When you go in thinking it's just a cute, sapphic rom-com, but it gives you all the feels. Yeah, I love when that happens! I alternately listened to the audiobook and physically read this and enjoyed both formats.

Olive is a nurse who is deathly afraid of flying. When she goes on her first ever flight she ends up saving a man from an allergic reaction and going viral. In the process she meets the pilot, Stella. Shortly after, Stella and Olive end up on a road trip planning their fake dating scheme to help them both with their careers. I really enjoyed the banter and the slow burn here. They started out kind of awkward with each other but that grew into a quirky connection that felt natural. The amount of stressful situations in this book felt chaotic but realistic. They both have strong ties to a family member that is dealing with medical issues, Olive has a evil ex, and Stella has a misogynistic work environment. Despite all that, there is still a good balance between fluffy (and eventually a lil' spicy) and emotional.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's press for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ALC of this book

This started out incredibly strong. I believe this is the first book by this author. The two of them meeting and having to do a road trip because their plane had to make an emergency landing because a passenger was having a medical emergency. And Olive was able to assist him.

Olive and Stella drive to a race in Disney because Olive was too tired to do it by herself. And Stella is a pilot for the airline. Their story goes viral so they decide to fake date.

And this is where the story becomes a little bit too Iong and convoluted for me. Olive’s brother is in a coma and the doctors want to take him off life support. That’s his wish too but Olive’s mother doesn’t want to do that. So Olive he become on the outs with her family. Meanwhile Stella is using fake dating Olive as a push to get a captain position since her company really only promotes men in that role. These story lines are all interesting but it felt like too much in this story. There was the viral video and going on the Today show also happening. Too long and too much. Cut a storyline or two out and this would have been amazing.

I will be interested to see what else this author does in the future.

This book was so damn cute! The banter the characters shared was everything! I really liked the narrator, I was very immersed in the story!

I enjoyed this book. I liked the narrator. The main characters were relateable and the side characters were great well most of them anyway. The story was also quite emotional and made me cry a few times. There were some really great tropes like fake dating and caretaking. The book also has good disability representation.

Shopping at the Limited Too
Wearing Steve Madden Platform
Being in love with Ricky Martin
Giving up bacon for 5 years
Reading Fly With Me

Those my friends are my list of regrets. Do I need to write a full review? I guess I have to as I promised Net Galley I would. Gee, swell, this should be fun.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, this is not a Neils book. And yes you are correct. This is what happens when you are clicking through net galley and skimming over the names of the characters. The description sounded cute, I love fake dating troupes, but the names did not register: Stella and Olive. I think my eyes must have seen "Oliver", but as soon as I started it my heart sank, this was a girl on girl romance. Not my thing.
So I tried to in my mind make one of the characters a male so I could work through the book. It helped a little bit, but at the end of the day this was just not for me.

Content aside this book was still very painful to work through. I thought the author was very bias and unfair in her opinions. Let me explain.
A male (o heaven forbid there be an decent male character that is straight) captain says very sexual vile things to one of the lead female lesbian male characters. He makes some sexual passes at her. So Burke takes the opportunity to get on her soap box and explain to the readers how bad this is and how men are just like that. Flash forward a few scenes and the other lead MC, who is crushing on the female pilot literally thinks the most nasty adult thoughts about that woman and has very degrading "objectified" thoughts, and this is seen as totally acceptable.....double standard much? Shouldn't the women see the women for her great character? How smart she is? How much she has accomplished? Like her for who she is......not just her looks?

So it was things like the above mentioned seen that just irked me the wrong way. The book is written with such a slant that i could not get over. Characters are over done to the extreme, the book was overly detailed about things (I opted to skip over the physical scenes (notice i did not say romantic) because it was just,,,,well...no)

I thought Burke also made Olive appear very needy and gullible. Continuing to persue a person who has clearly said ,"Fake Girlfriend" and "Fake Romance" over and over? Her family was downright unbelievably horrible....
This author was just trying to check off those PC boxes.

I am off to read a book filled with much less anger, stereotyping and graphic detail.

I will NOT read another book by Andie Burke.

Thank you Netgalley for this advanced copy read in exchange for my honest review. I was not influenced or paid for my VERY honest review.

This was such a sweet story!

I am a sucker for fake dating and this one was so well done. Olive and Stella started with a little meet cute and of course, Stella left an impression on Olive that she could not shake.

I loved how they both had things they needed to work on within themselves and then related to relationships. There wasn’t one “broken” person, even though Olive felt like that was her role.

They also, for the most part, embodied a healthy relationship - even though it was “fake”. There were many moments where I thought I could guess what the reaction was going to be to a situation and then it was totally different and not toxic or accusatory.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this ALC.

