This is a story about back up plans.

The @netgalley gods had the perfect timing & hit me with this one right before a trip! It was perfect, nerve wracking fun. I love that I couldn’t stop turning the pages— and it had some unexpectedly emotional moments. Such a great read!

Thank you so much @netgalley & @avidreaderpress for the eArc.

Y’all this book is stressful! I love it. I hate it. I threw it down because I couldn’t take the suspense. It made me read into the wee hours. It made me well up with tears. Multiple times!

Did this book stress me out because I’m getting on a flight in a few days? Did I have to “look away” from it a few times because I’m extremely claustrophobic? Did the parent child scenes make me well up because I’m a sentimental mother?

No idea, I’ll just say that I can’t wait for all of you to read it! Chris, Shannon, Will, Kit, I loved em all. And since Warner Brothers already snatched this book up, I can’t wait to see the movie! Congrats TJ Newman, you just keep upping your game. 👏🏻

Release Date: May 30

Thank you to NetGalley and AvidReaderPress for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the ARC to TJ Newman's sophomore novel. Minutes into a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, a father and young daughter are caught in a nightmare scenario where the flight they are on experiences, catastrophic mechanical failure and goes down into the ocean. I had thought that potentially this was going to be another transportation tragedy story, but I was very impressed with the author's ability to describe the unimaginable terror experienced by the passengers and crew, the frailty of human nature facing overwhelming odds, and a parents' ability to do whatever it takes to save their child. The author had me hooked from the beginning, and I finished this in one sitting. I was very impressed and now will have to go back and read her debut novel, which has received a lot of positive reviews as well. 5-stars!!! and I look forward to future works by the author.

Decent disaster novel.

A jet crashes off the coast of Oahu shortly after take-off and ends up in the ocean. Most of the survivors fled the burning plane, but 12 of the passengers were trapped inside as it sank into the depths. A massive rescue operation gets underway, but they are running out of time as the water rises inside the jet and the trapped oxygen is running low. Fortunately (and I really mean completely unrealistically), an elite underwater industrial diving and marine construction team owned by one of the surviving passenger's wives just happens to be right there on the job. Will Kent is in the nearly flooded jet with their daughter, Shannon, and Chris is arguing topside with the Navy and Coast Guard about how to proceed with the rescue. Whose plan will work and who will be saved?

This was OK but heavy on the emotional and relationship aspect of the crash calamity. It ends exactly how you expect it will. I liked the technical aspects of the rescue effort, but the characters were written as total stereotypes and the reader reacts to them exactly that way. You may need to suspend quite a bit of disbelief as the disaster drama plays out with all the coincidences in confluence.

Also note -- the cover of this novel is nearly the same as the one used for her first book. That's rather weird and surely the designers have a little more imagination than that? Who knows, maybe they did it on purpose.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. The engine explodes, and the plane begins to flood. Twelve passengers haven't yet evacuated and are forced to remain inside the plane as it sinks to the bottom.

Newman's sophomore novel is absolutely captivating. I was a huge fan of Falling, so I could not wait to *dive* into Drowning-- it definitely did not disappoint. The character development in Drowning is stellar, and it is the emotional investment that the reader experiences that really makes this book. Also, major kudos to Newman for the way she chose to end this book- the final chapter is perfection!

Thank you to Avid Reader Press for my ARC.

The premise sounded very exciting and the book was readable, but it didn't swipe me off my feet either. I disliked the other plane book from this author, but I wanted to give them another chance and try something else. This was slightly better, but once again the writing style just wasn't for me. The characters weren't that memorable either. There are readers who will enjoy this, though.

I’m a TJ Newman fan girl. The former flight attendant in me loves how she gets the life of flight crew right but the reader in me loves the thrills that she somehow makes plausible. This one was so tense I had to get up and walk around a few times. Thrilling from start to finish. Five stars.

Just what you'd expect as a follow-up to Newman's first action-packed thriller...thoroughly enjoyable!

