A free copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Love in Row 27 is the story of Cora, a check-in assistant for Aer Lingus at Heathrow, who having been burned in love before, now spends her time playing Cupid and making matches between the single people travelling on her flights - seating them in the Row 27 of the title and having her flight attendant friend, Nancy, keep an eye on the in-air drama this creates.
I have to say that I wasn't convinced by the first few chapters of Love in Row 27. It takes a while to get going and at the beginning of the plot there was far too much exposition for my liking. However, I'm really glad that I stuck with it as once I passed chapter 3, it was like the gears kicked in and all of a sudden I was deeply involved in Cora's life and the lives of her friends and passengers, hoping that they all got their happily ever after.
One of the strengths of this book in fact is the cast of characters, all of whom actually feel fleshed out with wants and lives beyond the story, which helped make their inclusion in the story make sense. I especially liked Nancy, the flight attendant, who loves the history of Pan Am and is going for a promotion, and Ingrid, the frequent flyer who is fully onboard with Cora's matchmaking efforts.
As the plot went on, I also became deeply invested in the side plot of Cora's relationship with her mother whose memory is gradually deteriorating due to Alzheimer's and this part of the story, as well as her pre-plot break up, helped bring added depth to her matchmaking schemes. I was deeply involved by this point and aspects of this did make me cry.
A slow start but interesting and fleshed-out characters and a plot that didn't feel forced meant that I really ended up enjoying this tremendously. 4 stars.

I’ve followed Eithne Shortall’s journalism for quite a long time and I’m pleased to see she’s moved into writing her own books. Love In Row 27 is the first of these and makes for very entertaining reading.

It follows the story of Cora Hendricks as she works at the check-in desk at an airport. She passes the time by acting as a matchmaker for some of the singles on the flights. She absolutely loves matching people up, researching the backgrounds online to see who would maybe fit together. She’s got the assistance of her friend Nancy on the plane pushing things along get people engaged with each other.

The book is filled with humour as we enjoy the mismatches and the scrapes people get into along the way. However, what lifts the book is how well Eithne has drawn the character of Cora. There’s some very moving moments with her mum having early onset Alzheimer’s. Cora’s matchmaking really becomes an obsession with colour coded charts and somewhat takes over her life, leading to tense encounters with her friends. Alongside this Cora dwells a lot on her ex and her time in Berlin. With all this going on, it’s hard not to feel a connection with Cora and wish for her to perhaps find a loved one herself.

This is a warm, and moving debut that exhibits a certain sharpness of wit. It’s a book I wanted to fly through to see what happened next with Cora and her gang. I’m now looking forward to reading Grace After Henry, Eithne’s second book which was recently published.

Good book, Ms Shorthall shows us the world of the cabin crew as well as a glimpse into what they go through as people.
Kudos, well written!

Love in Row 27 has a winning premise - an airport check-in lady plays match-maker with passengers, with some more successful than others.

This is the first book I've read from Eithne Shortall but most certainly won't be the last. It was an easy, up-lifting read with fully-rounded characters and laugh-out-loud moments.

There was also the more sobering plot thread concerning Cora's mother who suffers from dementia.

A really good summer-time read. Highly recommend!

Sorry, I gave up after finding too many words joined up with others making it hard to read.

Cora still devastated from the break up of her two year relationship decides that she can use her position as check in girl for Aer Lingus at Heathrow to do a bit of matchmaking, especially with the help of Nancy her glamorous air stewardess friend.

With the help of social media she starts to investigate people booked on flights and decides who she thinks will be suitable partners from the passenger list and then puts them next to each other in row 27. Nancy then keeps an eye on them throughout the flight and reports back, you also get the points of view of the passengers to round if off, but can Cora get too involved and obsessed with the plan?

Nancy als0 has the idea of trying to set up Cora, and Charlie seems like a great choice and he definitely likes her but is she ready for a relationship again or is there someone else who might catch her eye!

I loved the concept of the dating in the sky and it was a good light hearted read with some great characters

Review: This book came strongly recommend by other reviews on NetGalley. However I couldn't get into it and I really wanted to.


The concept of the book is great. Setting up singles on a flight great idea and then to find love herself.

I feel that this is one I will come back to and read again. I do find sometimes that you need to be in a particular kind of mind set for some books especially when the author is new to you.


I recommend this book on its idea and will defiantly re-read it.

I really really loved this book, the story and the characters were wonderful. Recommended read

I really liked the idea of this book, working at the Aer Lingus check-in desk and acting as matchmaker on flights by seating people in certain seats, i.e. Row 27, and it really worked, I loved the story.

Cora was the flight check-in attendant playing matchmaker and her friend, Nancy, a stewardess, helped push things along once on the flight by giving free drinks and chatting to them more. Cora was just passing through this job until she decided what she wanted to do. Her Mum had worked there for many years so it was comfortable and everyone knew her. Her Mum unfortunately now had dementia and was in a home/research facility and was slowly getting worse every day which was really sad and it effected Cora a lot, but the matchmaking distracted her, sometimes to the point of obsession.

There are a variety of side characters that I really liked, regular passengers and people working at the airport. I especially liked Aiden and Ingrid who were regular passengers and also really central to the story, especially Aiden.

I loved the way one strand of the story was about Cora and her life, and the other about the matchmaking she tried to do on the flights with a variety of characters, so we get snippets of their story too. It originally sounded like quite a light story but actually had so much more depth with her Mum and her dementia.

A really impressive debut for Eithne Shortall and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.