The main character in Fly with Me is Olive, a nurse who is dealing with some serious family drama. Her brother is hospitalized in a coma after an accident and she has found herself at odds with the rest of her family about how his care is being handled. The story opens with her traveling on a plane - which she is absolutely terrified of - to attend a marathon and fulfill a promise she made with her brother before his accident. Mid-flight, another passenger suffers a medical crisis, and Olive uses her nurse training to save the man. Unfortunately, the emergency causes the flight to be diverted, and the inability to secure another flight puts her at risk of missing out on the marathon. Stella, the copilot of the redirected flight, steps in to save the day by offering to drive Olive the rest of the way to the marathon. Olive is initially hesitant, but acquiesces when she realizes that she really has no other options.

The pair hit it off and become friendly, and then return to their normal lives. Soon after, Stella reaches out to Olive with an insane proposal - to be her fake girlfriend. There had been a giant amount of media coverage over the nurse's heroic rescue on the flight, and the airline was getting a lot of media. Stella, who had been repeatedly skipped over for pilot promotions due to the industry sexism, believed that aligning herself with the moment of celebrity could play out in her benefit. Olive considers and decides that the fake relationship could benefit her as well and accepts. This is the plotline that drew me in and made me want to read the book. Fake Dating, or "fauxmance" if you will, is my absolute favorite romance trope.

Both Olive and Stella are decently likeable characters, though I could definitely relate to Olive more. Most of the narration is from her point of view, and Stella feels a little more distant and detached at times. They both have some variant of trauma; Stella from dealing with rampant career sexism, and Olive from family drama and a loads of anxiety and self-deprecation. Olive's mental hang-ups unquestionably cause their relationship to be slower to develop, but this helps it to evolve naturally in a way that it is believable.

The secondary characters are a mixed bag. Olive's co-workers are super and help her evolve as a person. Derek is a champ. The depiction of Stella's dad is such a refreshing take on a parental role in a contemporary novel like this one, and is a bittersweet yet realistic disability representation. Those characters are all a hit. And then there are the misses. Olive's family are pretty awful. Stella's coworker is a PoS and her boss, while he has a few "maybe he is redeemable" moments, is ultimately garbage. But the worst offender has to be Olive's ex Lindsay. Not just in the "she's supposed to be the villain" way, but the character was just so extra, to an unnecessary degree. And to believe that she could do all the insane stuff that she did and face absolutely no repercussions or comeuppance? It's infuriating.

While the main focus of Fly with Me is clearly to tell a romance story, the book does not forget the non-romance side plots, and even completely throws away the romance for a brief point. There is a lot of additional drama, both family and job related. I would like to say that these side plots are adequately wrapped up at the end of the story, but honestly, some of the outcomes felt underwhelming or less than satisfactory. I don't think this diminished the story overall, but I had a higher expectation at that point.

Overall, I think that Fly with Me was a pleasant read and a nice offering for sapphic romance fans. There are maybe some points that were a little more... meh? But for an introductory book, this was a great showing.

Fly with Me by Andie Burke is a charming, queer rom-com with heart. Olive, a nervous nurse, saves someone on a flight and ends up fake dating the pilot, Stella. Their chemistry is real, and the story mixes laughs with deeper moments about family and self-worth. It’s sweet, funny, and full of feels.

I really liked this book. I found Olive's panic attacks and anxiety over flying very relatable and I loved Stella's overanxious talking. However, I do feel like the pacing of this book could have been more interesting and I was waiting for a moment when Olive would fly with Stella which we never got and was a little disappointing as a reader.. I would definitely. read Andi Burke's next release to see how she improves as a writer.

Absolutely love the portrayal of Olive in this book & loved the perfect blend of sweet and sour! This book was absolutely wonderfully written and I can’t wait to read more from Andie!

I rated this 5 stars when I read it back in September of 2024 and I’m gonna be honest, I remember it being cute but I can not for life of me, remember ANYTHING about it now.

Another that I can see why others like it, but it didn't work for me. Miscommunication is not my favorite trope. It was a lot heavier than the blurb or marketing implied, so check CW/TW. I think if I had gone in expecting to deal with estranged family, medical grief, caretaking, and a boatload of internal self sabotaging anxiety I would've had a very different experience

3.25

This was pretty cute despite dealing with some heavy topics. In the author's note at the start of the book, Andie Burke writes about how she wrote the first draft of this book in between shifts as a nurse in the Covid ER and I appreciated knowing that going in because this book deals very heavily with caregiving and grief. It also deals with familial complications and sexism in the workplace and mental illness. I appreciated that despite the heavy topics the overall tone is pretty light, and the length allowed for some of that exploration without making the book feel too long or drag too much. Trope-wise there is a viral moment that leads to fake dating and forced proximity(ish). I liked Olive and Stella both as characters and liked watching the progression of their relationship. There were some little nitpicks I had with plot and pacing, but as a debut I thought this was pretty solid and I look forward to reading more from Andie.

Fly With Me is a whirlwind sapphic "fake dating" romance where these two girls... okay I think they're the only ones that think they're actually fake dating each other.

While trying to complete a goal list and make her way down from Maryland to Disney World, Olive starts this book reciting plane statistics to try and assuage her flying phobia. And what could happen-- okay, not a plane crash thankfully, but the need for a medical professional - and she's a nurse! So when the (many) videos of her doing her lifesaving nurse work in the wild go viral it's just one of many things that's pushing its way into Olive's life-- including Stella, the hot pilot lady from the flight, who runs into her in the airport and convinces her to let her drive her down to Orlando. It's attraction at first sight, and friendship at second sight, and fake dating from friendship as a whole multi-tabbed binder scenario.

