Another explosive (see what I did there) thriller from TJ Newman 🤩
Thank you, Little Brown and Company,  for the gifted copy of Worst Case Scenario {partner}

Genre: Thriller
Format: 🎧📖
Pub Date: 8.13.2024
Pages: 336
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆

“It isn’t about the individual. It’s about the whole. The collective. The greater good.”

TJ Newman never ceases to amaze me. How can someone pack that much action into a story and still find a way to make me feel so many emotions that I start crying? Every single book of hers has me an emotional mess at the end… and I love it.

While Worst Case Scenario is a bit different from her other books, we spend some time inside the airplane right before impact, but most of the book takes place on the ground, inside the town lines of Waketa, Minnesota. It added a completely new spin on the “locked room trope.”

There was a lot seethed into this 336-page roller coaster of a book, but my favorite storyline involved Connor. The whole situation involving this kid made me a nervous, emotional mess, and I left crying, biting off what very few nails I had left, and hoping Newman didn’t do the unthinkable. 

Needless to say, when I finished Worst Case Scenario, I needed a nap. 

Read if you enjoy:
💨 Face paced
💥 Action-packed
🧩 Problem-solving
🥺 Emotional stories

I recommend reading The Worst Case Scenario when you have an entire day free. Once you start, you won’t be able to stop.

Well what can I say? T. J. Newman has done it again! I love her books and they always keep me on the edge of my seat. Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!

TJ Newman's latest disaster story is another fantastic page-turner, this time taking the action out of the plane and raising the stakes to a race against nuclear disaster. "Worst Case Scenario" proves that Newman is not just a one-trick pony writer who is limited to aviation suspense, but rather reveals that her true mastery is in developing suspense around average Americans in extraordinary, harrowing situations. While it's true that an airplane disaster is the catalyst to the plot of the novel, the real thrills come from her ability to develop characters that seem familiar and relatable at a lightning-fast pace and place them in peril. I was invested in these characters from the opening and felt like I knew them. The voices felt authentic throughout, from children to teens to adults, male and female.

My husband works in nuclear power, so this story hit close to home, and it felt genuine and plausible, given all the twists and turns and developments along the way. It was also presented in a way that someone not familiar with the science could follow and understand the critical pieces without being too in the weeds and jargon-laden. I understand exactly what the small Minnesota town around the plant is like, having grown up in a smaller town in the Midwest and now living in close proximity to a plant. It seemed well-researched and authentic throughout.

Newman uses a taut plot with shorter chapters and shifting perspectives. She doesn't waste a paragraph, sentence, or word, plunging into the action on Page 1. Her descriptions are not overly gory but still feel gruesome and terrifying with the use of single, gut-wrenching lines. "The seats were not empty" springs to mind. The real villain of "Worst Case Scenario" is, in fact, our inability to prepare for and guard against a "worst case scenario," as well as a ticking clock counting down to zero hour, which is posted at the beginning of every chapter. Instead of relying on a visible, named villain, Newman instead shines a light on everyday people asked to put aside their differences and rise to the occasion to be heroes.

"Worst Case Scenario" is a fast and thrilling novel that reads like a great disaster movie with memorable characters and a unique story. I enjoyed Newman's first two books, and this one is just as enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the advanced read.

What a wild ride! Literally!!

Worst Case Scenario (apt title) asks the question: what if a plane crashed into a nuclear power plant? and what if the infrastructure of that plant was already under-funded and falling apart?

I have never been so stressed but so interested while reading a book. T.J. Newman writes so cinematically you can see it playing in your head clear as day. I thought the different story lines were both extremely well done and can't wait to read more by her! (especially since I already own Falling and Drowning... book worm problems)

