As an avid traveler, the concept of this book is absolutely terrifying.

However, I found this story to be absolutely dull. Yes, it was filled with action and many 'surprising" twists - which were so predictable they were completely unsurprising in the end. But not much else that made me sit up, take notice and enjoy this read.

1 stars ⭐

Special thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks for the opportunity to review this one. At the time of requesting I was still getting used to netgalley and so I didn't get the chance to download and review this one.

However I've since purchased a copy for myself because I was very intrigued by the synopsis. I ended up listening to it on audio and let me tell you I did not but pause on this more than once. It was so suspenseful and gripping. The pacing was phenomenal. The shorter length meant was easy to just keep listening and get to the end.

The ending was satisfying and I highly recommend this book.

*thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster Australia and T.J Newman for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*



2 stars.

Ummm. Seems this just wasn't for me. I found it a bit, how shall I word it, bland. There was no suspense in it for me. I also realise I maybe the odd one out here, but the prequel, I think it was meant to grab you and pull you into the story, hard. But for me, it didn't work. I think it has the opposite effect and made me less interested.

But still, I kept reading, thinking it could get better. It could get really intense and exciting and be full of things I didn't expect, right? Well, it had moments, sorta. But no. It didn't really happen for me.

I don't think it's a bad story, I could see how people could like it but I'm just in the group that this wasn't ment for. Which isn't a bad thing because I know that I would give this author another go. Even with your favourite authors, there is usually a book or 2 that you don't enjoy as much as the rest, so many that's what this book was for me.

While I personally wouldn't recommend it as being great, I also would recommend that if you think you may like it, to give it a go. You could love it.

The toughest of moral dilemmas!

Captain Bill Hoffman is piloting a plane from LAX to JFK airport, when he receives a notification from his wife’s email address. A photo attachment shows his wife, son, and daughter – bound and gagged, wearing suicide bomber vests.

A second email contains a FaceTime video – the terrorist kidnapper’s instructions are crystal clear – crash the plane and your family will live. Fail to do so, and they will be killed.

The choice is Bill’s.

Falling was a fast-paced, ticking-clock, high stakes thriller. The non-stop action in the air, and on the ground, was intense and heart-pounding. And if you are willing to suspend your disbelief this will likely work for you. Unfortunately , I struggled to do this, and I found it all somewhat cheesy and corny.

The characters were fairly stereotypical, but admittedly I enjoyed the POV’s, particularly the flight attendants – they were the definite highlight. Also, don’t be put off by the violent, grisly opening dream sequence – the remainder of the novel was decidedly non-violence. Having finished, I have no idea why the ‘prologue’ was included? A premonition of what was to come maybe? A way to introduce Bill’s fears and vulnerabilities? Either way, it didn’t really work for me. And what was up with those weird italicised flashbacks that keep popping up in the middle of dramatic scenes? Very jarring.

An average read, an easy read, a quick read, but it was all a bit underwhelming. I’m definitely the outlier though, so make sure to check both the positive and negative reviews before deciding.

I’d like to thank Netgalley, Simon & Schuster Australia, and T.J. Newman for the e-ARC.

Just when you thought getting on a plane was safe…. A full flight of one hundred and forty-three passengers are onboard. A normal day began for the pilot until he is asked to risk his life and passengers just so his family will live. A Mystery and Thrilling until the last word a reader is given a book full of twists and turns throughout. Definitely a book to keep and recommended for readers of Mystery and Thrillers.
#Falling #NetGalley.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Simon & Schuster Australia via NetGalley for my honest review of the book Falling. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own thoughts, feelings and viewpoints of the book.

Review run date was set for 2 June 2021 for Netgalley, unfortunately life stood at a standstill today 20 October 2021 review is posted on NetGalley, my WordPress blog, Facebook blog, Instagram, LinkedIn, Amazon.com.au, goodreads, along with the non-linked retail online stores that sell the book is at:

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Insane!!!! I do not believe I have turned pages in a book this fast in years!! As a debut author I just wanted to say congratulations and I have already purchased a physical copy of this book to put on my favourite reads book shelf. So dam good!!!

3.5
“The moment he had seen the picture, he knew his cockpit had been breached. He knew on some level that the plane itself was in jeopardy. Bill couldn’t feel his hands as they moved over the keyboard.

I’m not going to crash this plane and you’re not going to kill my family.

‘Wrong,’ the man said after reading Bill’s email. ‘One of those things will happen. You choose which.’

‘Let me repeat myself, son. I’m not going to crash this plane and you’re not going to kill my family. Period.’”


Bill Hoffman already wakes up regularly from a nightmare about a plane crash where the side of the plane rips open and people are sucked out. Not good for a pilot. This isn’t exactly what he’s dreamed – it’s worse. Bill is flying LA to NY, when he is confronted mid-air with an email demanding he crash the plane. Attached is a photograph of his kidnapped family.

