A sapphic love story with slow burn spice.
Olive saved the life of a fellow passenger on a flight to Disney World. She meets pilot Stella after the flight is diverted. In order to get to Disney on time for a half marathon Stella drives them both through the night.
Once back home Olive can’t stop thinking about Stella.
Stella reaches out to Olive asking a big favor
This is a sweet fake relationship story

3.5 Stars Fly with Me by Annie Burke was a surprisingly emotional, but heartfelt opposites-attract sapphic romance. ER nurse Olive Murphy is afraid of flying and during her very first flight to Orlando, she saves a man during an in-flight medical emergency. The man happens to be a popular character actor who plays Mickey Mouse at Disney and the video of Olive saving him goes viral. The plane is diverted to another airport and Olive is stuck and most likely will miss running in a Disney half-marathon in honor of her brother. Luckily, the co-pilot, Stella Soriano, offers to drive Olive all the way to Disney so she doesn’t miss the race. After spending more time together and getting along surprisingly well for two very different people, Stella proposes that she and Olive fake date. Stella needs more attention from her airline if she’s going to make captain, which she desperately wants to do before her sick father passes. Olive sees the arrangement as a way to get closer to Stella and hopes to turn the fake relationship into a real one, so she agrees. The two grow closer through their ruse and it becomes hard to decipher what’s real and what’s fake.

This was a very enjoyable and surprisingly quick read. I wasn’t expecting the heavier topics around caregiving and end-of-life care and decisions that both Stella and Olive had to consider for their loved ones. I wish that Olive would have been able to reconcile with her family, but her friend Morgan was right, some people never get over the changes that grief and loss bring. It was heartbreaking to read nonetheless. Also, the miscommunication and withholding of feelings between the main characters drove me crazy at times. They both were inconsistent and hurt the other person by not being honest about what they were feeling or what they wanted from the other. Overall, I liked the story and the characters.

Thank you to the author and St. Martin's Griffin for my early review copy; all opinions are my own!

FLY WITH ME took me on a deeply emotional journey. This touching sapphic romance champions the healing power of found family, facing your fears with compassion and patience, and surrounding yourself with people who see and love you just as you are. Perfect for fans of Alison Cochrun and Abby Jimenez!

Olive and Stella are adorable! This book plays up every lesbian romance trope, and even boldly states these intentions - fake dating, crazy ex and more. I loved all of it - what a fun read!

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

I enjoyed reading this quick and easy rom-com book! I loved the world the author built, including Olive's best friends and coworkers. They really made the book more interesting and realistic. They're there with advice that Olive definitely should've taken to save all the trouble, but that would make the book boring haha. This book has the traditional 'bad communication because someone caught feelings' trope which i didn't particularly like but other than that, a great read!

I enjoyed reading this book, oddly enough I read it on a plane so it felt very fitting to the environment. But as a story, it just had too much going on. Though, it was certainly enjoyable for the time I spent with it.

The fake dating never actually felt fake because we knew that both characters were into each other the whole time. And I realize you have to set aside logic a little to believe a fake dating story, but there needs to be an end goal that explains the need for the ruse, I didn't feel that we had one here. The story was also too serious, without the space to properly deal with all the pieces the author wanted to cover. Both MCs are both dealing with varying forms and amounts of family trauma, illness, sexism, grief, homophobia, and loneliness. Maybe it was just me, but I felt like we had two competing stories here.

Huge thanks to StMartins and NetGalley for the gifted ARC.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

I read this book as an arc from Netgalley.

Fly with Me begins with Olive traveling to complete a run in honor of her brother. After saving a man's life on her flight, she meets Stella. Stella is the co-pilot on the flight. This book only has Olive's point of view. I would have enjoyed the book more with Stella's point of view. It would have been nice to know what she was thinking directly. Olive is really going through it in this book so it was refreshing to see some cute moments between her and Stella. The heavy topics of this book involve family and dealing with loss. I was very frustrated with the way Olive's family treated her. Honestly, I wish Olive would have gone to therapy. This book also dealt with fear. Sometimes, fear can stop you from making mistakes but it can also prevent you from living your life. Olive definitely shows that there are some things worth taking a chance on

This is a sweet story mixed with a lot of heavy family issues. The book started out pretty exciting with Olive freaking out over flying for the first time and then saving a passenger's life. She spends time with one of the pilots Stella soon after and a fake dating scheme to benefit them both begins. It's a bit of a slow burn romance where the characters become good friends first. The relationship between Olive and her friend Derek is the best.

There is a lot of family drama for both Olive and Stella that becomes a major part of the story but ends pretty abruptly without feeling resolved. The story also included ex drama which was not really needed and took too much away from the romance part. Every time the ex was mentioned or showed up it brought the story down so much that it made it hard to be excited for the characters again. It seemed like the story just had too much going on for one book.

Overall the book started out really well with great characters but the end was so heavy loaded that the happy ever after didn't feel as happy as it should. (ARC received from Netgalley for review)

A great debut featuring fake dating, an adorable dog named Gus, and Disney World!

This was definitely a slow burn- all we got were a couple kisses before about 70%. I really like Derek and Joni and Stella's dad Hector is great as well.