The book’s pacing is extremely fast. We are thrown into the story and follow many characters as they are forced to make impossible decisions. We see teachers, firefighters, engineers, military, and more navigate this catastrophe. Like in Newman’s other books, the chapters begin with a running clock counting us down to the zero hour.
I won’t even try to be vague. This book is STRESSFUL. It is heart pounding and give you sense of dread. The title is no joke—this book is about the worst case scenario . I fell asleep reading this book, and my dreams that night were stress filled. Make no mistake. A lot of people die in this book. A lot of bad happens.
Sooooo why would anyone want to read this book then right? Here are a couple reasons.
it was so fast paced and can be read very quickly so it would be a good book if you need something quick to change things up
It has beautiful depictions of sacrifice and love.
It shows the power of community banding together in times of darkness
I will say that I really liked this book, but it wasn’t my favorite of hers. A main reason is that I knew nothing about nuclear plants, so I found myself having to google terms quite often at the start. That gave me a slower startup. I would do yourself a favor and just look at that on your own before you read this.
Also , this is so minor but the perspectives change often and sometimes it would happen mid chapter. There was rarely a way to show that shift. I just wish there was a little squiggle or something. This also happened in cc3 and it drove me mad.
Again , not the end of the world but I noticed it enough to make me think of it every Time.
Also there were a couple plot points that felt like the author was intentionally trying to pull at your heartstrings. I was like ok here we go. I know this person is toast.
But then even if I was right— they were toast —it still got me? I found myself tearing up.
So while it wasn’t my favorite of hers, I still really enjoyed it and I’m glad I got a chance to read it.

T.J. Newman does it again!! 🛩️

Worst Case Scenario releases on August 13 and you’ll def want to get your hands on it! 👏🏻

I flew through this book. I was grabbing for tissues multiple times throughout - these characters were just so so good and I was rooting for them from the start. ✈️

The quickie: When a Coastal Airlines 757 pilot suffers a heart attack and his copilot is in the lavatory, the plane does a nose dive into the Clover Hill Nuclear Power Plant. If the plant explodes, what does that mean, exactly? Oh you know, just the end of civilization, basically. The town of Waketa is forced to band together, with and without the outside help of President Dawson, outside aid, and local emergency crews. ✈️🚒🏢🏨

This book had me on the edge of my seat. I love that Newman is a former flight attendant who came up with these books and/or wrote them while on the job and that often times she was talking to pilots about their worst fears while flying. She does such a nice job of educating the reader while keeping the plot moving and keeping the reader hooked. Drowning is still my favorite of hers but WCS is definitely #2! And an added perk that Drowning and Falling are set to be movies - I can see this one being made as well! 🤞🏻

Some of my favorite quotes:

✨“A man at a gas station heard the pump shut off but his truck’s tank was only a third full. A kid at recess pushed the silver button on the drinking fountain and ran off, still thirsty, after nothing came out. People in an elevator fell into one another as the cab jolted to a stop. The couple in the front row of a roller coaster looked down the steep drop, wondering if the long pause was part of the ride. A surgeon stayed his hand, the scalpel hovering over the patient’s chest cavity, no longer able to see in the pitch-black OR.” *chills!!*

✨“A fire of this magnitude, mankind has yet to conceive of a way to put out. It would burn forever.”

✨“What would a level eight mean?” “It would be an extinction-level event, sir.”

✨”If he truly had understood what that meant—that time runs out—he would have done it all so differently. Maybe you can’t understand until you’re the one standing on the brink. Maybe we’re not meant to. Maybe it’s some biological trick designed to keep us safe from the saber-toothed tiger, only now it keeps us building big cities and worrying about deadlines.

✨ “And once you see it, once you get it, once you’re free from the false belief that you think you have time, you can just enjoy it for what it is. And it is all so, so beautiful.”

Thank you NetGalley, T.J. Newman, and Little Brown for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Releases 8/13!

As I have been accustomed to with T.J. Newman, I buckled up and prepared to read this book within 24-48 hours! It did not disappoint. While based in her normal setting of an airplane this story veered quickly into a small town, making the theme of community rich. If you want a fast and furious thriller clear your schedule and got lost in this story with a large cast of characters a slice of life in small community facing a Herculean task. Thank you to NetGalley for access to an advanced reader copy.

I love T.J. Newman's other two books, so this one disappointed me. I only got 25% of the way through but had to DNF because the book felt AI-generated. The beginning scene was crazy gory without any emotion. Then, the explanation of the nuclear power plant felt like someone typed "tell me how a nuclear power plant works" into an AI generator and copied and pasted it. I was not invested in any of the characters to continue reading. I hate writing anything negative about someone's hard work, but this one didn't grab me as much as her other books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Company for the advanced copy. Because I didn't finish the book, I don't think it's fair to place a review on my page or Goodreads, but I will mention it in my stories.

