Olive has so much going on. I felt for her so much, and I just wanted to put her in a bubble and protect her forever. Stella was equally as endearing with the extreme type A personality.

The ending was exactly what I wanted to happen! I thought everything fell into place perfectly. There is humor, relatability, mental health rep, grief, and Sapphic rep all at once with this one.

Not a new favorite but I will definitely seek out more by Andie Burke in the future!

2.5 - 3.5 ⭐️

Firstly this was about 3-4h too long, I wanted to DNF at about 60% purely because it felt too dragged out and slow. I enjoyed the mental health discussions for the most part but generally this story felt like it needed one more round of story edits, it just didn’t feel as good as it maybe could’ve been.

Thank you MacMillan audio for this review copy of Fly With Me (also read earlier this year from St Martin's Press). I really enjoyed listening to this book, I loved the book earlier this year and was wanting to have a romance audiobook to recommend so I am glad I got this as an audiobook. I loved the narration style for this book, it was fun, warm, and engaging and really captured the feelings and nuances of the main characters. A love story yes, and inclusive of diverse sexual identities and lives, but also a story of self-growth, family love and caregiving, and the roles of women in the work force, particularly with Stella dealing with the old boys club as an airline pilot.

The story is warm fuzzies wrapped around solid romance story telling, well loved plots (I do love fake dating and airports and work places as settings), and also great secondary characters who add depth to the story.

I absolutely loved this book! It was everything I wanted in a romance novel - comedy, sad moments, relatable fears. It even had a little bit of spice which I didn't expect. I love that this was a beautiful romance between two women because I have only come across a few in this style & this is the first one I've ever actually listened to. I'll be looking forward to more by this author.

This romance book has it all. Family drama, a meet disaster, insta-lust, a Disney first kiss, fake dating, insane chemistry, characters worthy of hate, and swoony declarations. Olive is a grumpy nurse with an irrational fear of flying; Stella is an airline pilot with a sunshine disposition. These women meet after Olive saves the life of a passenger on one of Stella’s flights. After a magical weekend in Disney together (and one smoking first kiss), they part ways. However, social media explodes after someone recorded Olive’s brave mid-flight rescue and Stella’s airline and Olive’s hospital want to milk the exposure for profitable gains. To assist Stella in her quest to make captain, Olive agrees to a fact dating scheme to maximize both of their stories and exposure. What neither women expected was to fall head over heels in love. Incredibly likable main characters, fun secondary characters, and easy to hate villains made this romance a quick page-turner. And let’s not forget the spice; so much hot nuanced spice. I loved every second of this book! Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and MacMillian audio for his e-ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

*4.5 Stars*

Olive Murphy does not want to be on this plane. She is frozen with fear until they ask for a medical professional and as a nurse, she jumps in. But, then, the plane does not land in Atlanta and that does not work for her. So, she's crying in the airport when copilot extraordinaire (and rude as hell) Stella Soriano finds her and offers to drive her to her destination? What the hell?
Olive feels very attracted to her but things are such a mess with her family and Stella has issues of her own so what if they faked being girlfriend instead?

To be honest, I didn't think I'd enjoy this as much as I did. I really got sucked in from the first chapter and could not stop reading. The banter was amazing, the plot kept me in my toes. And I was so invested in Olive's family's story. And in her work life and her friends and of course, the romance. I just wanted to know everything as fast as possible. I also really enjoyed the audiobook, the narrator was very good and helped captivate me. I really loved Stella's character. She was flawed and that made her so interesting to me, I also loved her dad and how they interacted. Olive was also layered and interesting. I really enjoyed the highs and lows of their relationship. I just had a great time with this and I will keep Andie Burke on my radar!

this was a really good romance. I am obviously a sucker for sapphic romance as a lesbian but this one in particular was really sweet. I loved the nursing element and the anxiety. I have general anxiety so I felt the descriptions were very realistic. I also found the romance between these two women to actually be very relatable and real. They didn't exactly fall in love right away but there was a natural attraction that grew as they grew. It was all very good.
I will say this book does touch on some heavy subjects throughout so please check the triggers and read with care.

Thank you so much to MacMillan Audio for the complimentary audio!

This book will be published on September 5th.

"People always joe that their first part of their paychecks goes to the mortgage, but I always joke mine goes to Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts."

Don't let this cover fool you, this book has some definite serious undertones and topics that are scattered from the start to the end. I was not expecting that grief and mourning someone who is alive would be a theme in the book. The book kicks off with Olive having a panic attack while on a flight to Disney to run in a marathon that she was supposed to do with her brother who is in a vegetated state. While on this fight, a fellow passenger is having a medical episode and she is a nurse and steps in to assist. After the incident, she meets the pilot of her flight - Stella. And let the fun begins!

