This fast-paced easy read is good for fans of disaster movies and thrillers. Easy to pitch as a readalike to Clare Mackintosh's HOSTAGE.

Like the edge-of-your-seat disaster movies of the 1970’s coupled with a terrorist plot, ‘Falling’ will leave you stiff from clenching your muscles throughout this book. Just when you think you might catch your breath, the reader is thrown into yet another life and death situation. Simply put, ‘Falling’ is THE reading thrill ride of 2021! Thank you to the published for making this available through #NetGalley

I flew through this (pun intended) and read it all in one sitting as I couldn't stop reading until I knew exactly what happened. The characters are so well written and the teamwork between the flight attendants was so touching. Two things that I wanted to know though that I don't think were addressed (if I missed them or if they get added in before final publication, let me know)(view spoiler). A tense, suspenseful novel. Highly recommended!


Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Falling is a prime example of writing a nail-biting thriller without the shootouts and car chases mostly found in the best of the genre. Instead, readers are treated to an intense situation 35,000 feet in the air onboard a plane piloted by a man who has to choose between saving his family and saving the souls on board his aircraft. T.J Newman spins a captivating yarn full of deeply grounded characters standing up to challenging dilemmas no reader would ever want to face. It isn’t often you see a debut novel written with such finesse as that of Falling.
One of my quicker reads, I finished Falling in two days. The story moves at a breakneck pace without faltering or dragging. There is always something happening that pushes the story forward. The driving forces of the narrative are the highly relatable characters. Each character feels like someone you may cross paths with without even realizing. It is only when the going gets tough and the situation takes a nosedive (pun-intended) that the characters are tested and their true natures revealed in displays of unflinching bravery ( or betrayal for some ). Even the antagonists are painted in a shade of gray rather than a simple ‘evil’ label. I felt for the bad guys just as I did for the good ones when Newman aptly highlights their painful desperation. This is the brilliance of Falling. Flashbacks and powerful dialogue are brilliantly used to convey the gravity of the hostile situation, always keeping readers on their toes to be prepared for anything to happen, much like how the characters in the story feel.
I am glad I read Falling safely on ground and not in the air because I would have been a nervous wreck for the entire flight. Void of cliché agendas for bad guys and highly elaborate conspiracy stories, Falling opts for a character-driven escapade with a personal message for all readers in a race-against-time setting to drive home the gut-wrenching stakes of the narrative. It is only a matter of time before we see a big screen adaptation of this exquisite debut, so be sure to read it ASAP!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fun romp of a read. As a pilot gets ready to fly from LA to NYC, his family is kidnapped. Bill is given the option to save his family or crash the plane. I liked Jo, Big Daddy, and Carrie's characters a lot.

I had the same feeling as when I read The Martian, thinking this would make a great movie.

I had a hard time understanding why the terrorists were doing this and targeting Bill and his family.

Great first book by T.J. Newman. I hope to read more from her in the future. She also showed me that flight attendants have much more responsibilities than I realized.