thank you netgalley for the e-arc. loved this! i've read newman's previous two books and loved them both as well. newman never disappoints with a page turning disaster story in which you can never guess what will happen next. i like that she leaves cliff hangers between chapters and between peoples sections only to pick back up right in the action or feeling.

TJ Newman came highly recommended by a friend & I'm happy to give a positive review. If feel good thrillers are a thing then sign me up for more! Though I'm now pretty terrified about a real life worst case scenario!

4.5 🌟 Rounded Up
Move this one up to the top of your TBR! This book grabbed me immediately. If I thought I was a nervous flyer before, this just upped the anxiety level for me.

There is no waiting around for this book to get good, it put me on the edge of my seat right away.
A typical passenger flights takes a chaotic turn, as the pilot suffers a heart attack. Unbeknownst to the town and people of Waketa, Minnesota, their lives change in an instant as the plane debris heads right for them. In this town, a nuclear power plant. Need I say more? Think of Fukushima and Chernobyl. The stuff nightmares are made of.
The story unfolds as ordinary citizens turn into heroes, as they race against the clock to not only save this town, but potentially humanity for years to come.

The characters are very likeable in this book. I was rooting for them along the way. Especially Steve and Dani. In my time of need, those would be two people I would like by my side. So many people affected by this plane crash. Was I sad at the end? Yes. The author does a fantastic job of writing a top notch action packed thriller, while evoking all your emotions.

You will be tuning the pages quick with this one. I sure did!

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company to read an advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy. Worst Case Scenario is Newman’s third book. I have enjoyed her previous novels, and this one was no exception. Worst Case Scenario follows the events that happen after a plane crashes into a nuclear plant. The perspectives switch between multiple characters that include Steve, Ethan, Joss, Clara, Dani, and many more. Although the beginning was a little tricky to keep track of who was who, towards the end I was drawn into the storyline and the characters. I was rooting for a happy ending, and definitely felt all the feeling throughout the book. It kept me on the edge of my seat and I did not want to put it down.

This book is a page turner of all page turners! I stayed up extra late because I had to know what was going to happen. This book is stressful, suspenseful and I cried; it had all the emotions. As per usual for T.J. Newman our story starts on an airplane, but tragedy soon strikes and the "worst case scenario" happens when the plane crashes into a nuclear power plant. I loved the setting in rural Minnesota, because living in Iowa I was aware of some of the geographical mentions throughout the book and was a clear presentation of what the rural midwest is like. The characters were not without flaws, but they were real and because of that faults included you fell in love with all of them. There were for sure some "cliff hanger" moments where I was holding my breath, but that just made this book even better! I will forever be an auto-buy fan of Newman!

I have read every book by T.J and she does a phenomenal job of completely capturing the reader's attention. And as always, the story is chaotic, sad, tense, etc. T.J also does such a great job doing so much research and tapping into her own experience and expertise, to make the story so realistic and true (even though we like to hope that her books are also unrealistic and will never happen). With that said, I do find that sometimes this book (as well as her others) are very technical and sometimes too detailed where it's hard for me to imagine or process. There was a lot on the science background and nuclear details, survival/rescue, etc. Again, she does a great job with writing that but for me, it can be too much. But always very interesting and fun to learn more about. I will continue to always read her books! I like this one more than Drowning but not as much as Falling.

I’m not going to lie, I almost DNF’d this. It was pretty slow in the beginning and then around halfway it really picked up. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I bawled my eyes out for the last 5% of the damn the thing. I’ll read anything TJ Newman writes and I can’t wait for the next one.

I've loved all of TJ Newman's books, so of course I was thrilled to get a copy of Worst Case Scenario. This one goes in a whole other direction, and while I still enjoyed it a lot, it just didn't hit the same for me as Falling and Drowning. Not knowing anything about nuclear power made a lot of this go over my head, even though I tried to look up the basics. I also felt like there were way too many characters and that I didn't get to know any of them well enough to form a real connection with. I'd still recommend it for an action packed suspense, but I don't know if it was written for the same audience as her previous novels.

A real can’t put it down thriller, this book starts out with quite a bang - when a pilot has a massive heart attack while flying, a plane crashes into a nuclear power plant in a small town in Minnesota. The rest of the book is then an action survival thriller as people at the power plant try to stop a reactor meltdown, firefighters try to save people, people in town try to escape, etc.

If you’ve read TJ Newman’s two previous books you know pretty much what to expect from this one except that this one is not set mostly on a plane - but it does follow her familiar problem of short chapters from many different characters’ perspectives, and non-stop action. Basically, it’s a disaster movie in book form. It was gripping and scary and even made me cry a couple of times. I will say I’d probably rank this third of her three books, but it was still a solid four stars for me and I’ll definitely read whatever she writes next - not to mention see the movies of her books!

This isn’t a book id normally read but it was an interesting change. I appreciated the message at the end. Some of the jargon was a bit confusing but overall good book.

Absolutely had my interest from start to finish! I became so invested in the fate of the characters that I finished this in one day. I’ve already recommended to numerous customers!

