When you pick up a book that is about 911, you already have the expectation that it is going to be heartbreaking. And, it is. It may be hard for some readers, but it has been 20 years now and this book is timely, especially seeing as how the author has a personal connection.
But for the topic, you could almost call this chick lit as it focuses on a young widow of 911. Her reactions and actions are totally human and as she moves through the stages of grief you feel her pain and agonize over her self-destructive life. There cannot be a true happy ending here, but there is resolution and that may be enough for most readers. But fair warning; it slowly wrecks you as you read it.
That said, this would be an excellent pick for a book group.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. This book shows how people reacted to what happened during 9/11/2001. This book will bring tears to your eyes it is so good. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It will be in stores on September 7, 2021 for $16.95 (USD).

The emotion is palpable in this story of a woman who loses her husband in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. The couple has only been married a year, and after he leaves for work on 9/11 (after an argument) she never hears from him again. The agony of Not Knowing permeates the book. The frantic searches, the denials, the relationships forged among distant family members and acquaintances that would never have happened had it not been the common search for the missing person is articulated so well.

4.5⭐
No steam rating but major content warnings for death of a spouse, drug and alcohol abuse and depression.

Modern historic fiction people who love a sad book, this one is for you. Are we at the point where 2001 is historic fiction? I guess so because reading this book transported me back to a world where looking for a missing person meant taking a physical picture out of your photo album and news alerts didn't pop on your phone alerting everyone of a national disaster.

Erin is on vacation and in a bit of a fight with her husband when planes crash into the World Trade Center on September 11. Her husband works on the 101st floor and though it's nearly impossible he escaped, Erin cannot accept that he is dead. This book takes the reader through the stages of denial, acceptance, avoidance, grief and everything in between.

Erin goes from this strong woman who struggles to balance her independence and her new marriage to a woman who feels like her life means nothing. And this does mess with the pacing of the book as Erin's life continues to be left in the in-between of her husband's death, but emotion is real and so is the reality there are many Erin's out there who lost someone to soon on 9/11/01.

If you don't mind the content warnings, this is a beautiful book for remembering the tragedy that turns 20 this year.

⭑⭑⭑⭑ 4 stars

"The second building folded, floor by floor by floor. A violent plume of grey-black dust swallowed concrete and steel and straight edges. Both buildings gone. Nothing but smoke and ash where they once stood as sentries, guarding the Manhattan skyline."


Erin O'Connor, wife of Daniel O'Connor, is a proud, independent woman able and confident enough to navigate New York and revel in its exhilarating busyness. When her best friend steals her away to Mallorca to try and get over being dumped, Erin O'Connor has to watch on television as two planes fly into the World Trade Centre on the 11th of September, 2001. Daniel didn't want her to go away that weekend, and they'd had a fight before she left, they'd even gone one whole day without talking which was so unlike them. Now they wouldn't get that chance of resolution as Daniel had gone into work today; located on the 101st floor of the World Trade Centre.

"There may have been a first time for everything, but there was a last time too."


With it coming up to the 20 year anniversary of 9/11, I thought this book would be a fitting read. Of course, for probably the entire world, it is not an event that is easily forgotten. Even to this day, my eyes fill with tears just thinking about it, whilst I'm sat miles and miles and miles away from New York in my home in the UK. It is incredibly difficult to fathom what it would have been like experiencing it with first hand eyes and ears, and being consumed by the swirl of devastating emotions as families were made smaller than they should be; their loved ones lost to a hateful act.

"Families, relationships, possessions are all sharp nails driven into the fabric of life, pinning you down. When they're ripped way, it gives you freedom but leaves you in tatters."


Paper Airplanes provides an insight into that day, told from the perspective of a wife who lost her husband. The reader follows Erin on her journey of chaotic grief over a period of ten years. This book is so emotionally charged that although it was easy to get immersed, I found it quite difficult to read, the onslaught of unforgiving emotion was quite tough. I'm not sure I would read it again, however the author appeared to be perspicacious in their writing.

I liked that TF acknowledged that grief isn't a case of one-size-fits-all, and yet their seems to be a 'proper' way to grieve: a stiff upper lip, a pandering to the pleas of others so as not to cause them discomfort, and moving on is an inevitability rather than a choice. Erin struggles the most with her grievous guilt, how she was drinking margaritas on a beach with her friend whilst her husband was dying, suffocating, or burning, or jumping to a demise. I managed to hold onto my tears until the last 10% of the book where they flowed freely with unwelcome sobs and a concerned toddler giving me his comfort toy. Paper Airplanes is a harrowing read and an insightful experience.

"'Let us not measure our sorrow by their worth, for then it will have no end.'"

Many novels have been written about the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The strongest stories are those that do not focus merely on the events (which we all know), but their impact on characters that we, as readers, grow to love and care about.

“Paper Airplanes” by Tabitha Forney is such a novel. Erin and Daniel meet and fall in love, but destiny interferes with their happily ever after. Daniel is working at a trader on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. Erin goes to Spain with her friend, Jess, (against her husband’s wishes) and does not know about the terrorist attack until she sees footage from a TV at a hotel bar. She struggles to return to the United States, thinking that once she is on American soil, she can save her husband. Like many family members post-9/11, she holds onto the hope that her husband survived, but when it is clear that he has not, she falls into a deep depression as she struggles to find out a way to live with her husband. The depression causes her to first return to her hometown in Texas and then flee to the West Coast, but no matter how far she travels, she cannot shake the guilt that if she hadn’t had gone to Spain, her husband would have lived.