He can’t tell anyone or signal anyone. He lets his co-pilot think he’s just answering emails or Facetiming his wife. It would be a dilemma for anyone, but even more so for Bill. He takes his pre-flight inspection more seriously than some, who consider it a necessary nuisance.

“To most pilots, it was just another FAA regulation. To Bill, it was church.“

He also took this particular lesson to heart when he began flying.

“‘Now, when we log a flight plan, do you know why we write ‘souls on board’ instead of ‘people on board’?’ his instructor had asked.

Bill shook his head.

‘We say it that way so that if we crash,’ he explained, ‘they know exactly how many bodies they’re looking for. Avoids the confusion of different titles like passengers, crew, infants. Just how many bodies, son. That’s all they need to know. Oh!’ He snapped his fingers. ‘And sometimes we carry dead bodies in the cargo hold so they need to know not to count them.’”

There are no dead bodies on this flight – yet. But there are some interesting characters, and when the terrorist mentions a backup plan, everybody looks suspicious.

I found this terrifyingly exciting in places and so dull that I skimmed a lot. The author has added back stories for many characters, which I usually appreciate and enjoy. I like understanding where people come from and how their personalities were formed. None of it really mattered in this instance (to me), because I just wanted to know what was going to happen.

Probably the best character is Jo, the senior flight attendant, who has to explain to the junior trainee what it is exactly that they do. The trainee wants to hand out snacks during a moment of crisis while Jo needs her to do something else.

“‘Kellie,’ Jo said. ‘That’s not our job. Service is just something we provide.’
. . .
First aid and self-defense. Drilling, over and over, the evacuation of hundreds of people from a burning aircraft, or from a water landing.
. . .
They’d learned about the different kinds of fires and the different ways to fight them. Hazmat, heart attacks, hijackings. Federal regulations and federal air marshals. Turbulence. Terrorists.”

There’s plenty to enjoy in this novel, but I never felt invested in the characters (although I liked Jo). I do, however, see this as a terrific screenplay that will no doubt be (maybe has already been) turned into a film or mini-series, where we will suffer the mounting tension and can’t skip the back stories.

I won’t give it more stars, because it didn’t hold my attention enough to stop me skimming to get to the end. Others have loved this, and you may, too, so read their reviews instead. 😊

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Australia for the copy for review from which I’ve quoted.

Such a fantastic premise, and a great opening chapter. Unfortunately, I shared the opinions of some reviewers re. the terrorists in the novel. I'm not sure exactly what the author was looking to achieve with the backstories for both Ben and Sam, but I found myself struggling to connect with the 'good guys' given the decisions made with regards to the perpetrators of a series of horribly destructive scenarios. It did seem that empathy for the villains was desired, but I found that incredibly complicated and often supremely awkward. I found the breakdown of the airline attendants' roles interesting and enlightening, but this was all lost eventually as the larger plot unfolded. The ending, particularly Sam's fate, was unsatisfying, and I don't think the whole uber-American baseball stadium exodus worked given the issues with the villains. Good set-up, enticing pre-publicity that made you want to pick this up, phenomenal artwork, but ultimately did not come together for me.

Do not read this book on a plane. I wouldn’t read it if you’re even THINKING about getting on a plane in the next few weeks. You’re going to need to give your brain time to get past the sheer plausibility of it all.

When pilot Bill gets a message showing his wife and son terrified, wearing suicide vests, shortly after his LAX-JFK flight takes off, he has to make the most terrible decision of his life. Crash the plane, sacrificing himself and almost 150 souls on board - or sacrifice his family. And the terrorists have a backup plan on board… just in case he makes the wrong decision.

While Bill’s a heroic figure here, I honestly think it’s cabin crew chief Jo who’s the true heroine of the story. Perhaps it’s because of the author’s own career as a flight attendant, but I definitely felt more involved in the story every time we returned to what Jo was dealing with in the main cabin, as she tried to help while maintaining calm.

This is the kind of book you just can’t stop reading. I read the whole thing in a single sitting, and set it down feeling quite satisfied with the outcome. The villains were far from one-dimensional, there were a few hilarious moments of comic relief - flight attendant ‘Big Daddy’ calling an entitled passenger ‘Karen’ had me laughing out loud - and honestly, it all felt far too plausible, even though the author promises in her notes that she has made enough tweaks to real-life procedures that it can’t be used as a ‘training manual’.

A really good action thriller. Just don’t read it on the plane.

Oh my gosh. What a great debut book that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. I loved it.

This is a story that seems so real in our lives today and you can imagine it could happen but you hope it never will. This reeled me in from page one and never let go until the final page. It is suspenseful, it is thrilling, it is scary and it grabs you and makes you think. Could this really happen?