TL;DR: sadly this one lived up its title. I’m generally a huge fan of Newman’s: I loved her debut FALLING, and her 2023 book DROWNING was one of my favorites of last year. Which is why I’m so bummed to tell you that this…reads like an okay episode of 9-1-1. As terrifying as nuclear war is, reading about people being exposed to radiation and patching up a pool full of fuel rods is just…not thaaaaat exciting. Bummer. Still, Newman is an auto-buy author at this point, and I'll read whatever she writes next.

Wow, such a fascinating topic. I read this during my downtime at work, thinking it'd be a thrilling read with suspenseful moments. However, I cried twice. Twice. While. Working. Lol. So take that for what it's worth. It's definitely moving at parts that touched me so deeply. I was so intrigued and loved watching the courage from all of the characters. It was a beautiful but deeply moving thing to watch unfold. Truly kept me on the edge of my seat, hoping that everything would turn out okay but fearing the worst possible thing. Loved this!

I received this book from NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company to read/review. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.

A plane crashes into a nuclear power plant, creating a world threatening emergency. I enjoyed the author’s previous books more than this one. The nonfiction books that I’ve read about Chernobyl were actually more exciting than this fiction. This book veered too far into maudlin soap opera territory. The outcome was never in doubt. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Absolutely wonderful! TJ Newman is an autoread for me and this might be her best book yet! I loved the plot and how high-action it was. It also is a surprisingly emotional story.

OMG! What an action filled thriller it was!! Non stop, fast moving!
Another fun summer read! TJ Newman created a masterpiece

✨BOOK REVIEW✨

Worst Case Scenario by TJ Newman

This one started out STRONG. Like Steph hitting three 3’s at the end of the championship game, strong. And then….it kinda fizzled. WAY too much technical jargon.

If you’re not familiar with this author, plane thrillers are her mojo. Honestly, the author’s note at the beginning really got me excited (SWIPE TO READ). She explains while doing research for her first book, she asked pilots one question and then recorded the answers she got. Most were similar, but there was one that stood out, and that’s how this book was born. A large plane goes down on a nuclear power plant 😳😱

First, I could’ve lovedddd this book! It’s unique and it starts off fast & furious. My hang ups were with the pacing mostly & I felt she went too hard on the technicalities and the science of it all. I needed to learn less about nuclear power plants and more about these characters. About 70% through I realized that I felt nothing for these people. I mean, tragic, really sad things are happening and I wasn’t getting emotional.

I think if you’ve enjoyed her other books, def still give this one a shot, but it’s not one I’ll be screaming about for people to abandon their tbr and read immediately.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

This one published Aug 13th - thank you to @netgalley & the publisher for the eARC. All thoughts are my own ✈️

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown & Co for this advance copy of Worst Case Scenario, TJ Newman’s new 2024 release!

The one thing that TJ Newman does that I haven’t found with any other author I’ve read is really keep the story moving and gives the reader this never ending sense of dread with her plots. I know that sounds crazy, but I think it’s because there’s a sense of real-ness to it - if you’ve flown commercially, any of these instances could happen in real life, which makes it almost scary. This was probably my least favorite of the three I’ve read, but that in no way means you should skip it - the only reason this wasn’t a 5-star for me is because of the technicalities surrounding the science of the power plant, it went over my head a little bit because I don’t work in this field (this was also one of my critiques of Drowning with the diving, but as someone who has more knowledge in that field, it didn’t affect my reading experience as much as this one). Overall, I think this book is a fast paced read that will get your heart rate up worrying about these characters - TJ Newman is definitely an autobuy author for me.

Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for this honest review. This one released last week and is available for purchase now!

Let me preface this by saying I really liked this author's two previous novels and had very high hopes for this new aviation thriller. But the deeper into the story I got the more issues I had with it.

Maybe because I work at an agency that does training exercises with nearby chemical plants on a regular basis for extreme scenarios such as the one that occurs in this book that I just can't believe these employees were so ill prepared. Like what do you mean you don't have the essential diving gear in the event the radioactive pool requires repairs and you have to go bum it off an old employee halfway across town? What do you mean an employee is exposed to extreme amounts of radiation and 1: diagnoses they will only have a short amount of time to live after that and 2: they were back to working within hours with the amount of skin abnormalities from the exposure and not laying down or going to the hospital?! And how did we have this much time to work with after a plane literally crashes into a nuclear power plant... the amount of downtime after the crash felt way too unrealistic.

And what do you mean the local fire department does not have the essential resources to assist in rescue missions? And what do you mean you have firefighters who do not know how to swim and are afraid of heights?! It grew to be way too preposterous for me to even care about these characters by the end. For one thing there were too many people/POVs to keep track of and we really do not get acquainted with them enough to feel empathy for them.

It just felt like the author threw every bad scenario into the plot that they could, which in the end fell very flat for me.

Like most of the bookstagram community, I’ve been a huge fan of TJ Newman since Fallen came out just a couple years ago, but this? This might just be my favorite she’s written.

As someone with a massive fear of flying, all her books have basically been horror stories to me, but this one is a legitimate nightmare scenario. A plane crashes, killing everyone on board. Already a tragedy, right? Except it just happened to crash into a nuclear power plant. I lost track of how many times my pulse spiked while reading this one!

But Worst Case Scenario isn’t just a disaster story, it’s also about a small town pulling together in the face of tragedy and destruction, and by the coda I was fully sobbing.