Fly with Me is Andi Burke's debut novel featuring a sapphic couple, Olive and Stella, who are brought together through a medical incident on a flight (Stella is the pilot, Olive is a nurse responding to a fellow passenger's allergic reaction) and then come up with absurd reasons to keep seeing each other.

This book was really charming. The characters felt so real and believable, each of their personal struggles was explained with so much empathy and care, which made the pressures on their relationship feel understandable and heartbreaking. I felt instantly connected to both of these characters because Burke did such a great job developing them and their motivations.

At times it felt a bit far-fetched that the characters were jumping through so many hoops to not be together when they so clearly wanted to be together (I guess that's the fake dating trope, isn't it) but overall it worked well and I actually really loved the pacing.

I don't have a ton of experience with the romance genre because I find that I'm very picky, but overall I would absolutely recommend this book. The depth of characters kept me really hooked and the spice level wasn't too much for me.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimers
✨ Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book!
✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Fly with Me is a sweet, surprisingly funny, sapphic romance that deals with some seriously sad stuff, and I was hooked from the beginning.

After ER nurse Olive Murphy saves someone on a plane (despite her fear of flying), she meets pilot Stella Soriano. With Stella’s help, Olive makes it to Disney World on time to run a race in honor of her brother, and they spend a whirlwind day together before Stella leaves her life as fast as she appeared. Although Olive is sure there was a connection between her and Stella, she plans to forget about it when Stella suddenly reappears at her work with a proposition—for a fake relationship. Olive’s heroic actions on the plan still going viral (much to Olive’s dismay) that Stella can help navigate, and Stella trying to get a promotion she’s been waiting on for years that could benefit from some positive press. As the story unfolds, Olive and Stella become entwined in one another’s lives, including some difficult family situations and life choices, and the line between fake and real becomes harder to find for them both.

I thought this was a surprisingly complicated fake-relationship-to-lovers story, and I appreciated the emotional depth of the characters, particularly Olive. I was sold on the slow development of their relationship, even though we wanted it from the beginning. This story felt personal to the author, like they were speaking from experience, and I think it shined in its ability to feel honest about the difficulties of navigating what life throws at us, without weighing us down too much. There were some loose ends in the book that I think needed some tidying towards the end, especially related to some of our supporting characters, but this didn’t detract from the book for me much overall.

I would recommend this book to romance readers who love a slow burn, fake dating trope, and/or sapphic love stories. This could be a great book club read for romance readers who could engage with some of the various, challenging topics this book deals with around love, relationships, family, death, and societal expectations of women (especially in the workplace). Readers who have experienced difficult medical situations themselves or with loved ones may want to be cautious approaching this book as it could be triggering for some.

This was a sweet and sad book. The romance was believable and cute and the descriptions of grief and family were well portrayed, as both sides had different challenges relating to family and health. The opposites attract was very cute and funny as well. I wish there was a little more conclusion with Olive’s family, but overall this was a really good read and I’d recommend it!

DNF at 41%.

I started this book in mid-April and here it is early August and I finally decided to throw in the towel on Fly with Me. The blurb for this book absolutely hooked me. The cover was beautiful and enticing. The beginning chapters really caught my attention, as a runner who’s familiar with the mass hysteria of RunDisney events. Everything was going right in this book until the fake relationship happened. After that point it became torturously slow with not much going on.

I wanted to stick it out to see how things would unfold but I finally resigned to the fact that it would probably take me another 4 months to get there, if ever. I was more invested in Olive’s brother and the drama within her family than either her or Stella. Heck, even Stella’s father’s health story was more interesting than either MC.

There wasn’t nearly enough going on in the book to keep my attention. No major drama or tension worth mentioning.

This was an excellent debut novel for the author. The plot was fun and kept me interested. I enjoyed the story between the 2 main characters.

DNF around 45%. I don’t think the synopsis was accurate to the book and is doing it a disservice. I’m not a fan of insta-love/lust and it didn’t make sense within the context of the story either- Olive’s first impression is extreme annoyance and then immediately switches up and talks about her panties being wet. Additionally, there is supposed to be a fake dating plot, but by the time I DNF’d, they had one instance of fake dating that was completely off page. I really liked the writing style and prose, but the plot itself was extremely lacking.

“Stella challenged her without making Olive feel like a loser for being afraid of things in the first place. Being with Stella made Olive feel . . . safe.”

✈️🏰😷💘🌈

(swipe for synopsis & mood board!)

