Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Griffin, and author Andie Burke for this advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I thoroughly enjoyed Andie Burke’s debut romance. I typically steer clear of the fake- dating trope. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the chemistry between Olive, an ER nurse and Stella, an airline pilot who are complete opposites.

We meet Olive on a flight which Stella is co-piloting. During the flight Olive ends up helping during a medical emergency and finds herself stranded quite a distance from her destination. Stella offers to drive her overnight so she can make it to a half marathon she has promised herself to complete for her older brother. After running the race & talking to the press - they both end up being the latest feel good story of the media.

Later when each has returned home, they reconnect when Stella asks Olive to be her ‘fake’ girlfriend to help keep the good press going and propel her career to Captain. Olive agrees and while at first it’s all by the book (in this case a binder Stella puts together), their friendship grows. I loved the tension created by their different energies, family drama, and realizing there might be more to the relationship.

A lovely, sweet read!

Olive Murphy is on her first flight, ever. She has been afraid to fly all of her life and still is. Olive is flying to run in a marathon to honour her brother. While in the air, Olive uses her nursing skills to save another passenger from a sure death. She is called a hero and given praise by everyone, especially the pilot Stella Soriano.

All Stella wants is to get her Captain’s wings but promotions for women at her airline are few and far between. There is a misconception that Olive and Stella are girlfriends in the media. Stella seizes this opportunity to arrange a fake relationship with Olive to advance her career.

I enjoyed this fake relationship to lovers romance. It has a number of moving parts to it which creates a fresh look at this type of romance. Both main characters are easy to like and root for their happiness. I gladly recommend to all romance readers.

I received an advance review copy from St. Martin’s Griffin press through NetGalley.  I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A short & sweet sapphic romance with a unique plot and characters! I really felt that I could relate to both love interests and their struggles & insecurities going into the relationship. I enjoyed getting to see behind the scenes of the aviation industry a bit, and this book sadly illustrates some of the obstacles that women face in this career. While I don't enjoy a third act breakup, I did find the ultimate resolution to be satisfying and will be recommending this to people who enjoy sapphic romance!

Fly With Me is a promising debut novel by Andie Burke. You can tell Burke is brimming with ideas and I appreciated her depicting a sapphic romantic relationship.

This book had potential but there were a few too many ideas that were never fully resolved. The protagonist, Olive, was better developed than Stella the love-interest, who fell a little flat and was lacking personality. The two characters had so much going on in their respective lives it felt like their fake dating was really unhealthy and it made it hard to root for them and their love.

There were a few standout scenes that left me feeling excited for whatever Burke may offer in the future, but this book needed more time and editing to review it anything higher than 2 stars.

Thank you to St Martin’s Publishing and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book.

This is a fantastic debut novel! Olive"Murphy's Law" Murphy and Stella Soriano were two distinct, likable, relatable FMCs. From the moment she had Brandi Carlile as her tune-out and relax music, I was endeared to Olive.

Olive has a best friend, and luckily also co-worker, named David Chang whom she's known since childhood. Their relationship was one of the things I really appreciated. It showed just how important chosen family is and how meaningful those connections are. Their witty banter was funny and realistic. Also, David and I are definitely movie soulmates-- I understood all his references.

Stella was the perfect example of a Type A, career-focused, ambitious woman. But that isn't all she is. She has a big heart and cares deeply for her father. She might have some neuroses and refuses to eat or drink anything in the car, but she is caring and thoughtful.

The book has a beautiful portrayal of anxiety, panic disorders, and serious issues with self-identity. Both of our leading ladies have issues with self-perception and have been deeply affected by past relationships, family, and co-workers. The anxiety and inner turmoil were handled with care.

This is a delightful, queer, FF, romcom. The one issue that I had with this book is that I really wish there had been information in the blurb, or trigger warnings attached, about Olive's family. Her mother is deeply religious and makes choices based on that entrenchment. Additionally, she is narcissistic and plays the victim a lot.