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

What a ride! I read this in one sitting, staying up well into the early morning to get to the end and discover everyone's fates. Equal parts thrilling and emotional, this is a perfect beach read. Some of the characters are flat, but that's a hallmark of the disaster genre, so I can't fault Newman too much. Overall, I had an absolute blast with Drowning.

I’m only like 60% joking, but I honestly don’t know if I ever want to get on a plane again after finishing DROWNING…wowsers. I read, and loved FALLING by TJ Newman when that came out in 2021, and I thought that book was triggering, but Drowning is truly on a whole other level….

Flight 1421 has just taken off from Honolulu when six minutes into the flight, everything that could possibly go wrong mechanically with the plane goes wrong, and it crashes into the Pacific Ocean, and ultimately despite rescue missions immediately starting and some passengers getting into the water, it begins to sink to the bottom of the ocean with 12 souls on board…..and really that’s all you should know before you start it. Just enjoy the wild ride, and be prepared to not even catch a breath for the 4-5 hours it takes you to read it….

TJ Newman is the ultimate cinematic writer; her words are destined for the big screen, and as you read her descriptions, it vividly comes to life in your head. I love her character development and how she gives us so many different perspectives in this book, without it becoming confusing for the reader. I read it in just two sittings; and if the first sitting hadn’t started at midnight, it would have been done in one. I was super excited to get NetGalley approved for this one, there was no time to wait for a physical copy!

A plane crashes into the ocean six minutes after it takes-off. It sinks and ends up unstable on a ledge. Rescuers have a limited amount of time and incredible level of difficulty attempting a rescue.

Will, Chris, and Shannon are a family in crisis breaking apart due to another tragedy several years earlier. There are other essential characters, but this family if the emotional crux of the novel.

"Drowning" by T.J. Newman is a 1970's disaster movie in a book. Unrelenting in pace and storytelling, the reader literally feels the urgency of trying to reach and extract the survivors trapped in the plane. The urgency is helped along by periodic notices of how long they have been underwater and how much oxygen is left.

To say anything more would be a huge disservice to readers. Great summer read, except if you are on a plane flying over an ocean. Thank You NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for this thrilling read.

I am grateful to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

WOW! This story was absolutely unimaginable and completely terrifying! It played on my actual real life fears of flying and drowning which made for quite the anxiety ridden page turner!

Readers looking for a richly detailed and plot-driven story about plane crash survival will find plenty to enjoy here. The survivors feel authentic as they act predictably in a tense situation as the plane they crashed in is submerged in water with oxygen in short supply. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and I didn't really connect with them and their plight. The writing style is concerned about getting from point A to B, which is great for most. Dialogue is average like the kind you'll encounter from a typical network adventure show.

WOW! I almost pulled an all-nighter with this novel, which is a huge compliment. Even though sleep won out in the end, it’s the first time in a long while that I’ve even thought about reading through the night. This tense thriller had just enough background to make you care about the characters but not so much that it got in the way.

Drowning is a new, exciting airplane thriller from author T.J. Newman. I found myself holding my breath at times during the tense action. Excellent vacation read. I couldn't put it down.

I am a library paraprofessional and received an advance copy from #NetGalley.

Ok, I know it is just a book, but the suspense filled me with so much anxiety ( in a good way). I found myself wanting to keep reading, but putting it down between chapters to recover.
The story is pretty straightforward, a plane goes down, and people try to survive the seemingly unsurviveable. But the character backstories and the technical descriptions made it a great read, and a satisfying ending.

Drowning was a hyperactive thriller that I devoured in a day. This author does an excellent job of maintaining a breakneck pace throughout this thrilling story of survival, even managing to include a fair amount of interesting science and introducing us to a group of compelling characters. I have to say that some elements struck me as formulaic, but overall I was engaged throughout and interested in just how things were going to resolve. I was pretty sure I knew the end, but the interesting part was how they were going to get there. A good read.

T.J. Newman has now written two good fiction novels about airplane flight drama. Both Falling and Drowning are quick to read with lots of action. I hope to see both Falling and Drowning turned into movies someday. But those movies would not be good to watch on a plane, of course.