog and her inner thoughts. While the third act catastrophe was still triggered by outside factors, the underlying issues were consistent and made sense - it didn’t feel like any of the characters were suddenly acting in unusual ways. This was all thanks to subtle indications of those issues throughout the entire book - the author did a great job of laying the groundwork all the way back to the first few pages.

This novel had me bouncing between laughing and balling my eyes out! The more I learned about Olive and her tragic life, the more my heart broke into a million pieces over the injustice of her situation. That girl needed some wins! And then in walks Stella, the no-nonsense pilot who swoops in with unexpected kindness and a wild proposition. I thoroughly enjoyed this opposites attract, fake dating romance. It has a great mix of humor and heat with very real representations of anxiety, toxic personalities, and the sorrows of losing loved ones and managing palliative care. Highly recommend!

WOW! This debut was incredible. A sweet rom-com that took me on a rollercoaster of emotions.

The characters are relatable and well-developed, while still leaving room for growth as the story progresses. With entertaining side-characters and relatable references, this book is sure to warm the hearts of all those that pick it up! As soon as I began this book I couldn’t put it down, between the banter and slow-burn steamy scenes this isn’t one you want to miss.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy.

Olive is an ER nurse and deathly afraid of flying. When there is a medical emergency on her flight, she jumps into action and saves a life. She meets the pilots, one of which is the stunning, Stella. When Olive finds out there are no more flights for the night, Stella offers to drive her the rest of the way. They have a great day together at Disney and then go their separate ways.

Later, Stella shows up at Olive's work to ask her to be her fake girlfriend. Caution! Misunderstandings, pitfalls and feelings ahead!

This was a great sapphic romance. Olive and Stella were both lovely and relatable with some serious issues to deal with. Olive's situation with her brother's care was surprisingly deep. I would have liked more information about why Olive's mom accused her of having a financial motivation. That part of the story was honestly heartbreaking. Otherwise, an enjoyable read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I rounded up this rating, because of how impressed I was that this was a debut book. The writing and storytelling were great! Although it's a bit of a romcom, it also has some serious subjects and issues the characters are dealing with. Definitely an enjoyable queer WLW romance that should be on your TBR this year!

This is an amazing debut from a clearly very talented author!

Burke wrote this when she was a nurse during the pandemic. The main character, Olive, is also a nurse. She has anxiety and depressive disorders, and is currently fighting with her family over her brother's end-of-care life after a tragic accident.

The love interest, Stella, is an extremely attractive Latina pilot struggling to climb the career ladder in a male-dominated workforce. Her father has Parkinson's, and she wants to make him proud before he completely deteriorates.

So, clearly, this is not exactly a fluffy book. There are very real issues our characters were struggling with as a subplot to the romance. I enjoyed, though, having a lot of seriousness to balance out the adorable or steamy parts, which is just my personal preference as a romance reader.

Stella and Olive were so fleshed out and three-dimensional, which I loved. The same couldn't exactly be said for the rest of the characters, which is honestly expected from a short-ish romance book. I did think the dynamics of Olive's family were super interesting.

I agree with the other reviewers that the crazy ex subplot was a bit of a miss. I just feel that it wasn't really necessary; there was a lot going on. Because of that, there wasn't really much of a conclusion to this subplot. The end as a whole felt a bit rushed, but it was a cute ending!

Overall, I highly recommend preordering. I went ahead and ordered it at 25%, if that tells you anything! I will recommend this book to anyone looking for a good wlw romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.