This nail-biting thriller had me up at night, and that's the way I like to read books! A plane crashes into the ocean leaving few survivors out of a full plane load. Getting them to safety is the bulk of the book, which is fraught with unimaginable dangers and seems an impossible task. I appreciate the technical detail, which must have required exhaustive research.

However, some elements of the survivors' stories are predictable and a tad formulaic. Character-wise, we've seen it all before. Ultimately, at the end, we are left with an unanswered question (maybe leaving way for another installment?), but I won't give anything away, and it doesn't take away from the overall suspense. Recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC.

I loved this just as much as I loved Newman's first novel. I couldn't put the book down and was fully invested in all of the characters and the outcome of the story. Highly recommend.

Thank you, Avid Reader Press/Simon and Schuster and NetGalley. for the advanced copy of Drowning. And an even bigger thank you to TJ Newman for this masterpiece.

Oh. My. Goodness. If you're reading this review, it's because you didn't take my previous advice of pre-ordering this novel. Just buy it now. Buy two copies because you're going to want to share this with a friend. This will leave you on the edge of your seat. Block out some time in your schedule because once you get on this ride, you aren't going to want off. I don't rate very many books with five stars. I have to have all the feelings to give something five stars. THIS HAS ALL THE FEELINGS. I found myself crying, laughing, gasping, and every emotional outburst in between.

The engine is exploding. The captain and co-captain are doing everything they can, but it's not enough. They have to ditch the plane into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, Will, a passenger who is supposed to be escorting his 11-year-old daughter, to camp determines that the best bet is to stay inside the plane until help arrives. But the plane is not air-tight and starts taking on water faster than anticipated. This novel is about the passengers and crew stuck inside the plane and the rescue team including Will's estranged wife doing what they can to survive.

Seriously, if you made it to the end of this review without adding the book to your cart, we're not friends anymore. :)

After thoroughly enjoying her debut novel Falling, I was so excited to dive into this one – and it did not disappoint! Just like Falling, this novel takes place on a plane and follows a cast of characters including the flight crew and passengers.

The short synopsis: Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes & the 12 passengers left on the plane are forced to close the doors as the plane sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

The group includes a pilot, a few flight crew members, a beautiful older married couple, an unaccompanied minor, a mix of passengers with different skills and stories, and at the heart of the story, a father & daughter. We also meet the rescue operation teams that are putting their heads together to try to figure out how to save the survivors – including the wife and mother of the father/daughter duo. Was it convenient that her job included being a professional diver? Yes. Did I care about this convenient coincidence? Absolutely not.

This was a wild ride and I could not put it down – I found myself flying (pun intended) through this one at a quick pace! The claustrophobia and anxiety that the characters were experiencing, I experienced right alongside of them as a reader. There was an emotional element that I felt enhanced this one even more than Falling and Newman did a wonderful job weaving themes of grief, loss, parenting, and the power of people coming together with a common goal of survival throughout this heart-pounding novel.

Fun, fast paced, entertaining – this book will be the must-read book of the summer!

Thank you to NetGalley & Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. I cannot WAIT to see the film adaptation!

Pub Date: May 30, 2023

Flight 1421 crash lands in the water off the coast of Hawaii. The plane sinks to the bottom of the ocean with twelve passengers inside. I. COULDN'T. BREATHE!

This book was great. It reads like an action film. It was ridiculously suspenseful, particularly the end. It was a very satisfying read and I am happy to have been on this journey.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for the digital advanced copy. Drowning will be published on May 30, 2023 and is a perfect summer read. Enjoy!

The antagonists in this book are nature and time, which was a far better choice than in Newman’s first novel, Falling, which had reductive stereotypes of Middle Eastern men as villains.

The character development and writing were stronger than in her debut novel, as well, though there were still some hackneyed phrases. She uses thriller-speak more than I’d prefer. There’s lots of short, punchy sentences and brief chapters. I appreciated how detailed her research was, though. There’s no glossing over the mechanics.

Newman’s real strength is in making you feel like you’re IN the plane. I felt anxious and claustrophobic reading in my own house. It didn’t help that I’d been on an actual plane headed towards San Francisco a few days before starting the book. Waiting until I got home wasn’t enough; if you feel trapped on planes even when everything is going perfectly, I don’t know when the right time is to read this! It was worth it, though.