FEATURING:

👀”fake” dating
✈️hot queer pilot in uniform
😷heroic queer nurse saves man’s life on plane!!
🏰Disneyworld
😢coping with grief
🛏️one bed trope
👊🏻toxic ex that you’ll want to fight
🐾a greyhound named Gus
🐠 copious amounts of Swedish fish
🌶️spiceeeeee

Fly With Me is absolutely one of my fav reads this year. I heard so many wonderful things about it, so I was extremely excited when my NetGalley request was approved! It took me a little while to get to it, and I’m kicking myself for not reading it earlier!! 🥲

The fake dating to lovers story between Olive and Stella was the perfect amount of slow burn and “she fell first” and I was DYING for Stella to get with the program and be ready to be Olive’s real girlfriend. 💘

I really loved how much of the story focused on Stella fighting through the sexism of being a woman in the aviation world - it sucked to see her go through that, but I can imagine it’s a very real struggle for many women! I also really loved her relationship with her (gay!) father evolve as she starts to realize where her actual dreams and priorities lie. ✨

Olive was such a relatable character, and as someone who has had power of attorney over an incapacitated loved one, I connected strongly with a lot of what she was feeling. It’s such a tough position to be in, and I felt so badly for how her family treated her for trying to follow through on her brother’s wishes. ❤️‍🩹

Fly With Me also had my favorite spicy scenes that I’ve read so far 🥵 Olive & Stella have great chemistry!

Huge thank you to @andieburke, @macmillan, & @netgalley for giving me the chance to read Fly With Me early! You can snag it yourself September 5th! 🙌🏻

This was a pleasant surprise. I felt the MC was a little dramatic but also a badass. The plot itself was wild and pretty unimaginable but I liked being swept up in what was going on. The Disney and social media aspect were really fun because I think most of us can relate to those aspects.

A swoony, feel-good, opposites attract, fake dating Sapphic romance that has EXCELLENT disability rep. I loved this emotionally charged new to me romance author's debut!! Olive is a flying-phobic ER nurse trying to fulfill her comatose brother's bucket list and Stella is an ambitious pilot looking for a promotion.

When a video of them together goes viral, Stella proposes a fake-dating scenario that quickly leads to real feelings. Steamy and full of heart, this is one not to be missed!! Perfect for fans of authors like Alexandra Bellefleur or Anita Kelly and good on audio too. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early audio and digital copies in exchange for my honest review!!!

Disability rep: generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks and celiac disease

I loved the beginning of this book, with a creative of implausible meet-cute. Nurse who is afraid of flying flies to fulfill her dying brother’s wish, ends up saving a life and is then swept off her feet by the hot queer pilot.
The villainous ex-girlfriend parts were painful to read. Nothing in there made me understand why Olive would have been with Lindsay and some later parts w/Lindsay’s access (I don’t want to spoil it with specifics) were also highly implausible.
Obviously this ends happily because that’s the kind of book it is but there are a lot of unfinished parts. I wish the author had included more about Olive’s relationship with her family afterward, more about Stella’s dad—-basically I wanted this to feel more like a full novel in which all of the characters were whole instead of just learning about them as they revolve around the romance.
At the same time, this was mostly fun (except for the parts where the characters were sad and I felt bad) and I didn’t want to put it down. Would recommend to queer romance fans with only slight reservations.

This was such a well developed story and it made my queer heart so happy. For a debut author this was such a great way to start off a writing career.

Olive Murphy is afraid to fly, and apparently for good reason. The unexpected events during her first ever flight lead her to Stella Soriano, the uptight co-pilot of said flight. One thing leads to another, and they’re dating… fake dating. Both have their own reasons for entering this arrangement: Olive’s life-saving actions are earning big sales for Stella’s airline, so she hitches her wagon to Olive in the pursuit of a long-deserved promotion. Olive, on the other hand, just wants Stella. But as their fake relationship goes on, how much of it is truly fake?
This is a light, predictable, sapphic romance. There is no heavy emotional work to be done. It’s entertaining enough. I give it 3 stars for the overall story. As for spice, it was minimal, I believe, so maybe 2 peppers?

This is not a light-hearted romance; it dips into many very heavy topics that the author details in the intro. As a healthcare provider, I'm loving anything written by a nurse. Was this relationship believable? I don't know. Did I have fun? Yes.

Thank you Andie Burke, St Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was a cute sapphic romance. It was fast paced with a cute storyline and fun characters. I really enjoyed the first half of the book. It quickly pulled me in, but halfway through I felt like the plot started slowing down, it relied too heavily on the miscommunication trope to keep my attention. So much could've been solved if the characters would've actually talked to each other. They could talk about deep, emotional things like their families, but not their feelings. If you don't mind the miscommunication trope, you will love this book. While, I liked the premise of this book, I would've loved it if the characters would've opened up more.

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I really loved Fly With Me! This is such a great debut with a sapphic relationship and really well done bisexual rep. The fake dating trope is one of my favorites when it’s done well, and it’s done well here. Some of the banter had me laughing out loud while reading. The characters had depth and fun personality, and I was along for the ride from beginning to end. I look forward to hopefully reading more from this author in the future and would definitely recommend!

Olive Murphy is a skilled ER nurse and has a lifelong fear of flying. Nevertheless she is flying to Florida for a half marathon to be run in honor of her brother. While in flight there is a medical emergency and she is saves a fellow passenger. Of course others capture it on video. The pilot, Stella Soriano and crew take photos with her too after the flight calling her a hero. The flight had to be diverted to Atlanta and Stella in a gesture of good will offers to rent a car and drive Olive the Orlando so she can make the race. In the mean time the in-flight save has gone viral and the airline and Olive’s hospital are thrilled with the good social media public relations.