This was a difficult novel to read because the feelings of Erin are so realistically raw. The author really gets you into Erin’s thoughts and includes some utterly heartbreaking scenes such as when Erin lays on the sidewalk near Ground Zero, wanting to be near the dust of her husband. It’s because you care for Erin that it becomes difficult when she takes some major risks including drinking, using drugs and squandering the 9/11 Victim settlement she gets. I have read a lot of grief novels, but that doesn’t make Erin’s struggles any more poignant. This was a well written book. Four and a half stars.

Thank you the author, NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel.

This book follows Erin and her life following losing her husband in the World Trade Center in 2001. the thing that struck me most when reading this was how real the portrayal of Erin is - she doesn't do all the things that people think you should do when something like this happens to you, her thoughts and feelings aren't always easy to understand. This felt much more authentic to me, her whole world had changed and she was doing whatever she felt to had to at any particular point in time just to survive. This led to contradictory actions and a healthy dose of self-destruction...situations I could absolutely imagine myself getting into in the same position.
The descriptions of New York in the days following the attack are written very sensitively and with a lot of grace, it is clear that the close brush the author had with September 11th (her husband was on the 85th floor of the North Tower, and escaped), and the impact of her visit to the museum have made a large mark on her. This book was a love letter to all who were impacted, and to the city itself. The end was uplifting and beautiful.

I almost wasn’t going to read this one because of the subject matter. This tragedy is unimaginable but reading Erin and Daniel’s story makes it more imaginable, which is not easy to handle. Of course I would never understand the depth of that kind of pain but now I have a glimpse of what that kind of pain could be after reading this. The amount of questions you would have, the lack of closure, it’s all so heartbreaking. Forney does a great job putting us in Erin’s mindset. Such a difficult read but every year around 9/11 I do read the stories of the victims and families. With any tragedy I like to read the stories and send up thoughts that their lives mattered and I want to honor them in some small way. So that’s why I wasn’t completely afraid to read this. Definitely a very hard read but very well written. However, one moment bothered me, when Erin’s father made some shocking generalizations about the perpetrators of the attack in his moment of anger. But that’s one character and many at that time undoubtedly and wrongly shared his thoughts. Even so, it’s still difficult to read although thankfully it doesn’t seem like Erin shared those same thoughts (since she referred to them later in the book as radicals terrorists) but his awful thoughts weren’t exactly addressed in the book. I’m not sure how it could be either. Erin did have a contentious relationship with her parents and she was too understandably wrapped up in her grief in that moment to address it.
Overall, this story takes a deep look into the extreme grief the survivors of that tragedy have to grapple with. How can one go on with that kind of depth of grief? I imagine it’s different for everyone and Erin’s story is one story that others dealing with grief could potentially relate to and hopefully feel less alone in their grief. To the people who want you to snap out of it and move on, well, they don’t get it. There’s no roadmap to grief and following along Erin’s path makes for a gripping and heartbreaking read but also brings hope.

With a topic to say is sensitive is an understatement, this ones a grand slam. Paper Airplane handles a topic that many understandably avoid with Grace and the talent of an established best selling author.

September 11th 2001, a very difficult subject to write about and I did think twice about picking this one up but Tabitha Forney handles it with grace and compassion and this fictional characters story is told beautifully. It’s raw, heartbreaking and thought provoking. The acknowledgments tell us that Tabitha’s own husband was on the 85th floor of the North Tower when the first plane hit and I kind of wish I’d known this at the beginning. I will be recommending this book to everyone, it’s not one I’ll be forgetting in a hurry.

Thank you to the publishing house and to NetGalley for his ARC in return for an honest review.

This book was extraordinary hard to read as I remember that day vividly. I remember seeing the buildings burn. I remember that my building would act as runway given its proximity to Central Park and to evacuate. I will never forget a man being stopped and he said his wife was down there and he kept running. The emotional depth of loss was captured between Erin and Daniel. The smell, the posters, the smoke, it was there and it permeated the city for days and even weeks. A beautiful representation of this time but very hard to read. I wish it had ended on a happier note but I know why it did not. Never forget.

Who wasn't touched by the events of September 11, 2001? The heartbreak of the survivors is unimaginable.
Tabitha Forney writes a gripping story we can all relate to, the loss and the downward spiral of losing a loved one.
Emily lost her husband Daniel that day and is coping as best she can. Even months later as her family and friends have resumed their normal routines Emily still struggles. The first year will be the hardest as she suffers through the first holidays, birthdays and wedding anniversary without Daniel.

Emily will work to develop a legacy Daniel would be proud of.

Wonderfully written story of how life goes on.

I urge you to read this and continue through the acknowledgements as well.

This book ended up not being what I expected. It turned out to be a quieter book then I expected. The timeline aspect of the book I enjoyed a lot, as it demonstrated the impact over time and the ripples through someone’s life an event like September 11th has.
3.5 stars.

What do you do when life ends…life as you know it? How do you find your way in a world forever changed? Those are the questions that Erin O’Connor faces after the death of her husband Daniel, for Daniel worked on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center and he was there at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001.

Erin was not even in New York. She was in Mallorca on a girls weekend with her friend Jess. She had chosen to miss Daniel’s mother’s birthday. So when she wanders into the hotel bar and sees footage of the terrorist attack and the collapsing towers, she knows she has to go home to search for Daniel. And search she does. She haunts Ground Zero but Daniel is gone. It will take years for Erin to accept that. Years when she fills her empty heart with pills and alcohol. Years when she wanders from place to place, looking for her home. She is saved by friendships, a creative idea and a special message.

This beautiful book will haunt you as it takes the grief of a nation and turns it into a unique love story. We have all come a long way since 9/11 but Paper Airplanes takes you back to those tragic days. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, She Writes Press and Tabitha Forney for this ARC.