I really didn't enjoy the use of the third person narration in this book as it made you feel very detached from the emotions of the characters. I also felt too many characters were introduced and all the characters had very little depth for them. These two factors combined meant I wasn't invested in the story at all and it didn't elicit any emotions i.e. panic/fear that a book surrounding a plane crash and the resulting rescue mission should .

This was a high octane thriller full of edge of your seat moments. If I wasn't afraid of flying before, I am now. The visual, descriptive scenes that unfolded are what nightmares are made of. This is one of those books that from the first sentence to the last, you see the potential movie playing out in your mind as you read making every moment just that much more intense. This is original and unforgettable. Four Stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Avid Reader Press for this ARC.

Wow! Seriously, I was tired after reading this. My adrenaline was pumping full force!
Highly recommended! Loved the authors first book but think I enjoyed this one even more!

Best book I’ve read all year. I could not put it down. I absolutely loved the characters and the nonstop action. Grab some tissues and read this immediately!

Planning a trip? If you are worried that your flight could be delayed, your suitcase lost or hours wasted in a TSA boondoggle, just sit back and hold on. Drowning is a nightmare waiting for you. From the first sentence “Will Kent opened his eyes just in time to see the engine explode” to the last, this sure-to-be bestseller pulls you along with non-stop action in an hours long time frame as a plane ditches in the ocean shortly after takeoff and slowly sinks underwater trapping some of the passengers. A rescue attempt is immediately planned. Things get worse.
T.J. Newman develops unforgettable characters using themes of grief, forgiveness, love bravery and the possibility of a second chance. This thriller is impossible to put down and deserves every one of five stars. I’m excited and terrified to see what Newman thinks of next. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press and T.J. Newman for the ARC.

A definite thriller. I am already nervous about flying. A plane takes off on an ordinary day but it does not end like an ordinary flight. This is one of those situations where everything that can go wrong does. The characters are well developed which has you rooting for them. I finished this in a day. I could not put it down.

I did not expect to start or finish this so quickly, but here we are! A whiplash ride of a book, once you start you'll never put it down until the story ends.

This is the second book by TJ Newman, a former air hostess who writes about the worst case scenarios in a flight but as she says, the things you want your pilots and air hostesses considering. In an absolute twist of fate, I happened to have started reading this (thanks NetGalley!) as she was interviewed on tv ahead of the book’s release, so if I wasn’t already hooked, I became totally immersed and flew threw this (puns intended) in a day.
A nightmarish situation enfolds six minutes after take off from Honolulu when a plane needs to ditch - land on water. So not only is this a thrilling rescue story but a story of choices, relationships, life and death decisions and human nature.

The book is devastating , evocative, pulse pounding and heart aching thriller. It was such a rollercoaster ride. I felt so many emotions while reading the book. The book will keep you at edge of your seat. The author has created such a realistic and emotional characters with complex family dynamics. Flight crashes more than two hundred feet below the surface into the pacific ocean, and the engine gets exploded trapping the passengers in the inevitable web of darkness and hopelessness. Their only hope is an extraordinary rescue operation but will Chris and her team succeed in rescuing them or this unfortunate crashing of flight will set apart the families?

Past memories gets intertwined with tragic turn of events blurring the line between life and death. Turning the worst nightmares into reality. Unsettling feelings comes at edge and what was left unsaid years ago has been said now but with the uncertainty of life, lives may get forever drowned in grief and darkness. Where there was once hope and life, now lies just fear of losing life. The grief and all the unsaid words with evocative memories will get submerged beneath the innumerable depth of water. Fighting for survival and what if scenarios in mind. Surviving seems to be a miracle and the only way to get out of inevitable darkness.

It’s about forgiveness, acceptance, love, grief, tragedy, unexpected turn of events and hope. It has twists and turns. The ending is impactful. I am still wondering how the book can be so perfect? How much time it has taken for an author to write down all the things and narrating them in such an appealing way?

Tropes:
•Complex Dynamics
•Flight Crashing into Pacific Ocean
•Adrenaline situations
•Heart aching twists
•Rescue Operation
•Suspense

Thank you Netgalley, Author and Publisher.

Once again, Newman wrote an edge-of-your-seat nail-biter. As I said about Newman’s first book, Falling, it’s best to start it when you have some uninterrupted reading time ahead because once you start it, there’s no putting it down.

Flight 1421 plummets into the ocean minutes into its flight leaving some dead, some wounded, and others trapped. The entire book takes place in a five hour window beginning when the plane crashes and following the few survivors for as long as their oxygen supply doesn’t run out.

I enjoy books that have decent, believable science behind their premise. The storyline was propulsive and I give this book 4 stars/5.

I devoured this book in about five hours or so. It was heart pumping and it made me feel like a little kid again. The excitement I felt while reading this was so intense. I loved the relationship between the father Will and his daughter. The way TJ describes what’s happening in the story is so specific and creative. I felt like I needed air while reading this! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
Intense. Heart pounding. Edge of your seat. Action packed. Phew! What an incredible story. I read this in one sitting and I swear my heart was beating faster than normal for the last 20%. I couldn't finish it fast enough. I almost felt claustrophobic. It grabs you from the very beginning and doesn't let go. I won't repeat the synopsis but don't want to spoil anything either. It's fiction, but if even a small percentage of what flight attendants do in this story is true, I have definitely gained so much more appreciation for them and their responsibilities. You will absolutely be thinking of this book the next time you step onto a plane!
I loved her first book Falling and somehow this was even better. Definitely one of my top reads for the year. Highly recommend!