I would recommend this book to just about anyone! My only caveat would be if you have deep-seated issues with religious, hateful family members and insecurity, then maybe skip this one.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

We really enjoyed Fly With Me and felt that it’s a fantastic debut from Andie Burke! If you enjoy sapphic books, Disney world, and the faking dating trope, then we definitely recommend giving this one a read! There are several well written and super relatable characters in this one that made the reading experience so immersive and interesting for us.

To listen to our more in-depth (spoiler free) thoughts on Fly With Me, listen to our podcast episode! Our podcast name is Books With Benefits and you can find us on most major podcast platforms. Here is a link for this episode on Spotify! -> https://open.spotify.com/episode/1i5LfBzGwsGt7VJMioMk1F?si=jXz244TbSC-Z0QgEnZWOeQ

This is a fantastic debut novel from Andie Burke. Our main characters are well-developed, and their quirks make them even more loveable. There is depth and heart in this book, and even as a notorious hater of feeling feelings (I'm working on it in therapy, okay!) I still absolutely loved the journey this book took me on! I appreciate the discussions of anxiety in the book and how each character deals with it differently but is open and understanding of struggles. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love, and I can't wait to see what else Andie Burke writes in the future!

This story truly pulled at your heart strings and made us feel like we really knew the character and their journey. The banter was great and the sweet moments felt truly special.

First of all, congratulations to Andie Burke on her debut book. Fly With Me is so many things. It's funny, thought-provoking, sad, cute, adventurous, and dramatic. Throughout the book, those are all good feeling to have. The story of two broken women, making their way through this thing called life, who have a chance encounter and make the best of it. Sometimes that's all we need...that chance encounter, that twist of fate, that lucky moment to change our lives forever. Read the book. It's on the longer side, but worth it.

Okay so I am not big on most of the overused troupes in romance - enemies to lovers and childhood best friends to lovers are pretty much my least favorite things to read about. But for some reason I am a complete sucker for the fake dating troupe.

This story was more than just a cute romance, Olive is a really strong character, with flaws and trauma. The story with Olive and her brother was heartbreaking, and her trying to live up to his expectations and dealing with the distance with her family, her own guilt, and learning to just live. Stella too had her own baggage (does that count as a pun?), between her father being ill and her trying to make captain while dealing with the sexiest men in the industry, she's got a lot going on. I loved both girls and I loved how well fleshed out they were, each with their own personalities, desires, and ambitions.

The one issue I had with this book was it felt like I was reading two separate books. The first half was a meet-cute, fake dating romance novel. It was sweet and I loved watching both girls grow and sort out their lives and feelings.

AND THEN WE HAVE THE SECOND HALF.

Without giving too much away (although this is a romance so obviously we have a HEF) the second half of this story shifts from cutesy awkward love to SEXY TIME MARATHONS. Seriously though, the second half was 1000x steamier than the first and I was extremely thrown off at first. I mean, I still enjoyed every second of reading it, but its quite a jump going from a "I'm too scared to ask this girl if I can kiss her" mentality to a "let me describe her going down on me for the third time today and now I'm gonna go make her scream my name in the shower" type. Like I said, still enjoyed it, and I am always down for all the romance and sexy time, and the sex scenes were written very very well, but still a jarring contrast.

With the added early sexy time though came its own series of complications, and I really liked the fact that this story didn't become a Happily Ever After halfway through the story. There was still a lot of misunderstandings, arguments, partings, and work to be done, because in the end this wasn't just a story about falling in love, but a story about learning to love yourself.

I flew through this quickly (for me) in three days. I will be looking out for more of Andie Burke’s work in the future. This was a really solid debut. I love the fake dating trope. This was a slow burn romance that I think would’ve be benefited from the reader being able to understand the thoughts and feelings of both MCs rather than just Olive. Stella was a great a great character and I’d love to hear more from her side. That aside, Burke did a great job of creating characters with depth and did not bog the story down with too much side story. The mental health representation was also well done.

I was so excited to read this one, especially because of the LGBTQ+ rep for pride month and how much I love traveling! But I am DNFing this one at 10%. The beginning internal dialogue about the plane crashing was a bit too much for me, but I wanted to keep reading past that. I did appreciate the MC saving someone's life, but by the time the pilots came out and the male pilot was super sexist and misogynistic, I couldn't take it anymore. I have too many books on my TBR to spend my time on this one that I wasn't enjoying, but thanks anyway for the advanced copy. I hope others love it!