I thought the connection between Olive & Stella felt very real and was not rushed. I love that they got to spend time together even prior to Stella propositioning Olive into fake dating her in order for her to get ahead in her role. I thought they really complimented one another. I am not a fan of the trope of how one of the party for whatever reason doesn't think they are worthy of the other person's love or claims they wouldn't make a good partner. Because with fake dating you know what is never the case and that there is always a HEA. I really enjoyed the epilogue and it just made me so happy that Olive got to accomplish a goal of hers and got to do it with Stella.

"And I know you're scared of hurting me, but I'm here to tell you that you are worth that risk."

I don't want to go too much into detail with Olive and her brother Jake but I thought that whole storyline was so sad and just tugged at my heart strings. I just felt so bad for her and she wanted to do right by her brother but her family not recognizing or caring what he wanted. It was very sad and you know that families go through this all the time.

There are multiple villains/unlikeable characters and so many times I wanted to scream because I hated them so much. I was so frustrated for Olive. She was already going through so much which grieving her brother and his state that she got no breathing room between her mother and her ex. The ex definitely came on a little strong and the last incident just seemed like a bit TOO much. It was refreshing to see that Olive and her family's relationship was not cleaned up by the end of the book. In most books whenever there are familial issues, it's usually tied together with a bow by the end of the book. It felt more realistic leaving not be tied up. I also would not blame Olive if she decided to set boundaries and separate herself from her family.

I paired my reading with the audio and thought that the narrator Chelsea Stephens did a great job with the voices for Olive & Stella. This was not a dual POV BUT you could clearly distinguished the two characters.

As I mentioned in the beginning this was such a solid debut & I'm excited to see what else Andie is working on!

Swoon: 6/10
Karaoke: YES

4.25

Amazing fake dating to real feelings sapphic romance.

Olive is terrified of flying. She's on a flight to FL to run in a marathon in honor of her brother.
She is called on for her nursing skills and saves a passenger having a reaction. She is dubbed a hero and praised by the copilot, Stella.

Stella lives to be a Captain, but her airline makes it hard for women to reach that status. After the event on the plane, the media thinks Stella and Olive are dating. Stella proposes a fake relationship with Olive that she thinks might help with her career.

I loved both these characters and was rooting for true love!

Many thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for both an ALC (great audio!) and ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Olive is terrified of flying but has to get on a plane to get to Disney to run a marathon for her brother. Naturally on her first flight ever, another passenger has a medical emergency. Being an ER nurse, Olive jumps into action and saves the stranger's life. After the plane is diverted, the (hot) pilot Stella offers to drive Olive to Disney as a thank you so she can make it to the marathon. The two spend an incredible day together at Disney which leads Stella to ask Olive an important question... will Olive be her fake girlfriend?

Fly with Me surprised me in its depth. Both Olive and Stella are dealing with sick family members, and the care and compassion that Burke's writes with was really great to read. I love a good fake-dating trope, and this novel is no exception. While the pacing felt slow at times, I really enjoyed reading this!

This was a charming sapphic romance about an ER nurse who saves a man on a plane, and the co-pilot of the flight who become friends, and eventually decide to fake date each other to help with the pilots career.

This book has a LOT of layers. At times it’s a sweet romance, but it’s also a book about caregivers (as they both are), medical trauma, estranged family, fake dating, toxic exes, and patriarchal work places.

I genuinely enjoyed this read and would recommend it to those looking for a blend of a sweet romance with the depth of real life woven in.

Thank you for the ARC!

I was given both the audiobook and the ebook, so most of my review will be the same. But for all my incoming negativity, I did enjoy the narrator a lot. She was easy to understand and very clear. The one issue I had, and this is not her fault but it is worth noting going into the audiobook, if you listen sped up you may need to slow down for Stella's scenes. She's written as talking really fast so it makes it very hard to understand her when sped up. Again, that is not at all on the narrator, that is just on the context of the book. But she did a great job at narrating and that really was one of the only things I cared about.

DNF at 70% - a shock because normally at that point I would just push through and force myself to finish. But I unfortunately cannot with this one.

I found myself just not caring what so ever about this book or these characters. I wasn't buying that the romance was anything other than surface level as most of the inner dialogue we got was just Olive talking about how hot Stella is. I think this book REALLY could've benefited from being dual POV to cut off the constant string of "Oh she's so hot but she doesn't want a relationship but she's so hot." Also they kiss once and then just NEVER TALK ABOUT IT? What was the point of including the kiss if it isn't going to lead into anything other than them both pretending it never happened?