Thank you @netgalley and @littlebrown for my gifted copy.

This book unlocked MANY new fears.

As a Minnesota resident who knows exactly where Waketa is - this book was so anxiety inducing 😅 I was googling "Is there a Clover Hill Nuclear Plant in Waketa" at midnight. Because if there was, we were moving.

This was brilliant. It's not often a book gets my adrenaline pumping, but T.J. Newman is such a phenomenal author. She's able to thrill me and rip my heart out of my chest at the same time. Seeing a small community come together to try to save humanity is exactly what I needed in my life.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Why do I do this to myself 😂?! I’m nearly past my fear of flying! But TJ Newmans 3rd book based on another airline tragedy gave me constant anxiety and I loved it!!

What I liked:
•the author took her expertise of airplane travel and pilots worst fears, and expanded on that, this time setting the story at a nuclear power plant.
•I think I liked the side story about a little boy trapped in a van above the Mississippi River even more than the main story set at the plant.
•Minnesota setting ~ a midwest power plant like the one I live 20 miles from.
•why does it take a disaster to bring people together? But nice to imagine it can.
•dreaming of a president like the one in the book ~ caring, compassionate, smart and attentive.
•the first two books are being made into movies, I can definitely see this one as a movie as well!

What I didn’t like:
•so much mechanical detail
•a lot of characters to keep track of

Thanks to the author and netgalley for this digital arc being released august 13!

Book 42 of 2024
Read August 1-4

As a former flight attendant, TJ Newman writes frightening “plane crash” books. With this one, she takes a different spin - what if a plane crashes into a nuclear reactor? So this book is not really about the plane crash, but all the things that can wrong when this happens and how it effects the small town in MN where the nuclear plant is part of everyone’s lives. I read this in one sitting.

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have loved both of Newman's previous works - Falling and Drowning. LOVED. I felt that they were different than anything out there and that she really nailed the atmosphere and inner workings of plane travel. This story centers on a possible nuclear meltdown following a plane crash. I enjoyed the read and would recommend.

Screaming. Crying. Throwing up. Ok the crying part yes, the rest no but OMG. She’s done it again. I flew through this book in 48 hours … the same way I did Drowning. This book was heart wrenching, anxiety inducing and made me feel part of humanities best and worst.
It’s amazing with how much concise clarity Newman writes. She allows you to both visualize the true horror of what she writes but also the true emotion of it.
I hope she continues to write and sells the deals to these as movies - I’d both continue to read and watch them in a heartbeat

Worst Case Scenario is relentless. It begins at jet speed at 35,000 feet and doesn't let up until the very last page. The pilot of Coastal Airways Flight 235 suffers a widow-maker heart attack, initiating a series of events that lead to disaster. T. J. Newman’s narrative style and strength shine through from the very first page. In the opening scene we are continually given hope that this will work out OK even though we’ve read the description of the book and know better. Much like re-watching the movie The Perfect Storm, you will root for the attendants, the co-pilot, and the passengers on Flight 235.

Waketa, Minnesota, is home to the United Grace Church. The action takes place all over the town, along highways, and as far as the White House, but the very heart of this story is community and belonging. Nowhere is that more evident than the Church led by Reverend Michaels who talks about family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. About how everyone is family and how belonging to each other means you are responsible for each other.

Today, this will be tested. The nearby Clover Hill Power Plant is the final resting place for a good amount of Flight 235. The International Nuclear Event Scale has seven levels, Clover Hill might be the first level 8, worse than Fukushima and Chernobyl. Chapter one fittingly begins: Countdown to zero hour.

Everyone is in a race against time. The race is full of unknowns, death seems to be around every corner, and people are going to have to make some tough decisions. There are no good decisions, just less-bad and those depend on timing. It will take everything everyone has to get through this, for some it will simply take everything. Heroes and everyday heroes will rise to the occasion as Newman’s prose takes your breath away.

This is a real page turner with a cast of characters who will make you laugh, make you mad, and make you cry. So, what do you think, will belonging and responsibility be enough to get everyone through this?