Thank you to St Martin’s Publishing for a free ARC of this book.

Burke did a good job with her debut novel. I appreciated the accuracy of the nursing aspects of the book as well as the mental health issues depicted. Both characters were easy to root for and love. I’m excited for more books from this author!

I really enjoyed this debut novel! Olive and Stella both had so much depth as people that they felt super relatable. Olive has had a crap hand dealt to her- her brother's accident, her toxic ex, her strained relationship with her family, and her mental health struggles (anxiety, panic attacks, and depression). Stella has her own stuff too- her dad has Parkinson's disease, she's a queer female in a male dominant field, and she's a little bit of a control freak. While on the surface, Olive and Stella couldn't be more different as people, they just work as a couple and compliment each other perfectly. As far as fake dating goes, it was great! Stella had Olive attend work functions with her in the hopes of finally getting the promotion to Captain that she has deserved for years. I'm really pleased that at the end of the story, Stella was able to stand up for herself and Olive. They both learned to lean on one another through some truly intense situations. Definitely a story I'd recommend!

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book! Queer romance! A pilot as the love interest! I enjoyed both of the characters but I didn't find the writing to be convincing about their relationship. My brain cared about their relationship but my emotions did not. I think that the book was trying to do too much, Both characters had multiple non-romance storylines that didn't get a chance to be developed enough, or resolved enough by the end.
I am interested in what the author writes next because I think that this had some great parts, and a lot of potential but it didn't all come together for me in this one.

I really enjoyed getting a chance to read Fly With Me, it was an excellent debut novel by Andie Burke. Definitely a book I could not put down once I started reading it. I read it all in one sitting!
It was an easy and enjoyable read! Overall, this book told a cute romance story featuring one of my favorite tropes, fake dating. Looking forward to what Andie Burke writes next!

First, thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for a fair and honest review!

This book was a delicious snack of a book! Well, for the most part. There were things that I found too much for me (particularly regarding the treatment of Olive's brother's wishes and Olive) that never got any kind of worthy resolution beyond a few sentences. That's fine in general--but I wished for more there.

Overall, though, it was a romp of a book; it was angsty, spicy, sweet, and I'm so glad the book ended how it did! I think Burke does a great job of building the main relationships in this book; I'll be reading more from Burke for sure, and I'll be recommending this one to my sapphic romance loving friends!

4.5/5 rounded up to 5.

“Fly With Me” was a great debut novel. Olive is scared of flying, among other things. However, her fear is overshadowed when a medical emergency occurs and Olive, an ER nurse, acts to save the passenger. This heroic act leads to her meeting pilot Stella Soriano, who is stunningly attractive, and who will help save the day for Olive by driving her overnight from Atlanta to Orlando, so Olive can run the Disney half marathon the next morning. The medical emergency had resulted in the flight to Orlando being diverted to Atlanta, and there were no flights that evening from Atlanta to Orlando.

This road trip and the time that Olive and Stella spend together in Orlando will turn into a fake relationship. Stella has long dreamed of becoming an airline captain, and should have been promoted years ago, but she keeps getting passed over for male pilots. The airline is happy to show off its few female pilots when it is beneficial, but not really interested in helping them advance their careers. However, Olive's heroic act is generating a lot of positive press, including keeping the airline's name in the news. There are some big industry social events coming up, and Stella thinks that if they fake a relationship and appear together at these events, the airline's PR department will want to take advantage of the publicity opportunities, and this will give Stella the opportunity to keep her name on the minds of the executives who will make promotion decisions.

Olive will agree to this fake relationship, but very much wants it to become a real relationship. Ever since meeting Stella, Olive has been imagining doing certain bedroom activities with Stella. And when those opportunities arise, the reader will be treated to some very enjoyable intimate scenes.