I read T.J. Newman's previous book and loved it (as in, read in one sitting in a summer's afternoon). I split Drowning into two sittings, but I read the last 60% all in one go. It's just that un-put-downable!

The book starts at full-speed. There is no gentle lead-up...you begin right with the action sequence. You get some flashbacks to fill in some pre-flight history. This works really well-I was immediately invested in the story.

What I really appreciate about T.J. Newman's writing is that she writes characters who are super smart in their field. In this book, we've got both a character on board who has more knowledge than your average passenger as well as a character working on the rescue team. They also happen to be related, which might require some suspension of belief. It didn't bother me at all and in fact, it kept me emotionally invested in the characters. I was rooting for Will, Chris, and Shannon. They had already experienced enough tragedy for a lifetime prior to this doomed flight...I really wanted their little family to come out of this okay.

Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that at a certain point in the story I was really worried about how this was going to end. What I would say to another reader is trust T.J. Newman...you're in good hands with her.

I give this one 4.5 stars-I enjoyed it even more than T.J. Newman's last book. I can't wait to see it "take off" this summer! I predict it's going to be a buzzy book and I look forward to hearing what other people think about it!

A special thank you to the publisher for giving me an ARC!

A captivating suspense with cinematic qualities, Drowning will have you on the edge of your seat for the entire ride. (Let's just hope you aren't reading it while on a plane.)

A perfect fast-paced thriller to binge in a day because trust me, you won't want to put it down.

Read if you liked: The Martian, Armageddon, or any other catastrophe survival fiction

I could not put this book down! What an excellent read. Very fast paced, I was flipping pages so fast to find out what was going to happen next. I really cared about the characters, and was so invested in them surviving. Overall, would highly recommend as anything but a read during a flight!

HOLY CRAP, was this book amazing. Ah-freaking-mayzing.

First, a huge thanks to @netgalley and @avidreaderpress for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hot damn, this book exceeded all of my expectations. Partway through this utterly unputdownable read, I told my husband that the imagery is so vivid that I can actually clearly see this being made into a movie.

From the first page to the last, this was heart-pounding and action-packed. The stress and anxiety leapt off the pages and straight into my chest, where it had a chokehold on me until the bitter end. And when I tell you I SOBBED at two different parts in this book? And also shed a few extra tears at others? I kid you not.

The characters were well-developed and interesting and I genuinely felt like I was in this plane at the bottom of the ocean. This book gives me vibes of Armageddon meets The Core. It’s not a post-apocalyptic book but it has the same tense vibes and “team on land” concept. I practically made Fitz into Billy Bob Thornton (in Armageddon) in my mind.

This book has heart, a beating pulse, and is truly captivating. The writing is fantastic, and I barely put my Kindle down once after I started it. A fantastic, huge, 5 star read.

You MUST read this when it drops on May 30. In fact, go ahead and preorder it now! It’s a winner.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Readers Press/Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second novel of T.J. Newman, a former flight attendant turned author whose first book, Falling, I loved and devoured. I really loved Drowning, which I enjoyed better than the first book! This book is about a plane that takes off from Hawaii and four minutes into the flight crashes into the Pacific Ocean with twelve people trapped alive inside the plane that is flooding. The action begins on page one and does not let up. It follows the rescue efforts of the people on the surface as well as the trapped passengers still in the plane. We get to know the rescuers as they try to figure out how to rescue the trapped people inside the plane. This is a book easily finished in one sitting. There was always something happening and I was not sure what direction it was going to go or how it was going to end and that was a good thing. I just kept turning the pages because I needed to know. I felt there was a good resolution to the story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves action packed novels.

I just needed to read this book and it did not disappoint. I have always been oddly curious about plane crashes and how people are able to survive and the closeness that comes from being in a tragedy together. There was an odd group of characters, which you would expect on a crowded plane. I loved the connections that some passengers had with the rescue crew. It made for a very emotional story that tugged on my heart strings and never let go until the end. It sounds like a cliche, but I found myself holding my breath at times as I read about the rescue mission. I felt like I was in the water with the rescue crew. The book had a lot of detail about the logistics of the rescue which I was fascinated by. I would have liked to have a little more backstory of some of the characters so you could understand why they were making the decisions they did. But overall, this was a tense entertaining disaster thriller that showed how humans can persevere. in the most tragic of circumstances.