I loved the way it was written, both in the air and on the ground, you saw two parts to the story but in the end it was all one story. The characters where strong, well thought out and had plenty of substance, the relationships between people, the feelings and how people pull together in a time of crisis made it so real.

Well written, it flowed well with both stories (the kidnapping of the family and the pilots dilemma in the air) keeping you enthralled and gelling together at the right moments. It makes you think of what you would do in circumstance that are really beyond your control.

One of the best books I have read this year.

Surely everyone loves a good plane disaster story. Written by a former flight attendant, Falling asks the question: what if bad things happened on a plane? It’s a valid one, never far from collective conscious these last two decades, but T.J. Newman isn’t quite the person to answer it.

Captain Bill Hoffman gets on his scheduled flight, only to find that terrorists have taken his wife and children hostage. If he doesn’t crash the plane according to their captor’s exacting instructions, the rest of the Hoffman family will die. If he tells anyone, the rest of the Hoffman family will die.

As in the case of many of these breakout debuts, the story of Falling’s composition is far more romantic and adventurous than the actual novel itself. A book about a plane written on planes, while the passengers were asleep, could be a thing. They’re making it a thing. But Falling’s structure doesn’t hold up to it. Bill is constrained to the cockpit for most of the novel, and he’s far less interesting than the support cast of flight attendants who ultimately carry the parts of the novel that work. Every time plucky flight attendant (and convenient aunt of an FBI agent) Jo Watson has to deal with something in the body of the plane, Falling rises. Every time we’re stuck with Bill, the glassy eyed everyman-but-better hero that readers allegedly want, things grind to a halt.

Falling wants to have it both ways with Middle-Eastern terrorists who make a point of not being related to or motivated by Islam in any way. Newman’s storytelling grows increasingly didactic as it progresses, and tries to make the whole piece a learning moment for the characters and, by extension, the reader. To paraphrase a show that has aged incredibly poorly, “cool motive, still terrorism”.

It was brave of Newman to even attempt to posit why someone might hate the United States, a concept that is still alien to so many despite the entirety of world history right there to consult; this is of course massively undercut by a ridiculous Hands Across America style finale lifted almost verbatim from How The Grinch Stole Christmas (or Last Exit to Springfield, if you prefer that reference).

A thriller with more lessons than thrills to impart, Falling is a leaden attempt to revitalise a genre that’s been out of style for a while. Its very boilerplate nature is probably exactly what will endear it to mass audiences, but it is where Newman tries something outside the stuffiness of the cockpit that Falling gives the impression of what could have been.

There is a control for Falling, however: almost simultaneously released is Clare Mackintosh’s Hostage, which sounds both more like a classic passenger vehicle thriller (celebrity plane gala!) and more focused on the flight attendants, who are the largely ignored heroes of Falling. Read them both, read neither: it’s not like you’re going to be doing much flying anytime soon anyway.*

*Your mileage may literally vary.

Haven't read a thriller in ages, not sure why not but probably because I have been surrounded by so many other good options. This is a hijack novel, but this time with all the twists you could ever imagine. Prepare to gasp as it unfolds. Action all the way.

A pilot receives a message which states that his family are being held hostage, strapped to bombs. They will be blown to bits if the pilot refuses to crash the fully loaded plane. He is to tell nobody, and will be caught out if he does as there is an informant on the plane. What is he to do? His beloved family are in mortal danger, he is a good man, how can he kill all of the people on the plane, and this includes a close friend on the cabin crew. It is the very worst kind of dilemma.

This is such a great ride. The machinations of the way it plays out are fantastic. Nicely twisty and turny with a fantastic cabin crew as our heroes.

I finished it in 2 days, a quick read and its rekindled my interest in thrillers.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me access.

Thank you #netgalley, #simonandschusteraustralia and #tjnewman for the arc of this book.

149 souls. There are 149 souls on Coastal Airways Flight 416. Captain Bill, along with this co pilot and cabin crew, are responsible for keeping these souls alive.
But that becomes a lot more difficult when Bill receives a video call while piloting. He finds out that his family has been kidnapped and he is then given an ultimatum: crash the plane and kill all on board or watch as his wife and two children are murdered. What will he choose?

This is a very tension filled book. Whilst I didn't think that there were too many twists, it was certainly an edge of your seat read.
The fact this was written by a flight attendant made this book seem more harrowing and scary somehow. And for a debut novel, it was brilliantly written.

I recommend this book if you like fast paced, edge of your seat reads.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

I received Falling by T.J. Newman from Simon & Schuster Australia via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the synopsis for Falling, I was intrigued but didn’t hold super high hopes that it would live up to the hype. Dear reader, I was so wrong.

Falling is one of only a few books where I genuinely didn’t want to put it down. I had to know the who, the why, the how and, most importantly, the what happens at the end. The characters are believable and their actions under pressure feel real.