Five big, fat, queer stars!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into Fly With Me—the story of Stella and Olive, two women who enter into a fake dating relationship for two seemingly very different reasons.

But once I got going with this audiobook, I could not put it down. Chelsea Stephens Did such a fantastic job bringing both characters to life through her narration and as someone who worked for Disney for 10+ years, I simply adored the Disney storyline weaved throughout.

Stella and Olive are both characters that you find yourself rooting for throughout the story. Olive with her slow but albeit impressive dedication to overcoming her fear of flying, Stella and her desire for something she knows she deserves and dedication of making her goals a reality.

And let’s not forget about the spice—which is that absolute top-tier spice often missing from sapphic work! It’ll make you swoon, it’ll certainly turn you on, and it just might have you looking for a Stella or Olive of your own!

I really enjoyed this and I’m surprised it’s a debut! From their meet cute moment, I was sucked into Olive and Stella’s story. I love fake dating and this was well done. I also loved the cast of characters who surrounded Olive and Stella.

I loved that despite being “fake” girlfriends, they obviously cared for each other from showing up when Olive had pneumonia to helping to care/visit Stella’s dad.

There were parts that broke my heart, particularly anything Olive had to do with caring for her brother to her relationship with the rest of her family. I mostly listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narration. I can’t wait for more books from Andie Burke!

Thank you NetGalley Macmillan audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review. I knew I was going to love it before picking it up. I pre-ordered the book and looking forward to reading it again and tabbing. Great debut. Only a2mall complaint is I wish there were 2 narrators its hard to picture whos saying what l with same voice...

Fly With Me by Andie Burke was a sweet, LGBTQ romance. I think the characters were well-developed and entertaining. I did not care for the narrator who made Stella really irritating for me. I think I would have enjoyed this one more in print,

Ahh this was so cute 😍

Was it the most original.romance I've read this year? No, but it was comforting in its familiarity and I found Olive adorable and endearing. Stella could have been more likable but overall fun

I had a lot of fun with this audiobook. Even though there are some heavier themes with Olive's brother's medical situation, it still felt pretty light and enjoyable. I liked that this book was written by a nurse who is clearly passionate about her profession. I don't know that there was anything super groundbreaking about this book, but I just really had a good time with it and got the sense that the writer was writing what she knows. I think this would be a great vacation read.

The audiobook was read by Chelsea Stephens. The characters had unique voices without being stereotypical. This was a solid audiobook reading.

Grateful to NetGalley for the audiobook.

This was a REALLY fun read, when you consider how many hard topics this book covers. It's got a lot of downers and it fully admits to that before the start of the book, but it balances nicely with either funny cringe or sweet romance. I really liked Olive and Stella together. And a part of me wishes this book was told in dual pov, just to see more of Stella's world and day-to-day. I think we could have done with less of Olive's awful ex-girlfriend. She'd be up to no good and be gone just ling enough to forget about because of other situations and then pop back up to be the worst. And *SPOILER* in the end, the shit she pulls doesn't have any long term repercussions that were mentioned, like general cyberbullying or Stella's work. It just creates a cherry on top of the in-the-moment spiral for Olive.

This narrator was amazing! The characters were brought to life with reading and I loved every moment of it!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I am a huge fan of the fake dating trope - so that does need to be said. The development of the characters as well as the relationship is a gradual process that shows how much thought and passion she puts into her writing. Olive and Stella’s romance is heartwarming and full of compassion. I also appreciated the parallels between Hector’s and Jake’s condition and role in the novel. It gave dual perspectives on illness. Andie Burke’s ability to capture the twists and turns of anxiety and panic is very impressive. Honestly, I really enjoyed this novel and would reread it again in a heartbeat.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an e-arc, and to Macmillan Audio for an alc in exchange for an honest review.
Fly with Me releases September 5, 2023

I know this is meant to be fiction and all, but this was too outrageously ridiculous to take seriously.

Olive, our sole narrator of this story, is taking her first flight to Orlando to participate in a Disney marathon run in honour of her brother who is currently paralyzed and in a critical state.
On her flight, a medical emergency occurs, and a passenger has a severe allergic reaction. Since Olive is a nurse, and the only medical personnel on board, she steps in to save the day.

Since the flight obviously had to divert to a closer state, Olive finds herself left without any other flights to get her to her final destination.
The only way to make it on time to the run is by driving non-stop, but since she’s already coming off of a shift at work, it just doesn’t seem plausible with the depletion of her energy.
But no worries, because Stella, the pilot of the flight, offers to drive Olive 6+ hours to Orlando.