Drowning is an action packed rescue mission. The Navy, Coast Guard, and an unexpected diver work to rescue those trapped in a plane at the bottom of the ocean before they run out of air. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

There is more to the story than the rescue. As the characters contemplate their fate you see them wrestle with hope, love, forgiveness, loss, and how far they will go to fight for their families.

The book blurb does an excellent job of describing what the book is about, so I won't duplicate that here. What I will do is tell you this book gripped me from the start and held me riveted until the end. WOW, WOWWW - WHAT A READ!!

Newman starts with a dire situation and continues to ratchet up the suspense with every flip of the page. This is an intense, edge-of-your-seat read, my friends. If you're looking for an adrenaline rush, and a very suspenseful read, this is it!!

I really love that it isn't all about the plane crash and the rescue. Newman reminds us of the many different groups of people involved with a disaster of this magnitude and the impact on each. She also gives us characters that are real and honest. It's intense and suspenseful, but it's also a wonderful view of people pulling together to work through a crisis.

One of my favorite passages is "It didn't matter if you died in a car crash or peacefully in your sleep at 1:02 or if you drowned in a plane at the bottom of the ocean. The end result would be the same. That was all life was. Shifting the balance, every day, to make room for joy and grace in whatever circumstances you've got before you time runs out."

I can't recommend this book highly enough!

My thanks to Simon & Schuster for allowing me to access a DRC of this novel via NetGalley. Publication is 5/30/23. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Odd as it may sound; if you were a fan of Falling, you will really enjoy Drowning. I had put it down a couple of times in the beginning because the subject matter was difficult for me but I am so glad I kept going. The writing is so suspenseful and cinematic it propelled the story forward to the very end.

🛩️Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421
Author: T.J. Newman
Genre: General Fiction (adult fiction)
Pub Date: May 30, 2023
Format: eARC - thank you to @Netgalley and to @avidreaderpress
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read if you like: The Raft, Wreckage

✈️ Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside. More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives.
Their only chance at survival is an elite rescue team on the surface led by professional diver Chris Kent—Shannon’s mother and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife—who must work together with Will to find a way to save their daughter and rescue the passengers from the sealed airplane, which is now teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff.
⏳There’s not much time.
🫧There’s even less air.

✈️Review: this is listed as general adult fiction but I think it qualifies as suspense as well! There is quite a bit of nautical and aviation jargon/lingo that 1️⃣Is very informative and thoroughly known or researched by the author but 2️⃣Takes away from the story. If you aren’t well versed in that department it does seem to get cerebral at times. If that area is your niche, then this book is a must read for you! I felt as though the main characters could have been more fleshed out so as to add a little bit more “feeling” to them and their moral dilemmas. Even so, I still felt my heart strings being pulled by the end of the story. By the end I felt more drawn to the characters and I enjoyed the suspense as well. It read like a rescue mission movie reminding me a little of “The Guardian” with Ashton Kutcher.
The flight attendant turned author’s first novel “Falling” is being made into a movie and I have to say: I cant wait for that to be released! All in all, I definitely enjoyed reading this one and I’ll be watching what this author does next!

I loved the first one of hers so I had high hopes for this one and luckily it did live up to the hype. I really like the writing style and plot of this book.

📚 Drowning by TJ Newman
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do yourself a favor and block off the day to read this book in one sitting. You won’t want to put it down. This is a roller coaster thriller of a story about survival and rescue. I was absolutely riveted by the underwater rescue of the boys soccer team in Thailand. The documentary The Rescue about the event was one of the most thrilling and suspenseful movies I’ve ever seen. Drowning was like that, but a fictional story about a the rescue of a group of people trapped in an airplane after it crashed into the ocean. Gripping, thrilling and a bit over the top. I loved it and I really hope they make it into a movie. Thank you so much to @netgalley and @avidreaderpress for this advanced copy to review. Drowning comes out on May 30th and you won’t want to miss it!

A well written fast-faced thriller that kept me engaged throughout. I appreciated the details and POV from the flight crew, especially since the author is a former flight attendant. If you like high tension rescue attempts that make people re-evaluate life’s priorities, you’ll definitely want to give this one a try.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Drowning releases May 30, 2023


Such an exciting and compulsively readable book! This thriller delivered what it promised; excitement, emotions, tears. The perfect popcorn thriller to read on vacation. It's easy to read and the writing style made me feel like I am in the middle of the action.

#netgalley #arcreview #tjnewman