This book needs to come with a warning: Once you start reading, you aren’t going to want to stop until the end. This was definitely a page-turner, and a very quick read!

Flight 1421 has just taken off from Hawaii when it loses an engine, and within the next couple minutes, the crew has lost all control of the plane. The only option is to do a water landing - aka, ditch the plane.

When the plane slams into the water, many are killed instantly. As the plane starts flooding, the passengers start evacuating - until one passenger, an engineer named Will, realizes they’ll be safer on the plane. The ocean is full of jet fuel, and the engine is still burning. Will turns out to be right, as many more people die while waiting for rescuers to arrive.

Will isn’t alone; he has his pre-teen daughter with him. He also has a pilot, three of the six flight attendants, an elderly couple celebrating their anniversary, a newly-married couple, a couple random passengers, and another pre-teen who was flying by herself. They realize that the plane is sinking, but luckily, it’s sinking slightly vertically, so they have an air pocket.

That air won’t last long, though, and Will is furiously trying to figure out how to keep himself and his daughter safe. The Coast Guard and the Navy are involved, but he doesn’t trust their ideas. He wants his ex-wife, who is an underwater mechanical expert. They’re taking too long. Will help arrive in time to save all of them?

This was so intense and dramatic; the suspense was definitely there. The characters were well-written, the whole story was amazing, and the ending will tug at your heart. I can’t think of a thing I’d change about this book, so it gets the full five stars from me!

(Thank you to Simon & Schuster, T.J. Newman, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on May 30, 2023.)

Wow, talk about a book you can’t put down! Drowning had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I loved it even more than Falling and I really loved Falling. The feeling that Newman puts into her books, the human connection…it’s amazing. Thank you for an incredible ride.

I was gifted a copy of this book from Net Galley and Avid Reader Press in exchange for an honest review. This book is available May 30, 2023. ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ This was my second T. J. Newman book and I enjoyed it as much as her first. Action packed from the first page. This kept me reading and I didn't want to put it down. It's a quick read, perfect for the summer.

Wow! This was heart-pounding, edge of your seat action from the very first page. While I had trouble keeping characters straight, the plot more than made up for it. It was the perfect fast read after a heavier book. I recommend going into this one without reading the jacket copy. You don’t need it!

Holy shit - this one jumped in from page one as the plane is going down and never lets you go until the last page. Trapped on a plane that’s gone underwater is the stuff of nightmares OR thriller action movies starring someone super hot like Chris Evans or Michael B. Jordan saving lives down below while Evangeline Lilly or Uma Thurman works above sea level.

Legit brought tears to my eyes at least once and made me so anxious I wasn’t sure I could read it fast enough to see what happened to everyone…

I would watch the hell out of this movie.

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5!
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

What a ride! I finished this book in under 24 hours. I could not put it down, I had to know what happened next. This story was full of action, a real page turner. If you read Newman’s first book, Falling, you understand. This was an even better showing for her. She did such a good job humanizing ALL of the characters (and there were kind of a lot). I especially loved her viewpoints from the parent perspectives. I also loved Ruth and Ira. Only retractions were the aforementioned long list of characters as well as some longer technical explanations regarding ships, the navy, and welding. But definitely a book I recommend for a rush of adrenaline and a quick read.

Well hold onto your seat for another wild ride thanks to JT Newman! I loved Falling and hoped for more of the same. This book was action packed, intense, scary. and ultimately hopeful.
The main characters are Will Kent, an engineer from Hawaii, his 11 year old daughter, Shannon who is going to summer camp in San Francisco, and his wife Chris. Will and Shannon are among the passengers of Flight 1421 which crashes into the ocean shortly after take-off. Some of the passengers get off the plane, but Will, Shannon and 10 others look at the debris field, the fires from the jet fuel, and decide to stay in the aircraft.
TJ Newman's background as a flight attendant again comes through and we become privy to some of the internal and external communications during the operation.
I felt that the characters were stereotypical - like the group exercise in 10 stranded people - and I needed more backstory about them. I had a hard time connecting with them and would have like to see them more fully developed. Their outcomes were completely predictable as well
I also thought that the technical aspects of the plane, divers (I am a certified SCUBA diver), and the rescue devices took precedence over the human interest story. There was a lot of detail about the different issues that the team encountered, but I don't think that it added to the story. I guess that I prefer reading about the people in a book rather than the situations.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and the opinions expressed are my own.

Will Kent and his daughter Shannon, along with a few other passengers, are trapped in an airplane 200 feet underwater off the coast of Hawaii after their plane crashed just moments after take-off. Fortunately, there is a pocket of air and several oxygen tanks that will keep them alive for a while. Will it last them long enough to stay alive until rescuers arrive? Is survival even possible?

If you liked Falling and The Martian, you will love Drowning. It had me rapt from the very first sentence. The character development is great and the story is action-packed the whole way through. It was also surprisingly tender and even made me tear up several times. This was a 5-star read for me.

Huge thanks to Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!