I loved the plot. Similar have been done before, but Falling doesn’t feel stale or derivative. There are so many moving parts but they work together in a fast-paced ballet of mystery, action and thrills.

If you enjoy thriller novels that don’t skimp on the thrills then I highly recommend Falling by T.J. Newman.

Thanks for an early digital copy in exchange for a review.
What a ride! I made the mistake of starting this as I was about to embark on my own flight but I was unable to stop reading! This is a fast paced thrilling story, with the authors knowledge of airlines cleverly woven through. There is string character development that draws you in even further than the alluring premise of the book. A fantastic read that actually lives up to all the hype surrounding it and is definitely worth picking up- though just not before or during a flight if you want ti avoid nightmares and flight anxiety!

if you are afraid of flying, please avoid this one. Many mistakes were made (all of them on me).
The first one was to request this book to review even tho I'm afraid of flying... although to be honest I haven't been on a plane for almost 2 years.. so I kind of forgot about my fear. The second mistake was to continue reading it when I started feeling my heartbeat rising and my hands shaking and the third one was to never put it down and take a long break from it.

Overall...what a flight! - Page-turner, nail-biting adventure. Really recommended!

T. J. Newman’s Falling arrives in Australia on the back of considerable media hype and enthusiastic praise by other crime writers.

The premise is misleadingly simple. Minutes after take-off veteran pilot Bill Hoffman receives an unexpected video call from a terrorist who has taken his family captive. Either crash his Los Angeles to New York flight into an undisclosed target or watch his family be blown up by the explosives strapped to them. If he tells anyone about the terrorist threat his family will killed. He is also told that another terrorist is onboard to make sure that he follows instructions. As Bill tries to thwart the terrorist’s plans the plane steadily makes it way north.

It is easy to quickly understand the enthusiasm for this thrill-a-minute thriller, the film rights for which have already been sold. The storyline utilises the classic ‘ticking time bomb’ plot, with the book’s timeline being determined by the five and a half hour flight between Los Angeles and New York. By the end of the flight either Bill’s family will be dead or the plane crashed, or both. This deadline looms over the story from the opening pages and Newman skillfully ratchets up the tension as the flight proceeds. Not unsurprisingly, Newman introduces some good twists and her smooth writing style makes the story unfold in a very readable manner. She also shows good skills in expanding out the original premise of the story and keeping it interesting and tense throughout.

Falling is meant to read in a couple of sittings and the focus is very much on the plot and maximising the suspense. The characters are quickly sketched, but mainly credible, and Newman uses succinct flashbacks to flesh out Bill Hoffman and his wife. Some of the other characters lack depth, and the terrorists remain a bit cliched, but this will not stop you from feverishly turning the pages to find out what will happen.

For once the hype is warranted. Falling is a terrific novel that does what a thriller is supposed to, thrill and entertain. It may put you off that post-COVID flight, but is well worth reading.

Falling is a plane thriller with a difference. It’s not a mechanical fault or an onboard hijacker that is the focus of the storyline. Pilot Bill Hoffman is on a regular domestic flight when he receives a message to crash the plane or his family will die.

As each deal with the situation, the story switches between Bill, the cabin crew, and his family with their hostage, giving the reader a full picture as the story unfolds while still maintaining the tension and smooth storytelling.

I was hooked on the story from the first page to the last.

The characters are real, with natural dialogue, and there is more than one hero. Except for the bad guys, you get to know them, like them, admire them and cheer for them as they do all they can to support Bill.

The cabin crew and how they supported each earned my admiration.

What makes this book an amazing achievement is that it is the author’s first book. She not only brings to her debut imagination and writing skills but years of experience in the airline industry.

I will be on the lookout for future books by T. J. Newman

This one had my full attention from the first page. Bill, a pilot, husband and father of two, is on what he thinks is a routine flight. That all changes when his wife and kids and held hostage by a terrorist and he is told to make a choice: save his family or save the plane of passengers and crew. Theo is a disgraced FBI agent and about to kiss his career goodbye when he has the chance to redeem himself thanks to his aunt Jo, one of the crew working with Bill who helps alert authorities as to what is happening. What comes next is a thriller which looks at courage, love and the power of humanity. I had heard mixed reviews about this one but I personally loved it. The characters of Carrie, Jo and Daddy were standouts for me.

I absolutely loved this book, yes there are a couple of clichés like the baseball scene and Theo's crazy drive to the beach, but I didn't actually care as I was so sucked into the story and what was happening they melded into the story. You really didn't know where things would go from once chapter to the next as even though Bill was adamant he wasn't going to fold to the demands everyone has a breaking point and you just didn't know where another bad guy was lurking. There are amazing characters, tense times, shocks, twists you soo don't see coming, heroics and times of heartbreak and fear as well as determination of many not to let the villains win. I read this book in one go as I couldn't put it down and it is definitely a book I will read again, I can't wait to see what the author brings out next!!