Olive's entire family (except her brother obv) can eat a fart , they are literally the worst. Lindsay is also the worst. There was a lot of drama and tension in this that sometimes leaned into super dramatic territory, (mostly where Lindsay was concerned) but mostly it was well-done tension due to the trauma Olive and Stella were going through.

There are a lot of emotions and I really felt for Olive and all she was going through. I enjoyed seeing her find herself and how she wanted to live her life. For real though, I wanted to kick her entire family's ass for her.

Overall, a fun sapphic read and I look forward to what this author does next.

This was such a cute sapphic book!

The preface of how Stella and Olive met is quite entertaining and definitely worth the appeal. Stella being a pilot while Olive having a fear of planes and flying in general was such a great contrast between them!

Now if you were to ask me if this book had a plot? I would say No.

I think there was in intended plot with the whole fake dating trope being brought into the story but I just don't think it provided the story with any actual plot. The same thing honestly could be said for Olives fear of flying, it's strongly mentioned throughout the book but it never really impacts the story in any serious way. (I could go on and on and on about other conflicts introduced to the story that didn't provide any plot *cough *cough Lindsey)

As for Olive, I did really feel terrible for her. She really had terrible circumstances with both her ex girlfriend and her family. And as someone who had been in her place in her grief my heart really hurt for her. Something I really wish we could've seen was a more confident version of Olive, it seemed like throughout the entire book she let herself get walked on which might be a part of her characters personality but honestly I would've liked to see that change towards the end.

Stella had me cheering as a Latina Bisexual myself, and honestly I could see myself a lot in her. And although I love her, I just do not agree with the way the book ended. In fact, I just felt like Stella didn't have any growth throughout the whole book and although her and Olive were cute, I just didn't see much chemistry between them.

Also Lindsey was just so annoying, what was the whole point of even having her a part of the story? she was like a continuous fruit fly that couldn't be squashed away.

but overall the book was cute!

Olive is afraid of planes so naturally her soulmate is a pilot. Perfect rom com math in this book if you ask me. The characters are fully fleshed out in so many ways, albeit unrealistic in some of their decisions, like driving cross country with a stranger. The charm of this book wins out though. From family dynamics to toxic exes this has the whole cast for you to love. Olive doesn't want public attention after saving a man on a plane because of a past trauma, but Stella is a pilot searching for her captain spot and convinces her to do some fake dating.

Burke does wlw the way I love, she allows them to be fully fleshed out people with problems and toxicity. She allows them to hold thins back. The problems I have with this book that knock it down to 4 stars is the length and the toxic ex. If this was trimmed down about 60 pages, it wouldn't feel like so much filler. Onto Lindsay the annoying ex, she is so unnecessary. Her existence is vital to Olive's insecurities with Stella, but past the beginning and the texts she does not need to be in this book. Especially in the end with her 'climax' it was unnecessary to the plot. The stresses of their families, the death, and own relationship traumas would have been enough to get the same result without her contribution. Olive's family hurt me so much, but I think that's because I see too much of my own in them. As for Stella, her taking care of her father hit so close to home, and was handled so well. I felt seen in each dialogue she had.

Overall, this is a full and emotional book. The relationship is realistic, but to the point where you are rooting for them. Who needs a heroine to sweep you off your feet when you can both save eachother.

This was a pretty great sapphic romance, and I'm not sure why I haven't seen more people talk about it, but maybe that's because this is a September release, and it's currently March.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading this! This felt like a fairly long read, but in a good way, because I just felt like a lot happened over the course of this book. This could have felt like too much, but it just made me feel like the characters had full, complex lives, which was really nice to read about. There are some harder storylines too, like Olive dealing with her brother being on life support and her family being angry with her for wanting to honour his wishes, and Stella's father having Parkinson's. This all added to a fully fleshed out story and never made the book feel too heavy, just realistically human.

And there were lots and lots of cute moments, because the characters spent a lot of time together in different situations. There's even a road trip!

I love this book for so many reasons. One of them is the author. Another is that it tells such a full and realistic love story between two messy people that make each other better. I really love the banter, as well. Andie writes emotions so well; the feelings leap off the page and rip my heart out while simultaneously reminding me to laugh through it all. Her writing speaks to me so easily. I hope you get to have the same experience when this book debuts in September.

Summary:
Olive Murphy is terrified of flying, but this is a flight to Disney World she can’t avoid. While on board, a medical emergency happens and her ER nurse training is required. She saves a man's life - a man that happens to play Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon she is a viral sensation, but she didn’t end up at her final destination thanks to the plane being rerouted. A grateful, and very sexy, pilot offers to drive Olive the rest of the way so she can run in a half-marathon to honor a loved one.

Stella Soriano is a Latina pilot who has been playing the Good Old Boys game to try to get a seat at the captain’s table for as long as she can remember. Hard working and diligent, she still hasn’t been able to quite crack the code and make her dream come true. Enter the lovely and chaotic Olive Murphy and a few dozen news outlets, and she gets an idea. Fake dating the woman who saved Mickey Mouse might finally be the clencher she needs to seal the deal.