I'm not sure why I put off reading this for so long but I actually quite enjoyed myself -- there's a couple loose ends that never got tied up, but I do love a character who is so down bad for the other and here it's BOTH Of them even as they're telling each other "okay FAKE GIRLFRIEND" (lol okay sure not since day #1 and certainly not since kiss #1) like whateverrrr. Olive is going through so much that this whirlwind of perfect hot lady into her life that Really Likes her is hard to believe which is very understandable, and honestly Stella reads as somewhere on the spectrum (this is not a complaint) even if it's never said outright as she has a hard time reading people and has a Lot Of very specific ways of doing things in her life and I liked the mix of them, and that mix finding each other and turning into something good.

Also the side characters were varied and fleshed out enough - we could have had a cardboard gay best friend and toxic ex but they had their own motivations and things going on and I appreciated that.

A quick read, that I for some reason started reading ON a plane that did have some turbulence and finished on a train a few days later.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for the eARC in exchange for review!

This book was okay, but not a standout - I read it a while ago and nothing really stands out other than a vague "I know I liked it, but I don't remember a thing about it." 3 stars.

“you must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

eeee this book was so sweet!!
it was also one of the GAYEST books i’ve ever read.

i could make the claim that i’ve never related more to a gay disaster character than i did to Olive Murphy, and i’m 80% sure i’d be telling the truth.

Olive was sweet and funny and wanting and absolutely swimming in trauma and grief. i wanted to wrap her in a hug every other fucking page!!! between Lindsay and Jake and her family, i could barely imagine continuing to function, let alone at the level Olive was. she’s so strong and so earnest and GOD i love her. Olive “Murphy’s law” Murphy is my baby. i love her.
Stella was confident and suave and earnest and struggling to find a place for herself in the romantic world. she also had her fair share of trauma and grief, although different from Olive’s, naturally. it was easy to view her side of things as easier to deal with than Olive’s, or easy to question her motives and her actions. but girl was just so scared!! and just so eager to be!!

these two together were calm and caring and comforting and sweet and exploratory and passionate. the trajectory of their relationship felt so natural, even under the guise of it being fake.

i absolutely loved it!!! i cannot wait to read Derek’s story. 🫶🏻

i'm used to reading dual pov romances, and i enjoyed the single pov and not having all the information about how the love interest is feeling and thinking. i enjoyed the two women falling in love with both dealing with so much outside of their relationship.

but there were several things i did not love.

1. the only time race was mentioned was at stella's events, describing a white woman and her Black wife and the white men they were sitting with. the description of stella doesn't have any skin tone description. most people don't. i hated this, especially when we learn that stella is mexican. if she's white and latina then there's colonizer blood in her and she's aware of it and it's likely a conversation they would have had.
2. the amatonormativity. stella seems so reluctant to be in a real relationship and the author tried to make us believe it was because she had bad previous relationships, but i kept thinking that maybe she was on the aro spectrum. but of course that couldn't be a possibility because even queer authors forget to think about the a in lgbtqia+.
3. the language. "a fake hooker" yes let's use pejoratives for sex workers "overdose on embarrassment" and "addictive kind of witty banter" please talk to addicts and stop being casual about addiction thanks "nodded feebly" ableism in front of a disabled person cool "you make me sound all loose and slutty" and slut shaming to top it off
4. why was olive's ex so terrible? it's not that i didnt find it believable because some people are vindictive and ruthless but i still didn't fully feel it

i wasn't really rooting for them after their argument and breakup. i received an earc of this from netgalley (thank you!) and also listened to an audiobook i checked out from the library, and i didnt like the narrator's performance. she pronounced "papi" as "poppy" and her stella voice irritated me a little.

This was such a cute story filled with romantic tension! From the moment they met, I was rooting for Olive and Stella. Fake dating and opposites attract tropes in this story had me head over heels and falling fast for this love story!

4 stars

I wanted to like this book but I was so bored reading it! The main characters both sounded the same, making the pov changes confusing, and everything just felt very flat to me.

This was a really good book. I loved the relationship between the two fmcs. I also love how grief and mental health were represented. Definitely recommend !

I was looking forward to reading Andie Burke’s debut and really enjoyed this one! I loved Olive and Stella and thought the story was really unique and a solid read. Definitely looking forward to reading what she writes next!

Omg this book is so RAHHH I love them sm I adore fake dating, road trips, and sapphics so this was pretty obviously gonna be a book I loved

Olive suffers from anxiety and is dealing with grief over losing her brother and having her family hate her. Stella’s father has Parkinson’s there are heavy elements on this story which you don’t normally see in romance but they’re done so well.
I also loved the fake dating trope and how the move from fake dating to real romance. I do think the middle dragged just a little bit and became repetitive with their insecurities. But overall really great story

A very interesting read. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this book. It wasn't really for me, but I am sure that it will be loved by the right audience.

I am very thankful to have been gifted a copy of this book; however, at this point this book will be moving to my DNF shelf. It sounds like something I would have really enjoyed, and will happily come back and re-review once I am in a better mindset for the book.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book follows Olive and Stella after a video of them goes viral where Olive saves someone's life. They both decide to fake date to help benefit both of their lives.

I read this back in October of 2023, and have read so many books since. Due to this my memory of this book is not the best. I remember really liking this book when I read this, I liked the fake dating and the characterization of the characters in this book. However, it was pretty forgettable. I would recommend this book as a palette cleanser or a book for someone that is looking for an entrance into sapphic romances or sapphic literature.