Stella is very career driven and is convinced that a successful relationship is not an option for her; her girlfriend will eventually get hurt, as has happened in past relationships. Olive has also not had much relationship success, with a toxic ex (Lindsay) who will repeatedly interfere in Olive and Stella's relationship. Also, Olive is prone to panic attacks and bouts of depression, and Lindsay made her feel very emotionally needy, breaking up with her multiple times because she could not handle Olive's messy emotions, but making Olive feel like it was her fault, and making Olive question whether she was capable of a successful relationship.

The interactions between Stella and Olive are quite good -- not only the intimate scenes when they occur, but the banter between them, as well as the everyday interactions as they get to know each other better. Stella and Olive have very different personalities, and it is fun to see how these personalities conflict at times but also mesh at times. There is also a great supporting cast with Gus (Olive's dog), Derek's (Olive's best friend and coworker), and Hector (Stella's father). Stella and Olive both have their insecurities and issues, but their time together and the situations they face will force them both to confront their issues, rethink their priorities, and realize what is truly important and meaningful.

I loved this book! Olive is a nurse and she has fear of flying and on a flight to Orlando there is a medical emergency. She manages to focus on the injured man and save his life. She gets off the plane and has a complete emotional breakdown and is crying. Stella the pilot on the plane comforts her and agrees to drive her to Orlando. This was so beautiful and touching the compassion that she showed Olive.

Olive is running a race for her brother who is paralyzed and has a brain injury. Olive hates to see her brother like that and this has torn the family apart about how to care for him and next steps.

Stella is there to take care of Olive after she finishes the race. They have a wonderful time going to Disney. Stella asks Olive to be her fake girlfriend and the witter banter they share and how they grow in love is beautiful to watch unfold.

They both have to learn to lean on each other and how to be a couple. A fake dating romance you won't want to miss.

Included Tropes and Representation: LGBT+ main characters, love interest with celiac disease, main character with mental illness (panic attacks and depressive episodes), discussion and on page scenes of end-of-life care and decisions

FLY WITH ME by ANDIE BURKE is an adult, contemporary romance following ER nurse Olive Murphy in the aftermath of her first flight. What started off as trying to survive her first flight ever without panicking or vomiting turned into her saving a man's life in an in-flight medical emergency and going viral. While that may good for all parties involved, it meant Olive was now stuck in the airport with no way to get to her destination: running in a Disney marathon in honor of her brother. Just as she has accepted defeat, one of the pilots on the plane, Stella Soriano, offers her a ride.

Olive and Stella's few days at Disney become some of the best days of their lives... that ends with a shocking question from Stella to Olive "Will you be my fake girlfriend?"Olive's life saving moment has gone viral helping to generate interest and sales in Stella's airline. Stella faking a relationship with "the woman that saved Mickey Mouse" could both further help the airlines and her own personal and professional goals. Reluctantly, Olive agrees to the fake relationship with hopes to help Stella and herself but as the pair spends more time together, Olive questions where the line between fake and real meets.

****SPOILERS AHEAD****

I went into this book somewhat blindly, choosing not to know too many details so I could be surprised and not be influenced by others while reading. The premise was intriguing and I was excited to read about how Olive and Stella would be navigating their life after the viral moment and when they decided to take advantage of the temporary fame by faking a relationship. As the story unfolded, I was becoming increasingly excited about various of the included elements: LGBT+ main and side characters, Stella's career as a pilot, Olive's mental health, both Stella and Olive being in caregiving/end-of-life care situations, Stella's celiac disease, etc. Unfortunately, I felt underwhelmed with many of these elements. Some parts such as Stella's caregiving with her father and how Olive is navigating her mental health, I would have liked to see more of. I wasn't a fan of how many scenes ended and then were recapped later due to a time skip. Some I think would've served the story if they were fleshed out for readers. Other parts like the jealous ex-girlfriend didn't feel fully resolved at the end, it just end dissolved when I wish more could've been done about it. Also, the pacing felt slow with Olive and Stella getting to know each other but quick with the romantic interactions. I just didn't feel the romance between them to believe it when Olive was in love. In the end, I gave FLY WITH ME 2 stars due to the continuous feeling of being disappointed with how the story was playing out and lack of support or rooting for the romance.