I wanted to care. I really did. I wanted to care about Olive's issues with her family. I wanted to care about Stella and her dad. But I feel like it just didn't give me the chance. I decided to take a break from it to see if I would feel better going back to it, but I genuinely cannot convince myself to pick it back up. I have no desire to go back to this at all.

Also, look. I'm going on a tangent here. I am not a good person to read books that take place at Disney Parks. I know too much about Disney Parks. But almost every single thing that happened at Disney World was killing me. Their first kiss was on the BARNSTORMER? THE BARNSTORMER???? That is a child's roller coaster. That is a Goofy themed child's roller coaster. They're making out surrounded by literal children. Mind you, they wouldn't have gotten into the park in the first place because Stella would not have been allowed in on Olive's brother's magic band - that would have been INSTANTLY revoked. But BARNSTORMER? I desperately need to talk to this author and find out why she chose Barnstormer of all rides. Which she also said has a loop-de-loop? It definitely doesn't, but ok. Also how does everyone know that this guy plays Mickey? Why would Disney post a picture of her WITH Mickey saying she saved his life, that butchers all character integrity. It is funny though that they care this much because Mickey's brother is an executive, cause that truly is the only way the company would care about this happening anyWAAAAAAY. Yeah zero stars for the Disney portion I was losing my mind.

Tangent aside, yeah. I just don't care. I'm sorry.

I throughly enjoyed this audiobook! I loved the queer representation and love story. And not just the love between the main characters. The love between the main characters and their friends/family. It was really beautiful. The narrator captured the personalities perfectly. I honestly could see myself in both characters. I highly recommend this well written book!

I loved the characters, I loved the chemistry between Olive and Stella but it took far too long for the two to get together. I also did not like the b-story about Olive & her family.

This book is an easy read & perfect for a plane ride where you’re in one place for an extended amount of time with nothing to do. But ultimately it’s not the type of book to keep me coming back again & again.

✈️ Fly With Me by Andie Burke was a sapphic opposites attract romance novel with just the right amount of steam and real life issues mixed in.
Our MFC, Olivia Murphy, is a nurse who is scared of flying and finds herself, not only on a plane but having to help out in a medical emergency mid-flight. Que the mental health Gods to sprinkle in some phobia, anxiety, and grief while being hailed a hero and having to maneuver the plane being rerouted for an emergency landing and trying to find a way to Disney World, of all places, in time for a marathon the next morning she is to be part of to honor her brother who’s been in a coma the last year after he saved a young boy from being hit by a car.
Cut to our other MFC, Stella Soriano, who is the co-pilot that Andie instantly falls head over heels for. She offers to rent a car and drive Olivia to Orlando to make the race.
After spending the day together (and finding out the person Oliva saved on the plane was actually the cast member who plays Mickey Mouse!) Stella propositions Olivia with the idea of her being her fake girlfriend in order to help her chances within the airline as a female POC after the video of Olivia saving Mickey went viral.
Finding this could be beneficial to her as well, Olivia agrees to go along with the ploy while Type-A personality Stella plans every detail in a three ring binder for her to study and follow.
The more time spent together, the more Olivia finds herself hoping this could turn into something real but will Stella feel the same way?
Within all of this fake relationship to romance troup book, there is still plenty of steam and spice along with instances of grief, family medical issues, depictions of different mental health issues, and work related drama and bias, and more all delicately crammed into this 380 page book making there never be a dull moment.
I can’t wait to see what Andie Burke writes next!

📖🎧: Fly with Me by: Andie Burke | 📅Pub Day: Tuesday September 5, 2023

All I have to say is don’t let the cutesy cozy cover fool you, this book is DEEP and not your average romcom. Filled with swoony sapphic love, loss, grief, fears and strong FMCs.

This book starts off with a bang when aerophobic Olive (a BSN), departs on her first flight ever headed for a DisneyWorld half-marathon, and soon becomes a viral sensation when she saves a man that is having a severe allergic reaction. After deplaning in Atlanta and realizing she won’t be able to make it to Florida she meets Stella the pilot of her viral flight who will stop at nothing to get Olive to this race (even if that means single handedly driving a rental car through the night).

As the story unfolds, each woman starts peeling back the layers of their past. And little by little you truly understand who they are and their personal journeys, as well as their relationship progression from a swoony crush to fake dating to maybe even something real?!

