Love at First Flight

Love at First Flight is the story of Mel, a thirty seven year old wife and mother who seems to have everything that a woman could possibly want. To an outsider looking in, her life looks perfect; she has a successful husband, two wonderful children, and a great career. Mel doesn’t feel like her life is perfect. Her marriage of fourteen years has become stagnant, routine, and monotonous. When she goes on a girl’s weekend to meet up with her best friend, she doesn’t expect to meet someone on the plane trip who turns out to be everything that she’s been craving.

Once I started reading this book, I was glued to the pages. When I was reading it, I was completely drawn into the story. When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it and wanting to get back to it. When a book can garner such a reaction from me, I know that it’s a winner. I liked that the characters in this book were more mature. I read a lot of and certainly have nothing against the New Adult genre, but it was a refreshing change to read about characters who are a bit older and established in their lives. I think that Tess Woods has done an exceptional job of writing an honest, realistic portrayal of a woman who is going through a mid-life crisis and questioning her marriage and her fidelity.

As often as I wanted to yell at Mel and tell her not to mess up her marriage, I could also sympathize with her. She didn’t feel loved in the way that she wanted to. She never felt that passion or that desire with her husband like she should have. Sure, they loved each other, but the heart palpitations and the butterflies were nonexistent. She never had them with her husband. She did have them with Matt.

Matt is quite a bit younger than Mel, and he is engaged to be married. His relationship with his fiancée isn’t what he really desires anymore. He isn’t in love with her and is having second thoughts about marrying her. He feels that chemistry, that attraction, that interest in Mel from the first moment he lays eyes on her.

What develops from there is not solely based on deep passion, but also real love. Mel and Matt feel as though they have found their soul mates in one another. Mel tried to fight her attraction to Matt. She didn’t really want to mess up her marriage and her family. She never set out looking for another man, she just ended up meeting one that took her breath away (boy, did he ever).

This is not a lighthearted look at infidelity. This is a painful, heartbreaking, explosive story of a woman who is torn between what is right and what feels right. I truly felt for all of the characters in this book – I didn’t always agree with their choices or their actions, but the author wrote in such a way that I felt invested in their lives. With every decision made, there are consequences and repercussions, and Mel finds this out all too well.

Love at First Flight is a very well written book that is brimming with emotion. It is a fantastic debut novel by a talented new author that I will be looking forward to reading more from in the future!

*5 Stars*