The media loves and promotes the story of Stella and Olive finding romance from the heroic beginning. Stella proposes a fake dating relationship. Her dream is to be a captain. She has the years and experience but it’s an olds boys club and there are few women that get the top spots. The good PR she is bringing in will surely get the attention of the owner and board members. Olive’s motive is slightly different. Her hospital loves the PR but more importantly she is clearly smitten with Stella and wants nothing more than to spend time with her.

There are some harder side stories and family situations but I wont spoil those with my review. I think there could have been some editing to shorten the story. It is long and feels longer. For me there are few too many times Olive is lusting her feelings to her best friend Derek. Also I wish there could have been some reconciliation for Olive with her family, maybe not her mother but at least her father or sister. And I was disappointed not to know, even with the epilogue, if Stella gets her career dream. Overall I enjoyed the romance of Olive and Stella and cheered for their HEA. And I’m happy to see more sapphic romances from main stream publishers.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved both characters, they both seemed real. I appreciated that the author delved into the mental health aspect of being an ER nurse and how it can affect you. I felt the romance was a slow burn at first, but then the book was almost over and it felt a bit rushed near the end. Overall, I truly enjoyed the read and look forward to more from the author.

Finding the words to convey how much I enjoyed this book from beginning to end is proving difficult, but I’ll try my best to explain why I think everyone should read Fly With Me, a debut novel by Andie Burke.

As a queer reader, accurate LGBTQ+ representation in books is vital to me and I often find myself gravitating only towards queer stories these days. I’m especially drawn to sapphic romances, which deserve more love and appreciation in the book community. Fly With Me ticks all the boxes and more in this regard. It features a chaotic bisexual FMC who will win you over with her humor, sass, and loving heart. The open-door steam between lovable-nurse Olive and badass-pilot Stella is the perfect amount of heat to make your toes curl and your heart giddy. The instant spark and growing tension between these two characters kept me reading way past my bedtime every night and I was fully invested in their HEA from the get-go. If you’re a fan of the fake dating trope, Burke delivers it splendidly, color-coordinated three-ring-binder included.

Along with the queer rep comes amazing mental health rep in Fly With Me. Burke does not shy away from the honest reality of depression and anxiety, toxic relationships regarding both romantic partners and family members, and the nonlinear path to healing. So many times throughout this book I felt so seen by Olive and her fears, and her journey of navigating life in spite of those fears. Without spoiling too much, the very start of this book is incredibly relatable and realistic in its portrayal of flight anxiety; I couldn’t help but laugh while picturing myself in Olive’s shoes. There’s so much in this book that will resonate with readers who are navigating their own mental health journey, and I cannot praise Burke enough for her author’s note about the content at the very beginning of the book.

Most importantly, I cannot speak enough about how beautifully this book deals with the responsibilities that come with being a caregiver to a loved one. I think this is perhaps one of the most important discussions we need to be having in real life and it’s not something I’ve seen represented often in books, despite being a thing that affects the lives of a lot of people daily. As someone who has witnessed first hand the toll that being a caregiver can take on a person, I really appreciate the accurate portrayal through both Stella and Olive’s situations, as different as they are in this book. Once again, Burke will leave you feeling validated and seen through her writing.

To see yourself represented in several different ways in a single book is pure magic. To find it in a debut novel speaks to the talent and artistry of a writer who truly cares about the story they want to tell. Fly With Me will make you laugh, cry, and feel deeply in a way that warms the heart. As far as debut novels go, Burke nails it. And I cannot wait to see what comes next after this.

Tl;dr buy this book immediately and thank me later!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fly with Me by Andie Burke was the perfect blend of sweet and spicy, and I absolutely loved reading it. In it we meet Olive and Stella who cross paths on a flight when a passenger experiences a medical emergency. Olive is a nurse who steps up and saves his life, and Stella is the pilot of the plane. From there, a series of events keeps placing them in each other’s lives with flirty energy and missed chances at confessing their feelings.

This book had a much slower build than I am usually drawn to, in terms of the romantic relationship progressing, but it worked so well. I was invested in both character’s personal stories and the emotional arc they were on as individuals, and when they finally connect, the spice is so well done that I completely forgot there was a slow burn before then.

I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys fake dating, slow burns, and moderate spice (meaning explicit, but not frequent). This one really worked for me and I loved reading it.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press / St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this gem of a book – I appreciate you!

Content warnings: Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Traumatic brain injury, Grief, Toxic relationship, Misogyny

Okay so first i'd like to say i loved the book. second it felt a little long? Not sure what could've been taken out but the last 25% felt like it dragged. like things had been resolved and if they hadn't, well we knew how they would be. that being said, i love the different dynamics between MC's and their families and the real world problems Olive and Stella faced. I laughed and I cried. I can't wait to see more from Burke!