Olive readily agrees because, hot pilot.

With all of the messiness of real life seeping into their carefully constructed agreement, their relationship grows up through the cracks - determined and promising.

I received an eARC of this book through St. Martin's Press and NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was so so lovely and definitely one I’ll want to come back to. Olive and Stella were the perfect fake dating *but is it really fake* trope and I loved them with my whole heart. Andie did an incredible job or portraying different types of grief and the way grief can influence our relationships. I cried a lot (in a good way) and cannot recommend this one enough.

Note: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley, and I also know the author personally, but all assessments here are my own.

Andie Burke’s debut sapphic romance Fly with Me is a captivating read in its own right. It also opens the door to representation I haven’t yet seen in the romance genre. In other words, it succeeds in two very different goals: being deeply important, and being straight-up fun to read.

Fly with Me opens with flying-phobic Olive talking herself down from a panic attack as a passenger on her first-ever flight. We quickly learn there’s more to Olive than her flight anxiety when she springs into action to save a fellow passenger experiencing a medical emergency. Unfortunately, this diversion strands Olive hundreds of miles from a race she’s supposed to run in honor of her brother.

Olive’s plans are salvaged when Stella, the flight’s copilot, offers her a ride to their destination. The two of them spend an enchanting day together after Olive’s race before parting ways.

However, when a video of Olive’s heroism — and a photo of her and Stella together after the race — goes viral, Stella suggests they fake a romantic relationship to capitalize on the positive press. This visibility could finally put a long-overdue promotion within Stella’s reach. Olive agrees to the ruse. She tells herself it’ll be fun. However, each passing week blurs the line between their fun act and an explosive reality.

One of the most striking aspects of Fly with Me is its representation of neurodivergent characters. This reveals a small speculation on my part, as Burke identifies neither Olive nor Stella explicitly as such on the page. I have almost a decade of experience reading and writing about the adult ADHD and autistic experience. From the first chapter, I felt completely at home in this book. I felt seen. Fly with Me opened my eyes to the possibility of seeing someone like me on the page of a romance novel. This means a lot.

While we meet Olive in a moment of hyperfocused competence on the plane, we also see her internal struggles to feel worthy of love and admiration. In both Stella and Olive, we see how neurological differences can shape our life experience and self-perception. Both, at times, demonstrate anxiety around how the others might misperceive their actions. They fear core elements of themselves will cause pain and rejection. They feel a need to mask these vulnerabilities from others.

Representation aside, Fly with Me is simply a great book. The supporting cast is well-developed and lovable, and the story strikes a perfect balance between heavy and light. Olive’s family struggles and her loyalty to her critically-ill brother are heartbreaking. Yet, those heavy emotional moments are offset by sparkling humor and warmth. Olive’s best friend Derek is a perfect foil to her anxiety and mental chaos, and their banter adds a layer of depth to the story as well.

The romance between Olive and Stella is a slow burn with a few teasers early on. I loved how the fake-dating trope played delightfully on Olive and Stella’s quirks and insecurities. The story is both funny and heartwarming, with great chemistry throughout.

Overall, Fly with Me is a must-read and a true gift for romance readers, especially those who struggle to fit in and long to see someone more like themselves on the page. This is an incredibly strong debut, and I can’t wait to read whatever Andie Burke writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This book was an absolute joy. I was completely in love with Olive and Stella. The act 3 breakdown in romance fiction here was solid but I wasn't entirely believing that they both gave up on each other. And Olive facing her fear of flying felt like it would be realised further if Stella was in this scene - either as Olive gets off the plane or just before. The delay lost steam for me.

All that being said, however, I devoured the book and wanted more and more from them. I love the premise and love airport lesfic storylines. I'd love for this world to develop.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It was a slow burn with a slow pace. I felt like it was too long, but I couldn’t identify where specifically it felt too long.

Some additional thoughts:
- The reveal of what happened to Jake felt too soon. There was also too much “hype.” I would have liked a bit more mystery and focus.
- We get it. Olive is afraid of flying.
- I wasn’t here for the Lindsay nonsense. There was enough going on without it. Cutting that would probably have helped a lot with the length and overall plot pacing. We really didn’t have to meet Lindsay to see the impact she had.
- During dialogue scenes, it was difficult to tell who was speaking on multiple occasions. I wish there were more dialogue tags or more distinct voices.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

I’m giving Fly With Me 3.5 stars. There was plenty to enjoy about the book. Especially the beginning. Loved the plane scene and the marathon at Disney. The characters were lovable and I definitely was rooting for them. There were just a few things that took away from my experience. It was rather slow paced with a lot of dialogue which was hard for me to feel pulled into. Just too slow burn for me, but that’s a to each their own kind of situation. And then just a few points in the plot that didn’t work for me. But I would definitely read whatever Andie writes next.

This was such a great debut, and I loved it! There's all the good parts about rom coms but with a ton of emotional depth. There are good conversations about mental health, anxiety, and toxic relationships/situations (I'd say definitely pay heed to the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book though). All of that emotional depth is expertly mixed with great characters, witty banter, and a love you route for. I definitely can't wait to read anything else Andie Burke writes!