If you want to know the answer, dear reader, you’ve got 16 hours and 38 minutes until Zero Hour. You better get moving.

This is the second book I've read from T.J. Newman and I liked this book so much more than the other.

A commercial airplane crashes into a nuclear power plant and cuts the small town off from the rest of the world. Due to the location of the plant, if it reaches the status of meltdown the impact can affect so much of the land/ country. There are multiple subplots with different POVs and each one is intriguing. It's almost like there are two different books happening at once but it does open the world up and shows the reader how an event can affect many individuals simultaneously.

I was lucky enough to be approved for an early copy of the eARC and audiobook. I very highly recommend the audiobook. The narrator does a fantastic job with voices and acting that really made this feel like a movie. Also, the audiobook has some sound effects when it comes to radio transmissions that was a nice touch. There was a lot but an appropriate amount of this in the book to make this effect beneficial.

This is “dude flick” thriller to the max. It's so exciting and has so many explosions and carnage. So if you like those type of movies then you'll love this book.

However, this book also has a lot of heart. The reason I didn't care for the other book I read from Newman is that the “heroes” were infallible and no one else could solve the problem except them. In Worst Case Scenario the protagonists were very much human. They cared and made sacrifices but also mistakes. I became attached to many of the characters and I teared up at times.

I highly recommend this if you're looking for a thrilling page turning book but also want your heart wrenched.

Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for allowing me to read this book early for an honest review.

5⭐️

I was a big fan of the author’s other two books, but this book sealed the deal: T. J. Newman is an auto buy for me from now on.

This book was relentless. It hit the ground running at chapter one and did not let up for a second. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

There were a couple moments where little comments were made that made me laugh, and some times where I was holding my breath. It was beautiful seeing the community come together to support one another.

And then I got to the end of chapter 37, and I started crying and I didn’t stop. It has been a long time since a book has made me cry like this.

I cannot recommend this book enough. And it definitely is in my top books of the year.

Thank you to T. J. Newman and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have enjoyed all of this author’s books, and like the others, this one is a suspenseful page turner about a situation one hopes to never be in! Worst Case Scenario is about a plane crashing into a nuclear power plant: sounds improbable maybe, however the snowball effect this could have was one I had never thought of and I learned a lot! I will note there is a good bit of disaster and trauma, especially in the beginning and a sensitive reader may need a trigger warning for some of it. But overall, it is as exciting and propulsive as her other books and I can recommend all of them! It comes out next week so grab a copy! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy..

This book truly shows the ups and downs of a community working together after a plane crash- seeing all the damage that was done from one pilot having a heart attack caused on not just a town but a nation. They way the community came together to work towards helping in whatever way possible to getting the school kids on a bus to safety or the fireman or engineers working to prevent anything else from happening the small town.

This book really kept me on the edge of my seat and was a fast read since I didn’t want to put the book down.

I’m always here for a T.J.. Newman. It’s like action movie in a book. I went into this one with no idea what the plot was because I absolutely loved her previous two books. This one was a surprise because surprise! It doesn’t take place on a plane. This one concerns a plane (don’t get attached to the passengers) that crashes into a nuclear power plant in Minnesota. I read this really quickly, but unfortunately I didn’t connect with the characters as much as in the last two books. It was a fun read, and although I’m sure she did her research on nuclear power and all, I skimmed some of the details that she probably put in to make it more realistic. I was just a bit bored with all that. I would prefer more set up to introduce characters to make us care for them. It was still a lot of fun though.

I'm the biggest TJ Newman fan, and WORST CASE SCENARIO only solidified this fact further. I've rated each of her books five stars, and somehow they keep getting better every time! I can honestly say this one was by far my favorite.

This author can paint a picture like no one else. My favorite books are always the ones I can vividly picture in my mind, and TJ does this so well. I felt like I was in Weketa with these characters as I was listening, feeling it all alongside them. Joe Morton's narration absolutely made the emotions come alive.

I know nothing about nuclear power, but I felt that I could easily picture this power plant and feel the pressure of the global threat if these characters couldn't contain the fallout. I felt so strongly for the characters in this book, and love how they all come together for the good of the town and the nation.

I only wish this book was longer! No pressure, TJ, but I already can't wait for your next novel.