Perfect for fans of:
✨Sapphic romances
✨Insta-love
✨Fake dating
✨Strong female MCs
✨Bucket list shenanigans
✨Familial drama/grief
✨Working through fears
✨Strong sibling/familial bonds

I have to hand it to the narrator if this audiobook I don’t even realize til halfway through this book that she was the sole voice actor (which In less words means she did and amazing job👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾)


5.00⭐️


Special thanks to @macmillian.audio and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

I can’t believe this was a debut novel for Andie Burke! Fantastic.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ 2/5 perfection

Our MCs - Olive & Stella. Olive Murphy is an ER nurse, and Stella Soriano is a pilot. They are total opposites - Olive is a mess, and Stella is very type-A, organized and neat.

I enjoyed Olive & Stella’s story so much. What starts as a fun day together, leads to fake dating for publicity to help their careers. Olive’s feelings are never fake, but she’s unsure about how Stella feels. Stella is terrified of commitment, of being a “bad girlfriend,” and letting people down.

I love how their relationship just naturally progressed, as they got to know each other better and better. I found this story to be incredible sweet, adorable, HILARIOUS, and all around lovely.

I tandem read with the audiobook and LOVED the narrator - the voices for both Olive & Stella were perfectly matched to their characters.

What you’ll find in Fly with Me:
✈️ FF Romance
✈️ Opposites attract
✈️ Fake dating
✈️ Insta-Love
✈️ Nurse & Pilot
✈️ Anxiety/depression rep
✈️ Grief
✈️ Hilarious
✈️ Single POV/3rd person

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Griffin & MacMillan Audio for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This book is absolutely one of my very favorite WLW books of 2023. I loved Olive and Stella and was deeply sad when I finished.

This was such a sweet read! It is for sure a slowwww burn but once we get to the spice it's there! Olive and Stella are a mess lol. Both are dealing with a lot in their family lives and have a lot of baggage when it comes to past relationships. After Olive saves "Mickey Mouse" on a flight Tessa is copilot of and goes viral, they begin fake dating to help Stella finally get Captain. I do wish we got Stella's perspective because I would've enjoyed hearing both of their perspectives. This was definitely a book where I was armchair psychoanalyzing them throughout it all and was glad when they finally saw how they were both self sabotaging! Overall this was a really sweet fake dating romance, where we all know the "fake" is the fakest part of the dating lolol. The audio was really great too! I'm not always a fan of romance on audio and I enjoyed this one.

When Olive, an ER nurse who is scared of flying, finds herself on a plane for the first time, the last thing she expects is to go viral. But after another passenger's medical emergency, that's exactly what happens. Olive's flight gets diverted due to the emergency and she realizes that she won't make it to her destination in time to run the half-marathon in honor of her brother. Luckily, Stella, the pilot, offers to drive Olive so that she can make it. Due to the viral video, Olive feels pressure from both her hospital and the airline to keep the good press going. Stella, hoping that her airline will finally promote her, proposes to Olive that they fake date for a few months. Olive agrees but has had a crush on Stella since day 1 so has it ever really been fake for her?

I absolutely flew through this in one sitting (pardon the pun)! I loved how real this book is - the emotions, the interactions, just all of it! I thought both Olive and Stella were strong characters and could totally understand where each was coming from. I typically prefer dual POV for romances but I actually thought this really benefited from the single POV - we got to know so much more about Olive and her history than if this had been dual POV. I also so appreciated the authors note in the beginning that describes some of the heavy topics that this book has. Both Olive and Stella are dealing with sick family members. Olive is the medical decision maker for her brother, who has been in a coma and will not recover, but her mother is very religious and has engaged a lawyer so that Olive cannot make the decision to let her brother go, as he would have wanted. Stella's father, who she is incredibly close to, was diagnosed with Parkinson's a few years ago and Stella is having a hard time dealing with the reality of having a parent who is declining.

I liked the narration for this and thought it added a lot to the story. I think the narrator brought the characters to light - particularly Olive's inner monologue.

Read this for:
- Fake Dating
- Learning to live with fears
- Mental Health rep
- A GREAT DANE!
- Opposites attract
- Banter

I also LOVED Olive's best friend and thought he added so much to the story.

I do think some readers will be frustrated that Olive never gets closure with her family and initially I was too. But as a healthcare worker who sees similar situations, her not getting closure (or at least not getting closure in this part of the story) is incredibly realistic. Family conflict, particularly over medical decisions, is so complex and there are so many emotions and opinions. The outcome isn't often ideal so I thought this reflected that reality really well. You can tell that the author is a nurse with the care and accuracy that this all played out.

I do wish that the ex-girlfriend, Lindsey, had gotten some karma for her actions and truthfully her verbal abuse of Olive - man did I hate her with a passion. Even if Olive had just stood up to her instead of hanging up on her that last time. I would have liked to see just a little more there.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.