All of the characters were insufferable to me. From the main character, who I just couldn’t stand, to the flight captain who was sexist and slimy af, to the love interest Stella who kept belittling Olive’s achievements as a nurse as well as other female flight attendants.
Stella gets mad that people underestimate her as a woman and think of her as a flight attendant instead of a pilot, but then does the exact same thing to Olive and underestimates her degree because she’s just a nurse and not a full-fledged doctor.
The way she kept putting her foot in her mouth was grating on me.

What I can’t understand is how videos of the medical emergency on the flight went viral in what — an hour tops? Olive hadn’t even had the chance to leave the airport yet and it was already viral?? And the fact that press was already waiting for her at the marathon run just 6-ish hours later? What about her is so special?? It was an allergic reaction where she administered an epi pen… it’s not like she performed emergency surgery. It’s just so contrived.

AND THEN, for Stella to propose the idea of fake dating Olive because her viral video is gaining traction for the airline and it would help her get a promotion… Be for real right now. What a fucking cash grab and personal gain. What about the man that suffered from the allergic reaction? We never hear a word from him, but sure, go ahead and fake date.
If I was the individual that had the medical emergency and found out that the pilot was using my experience in a glorified way to gain a promotion, I’d feel pretty shitty.

Here’s what Stella has to say: <I>“I could quit and start over, or I could do something that makes me stand out. Something they can’t ignore. Basically, if people find out that we fell in love after you saved a man’s life on one of my flights, it might be what I need for the right people to finally remember my name.”</I>

It’s the way she wasn’t even directly involved in the medical emergency, but is milking it so hard to her advantage that’s giving me the ick.
It’s giving fake feminism and her character as a queer Latina woman was only used as token diversity.
It feels so scammy and disingenuous.
I get that she wants to shine in a "boy's world" but there's better ways of going about it.

Their whole connection felt forced, and there was too much going on between this and both of their families and the mental health and end of life discussions, as well as the stupid ex-girlfriend that kept bringing in unnecessary drama and added no value to the story.

Olive and Stella hadn’t even known each other for a full 24 hours and Olive was already having so many sexual thoughts like “maybe Stella would casually mention how much she liked pussy during the next conversation, and then rip Olive’s clothes off” and saying that she’d be an appropriate person to sit on top of Stella’s face. Like, calm down.
Maybe if this wasn’t a singular pov and we got to see if Stella was equally interested at such an accelerated rate, it wouldn’t have felt so off, but as it was, I just couldn’t get invested.

So much of this story, to me, felt like it was inadvertently taking jabs at women and I didn’t like it.
There was also multiple instances of homophobia and transphobia that didn’t need to be added.

And what was the purpose of always referring to the man with the allergic reaction as Mickey Mouse? Why were they incapable of using his name?


*To note: I read/listened to the digital and audio arc in tandem, and there were variations between the two in terms of certain word choices (like swapping a “her” for “their”, or “gay” for “lesbian” and other details pertaining to whether the battery of a cellphone was dead, etc.) so I can’t comment on which version most accurately reflects the final copy.


<b>SPOILER</b>
Are you kidding me with that ending??? Did I seriously read 95% of a book where they fake date in order for her to get a promotion, just for her to quit? That completely negates the whole basis of the plot and feels like such a slap in the face and a waste of my time.

This was a sweet story but it lacked the spark I look for in romance novels. I still recommend this but it wasn't one of my favorites.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio ARC. This was absolute perfection and had all the things I love in a romance novel. And added bonus is that it represented mental health accurately and with such care.

Read this ASAP!

A fresh take on the classic "fake dating" trope.

I was pleasantly surprised with how much depth this story had. It's a great emotional read.

I enjoyed how real the story felt. And absolutely loved the banter!

I liked that the author didn't shy away from anxiety and panic disorders, it made it more relatable.

This was a really good book and I highly recommended!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of release in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wasn't expecting much out of this fake-dating, sapphic romance novel, but this was so cute and good!

I'm not normally a fan of the miscommunication trope, but this one actually made sense to me. Olive and Stella were both sweet but flawed characters, and I loved their different family dynamics (I'm not used to reading books that include family members in comas, so this was a nice change of pace).

The cringiest part was the fact that the beginning had so much detail about Disney World. As someone who loves going at least once a year and used to work there... I hate reading about it in fiction. It just gives me the ick.

Otherwise, this was such a fun read with a lot of heart and some deeper topics, so I highly recommend if you're looking for a quick read!

This book started off great, lagged a little in the middle, but still ended strong for me. I would likely recommend it to others because overall I did enjoy it. I feel like this could've been 5 stars for me if it was dual POV. There were also a few pieces that weren't fully fleshed out in my opinion.

Since I did enjoy this one overall I will definitely check out future work from this author. This was also excellent on audio.