This book was... odd. I was immediately drawn to the book from the cover, but was able to really fall into the story inside. The character depth in unusual situations was very well written.

I am DNFing. I'm so sorry but the writing was so annoying to me. I couldn't stand the amount of times the name Joanie was repeated. I also just couldn't even fathom what was happening.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC

Hot Air is a bizarre story full of messy characters making bad decisions. I guess there are themes about motherhood and money, and figuring out what is really important in life. Unfortunately, I never felt attached to the characters. I was just reading words on the page. The writing felt detached and cold. I almost DNF'd several times, but it was short and so weird that I had to know how it ended.

An interesting premise but I just couldn't get into this one. It just didn't have any characters or a plot that could keep my attention and I ended up DNFing. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. Perhaps just a wrong book wrong time situation.

For me, this is a classic case of, "don't judge a book by it's cover" which is vibrant and attention grabbing. Combined with the racy and fun description, I was sure I was in for a treat when I received an ARC of Hot Air. Boy, was I woefully mistaken. Every character is horribly selfish and unlikeable, the writing is overly simplisic with sentences that resemble, "see spot run". And, the four main characters being named, Joannie, Johnny, Jonathan and Julia became annoying rather than cute. The sex scene with the child in the room pushed me over the cliff and I just couldn't care what happened anymore.
What started as an entertaining story with promise, turned into a strange stream of conciousness diatribe by each character that left me wishing I'd dnf'd this book. Thankfully, it was only 208 pages.

Hot Air follows a group of people in a messy situation. They navigate relationships, parenting, and grapple with right and wrong. This book is a quick, fun read, and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading about people trying to find their way.

Wow! This was bonkers and everyone sucked (in a juicy way) and it was wild fun. I really hope you’re not supposed to root for any character because i really didn’t. I felt bad for the kids involved for getting caught up in the adults’ mess. This is a look at people’s needs and wants, with twisted and distorted views of morals and how actions affect other people. But it was entertaining!

3 stars for a quick read and also for it being decently entertaining. I will say the sex scene with the child in the room was the weirdest part about the whole book and could have been left out. Overall, interesting read

This was, without a doubt, one of the strangest books I have ever read. Yet, I could not put it down, completely baffling me. This is a story about a couple in a hot air balloon that lands in the pool of a man who is on a date with a woman for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. It is told from several different character’s perspectives and it was almost captivating. Then again, barely anything happened in the book and the characters were all essentially horrid people. I’m going to be honest, I don’t know how to feel about this book but it was fantastic and weird all at the same time. Due to this, I have it 3.5 rounded down to 3 stars. I just know I’m going to think about this book for days to come, the sign of a good book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

3.5 ⭐️

Honestly shoutout to authors who can write almost entirely character driven books full of just the most unlikeable people. This book gave a lot of depth to its small cast of characters, even the 8 year old little girl, who is also endearing but unlikeable. The commentary on marriage, children, and jobs is so real. Adulting fucking sucks.

A mom who will truly do anything for a swim in a pool!

For fans of people behaving badly and making poor choices, and for fans of succession. What a romp!

hot Air was a wild ride! at first, the characters all having J names bothered me, but I settled in quickly. I loved the short chapters and recommend the audio. I liked the questions about marriage, monogamy, motherhood.

Marcy Dermansky never fails to keep me glued to the page with her books and 'Hot Air' was no different. Joannie is on a first date with Johnny at his home while their elementary school age children have a play date in the basement. And then a hot air balloon comes out of nowhere and crashes into Johnny's pool and throws the entire night and weekend into a chaotic mess. I love how Dermansky's characters act exactly how you think they should while also doing things that you would never think to do in real life. Jonathan and Julia not only crash into the pool but they crash the entire situation. Jonathan is Joannie's first kiss from summer camp twenty years ago, coincidentally. Is there still a connection? Does Julia actually love her husband, Jonathan, or does she just adore his money? And does anyone like Johnny at all? This was a fast read but so entertaining. I would definitely recommend 'Hot Air' to someone looking for a different summer read.

Many thanks to Netgalley for e-arc!

This was an interesting book and I'm definitely planning on reading this author's backlog. I really enjoyed the deep dive into these characters and the unusual situation they all find themselves in.

A hilarious splash of a novel about the lives of the haves and the have-nots that begins with a literal splash as a hot air balloon being piloted by a billionaire and his wife is blow off course and crashes into a pool. The pool’s owned by Johhny, a single Dad who’s invited his impoverished divorced neighbor Joanie over for a first date, while their eight-year old kids Tyson and Joanie watch a Harry Potter movie in his basement entertainment room.

When the balloon crashes, Joanie rushes to the pool and dives under the balloon to save Johnathon Foster, a famous tech CEO. The billionaires land right in the middle of a bitter marital dispute with Jonathon’s wife Julia screaming that she will kill him if they don’t die. Johnny, sensing the momentousness of the occasion, opens expensive wine to celebrate and everyone decides to stay for a sleepover given the lateness of the hour. And then the zaniness begins, with twists popping up as everyone’s internal perspective of events gets shared.

The narration switches points of view each chapter between all the adults as well as Joanie’s daughter Lucy and Jonathon’s unhappy personal assistant Vivian. All their parents have their own selfish perspectives, riddled with needs, narcissism, bitterness, thwarted ambition and a touch of cruelty. Sprinkled on top are closely held secrets. Based on cascading bad decisions, they all end up in the deep end, just like the wayward balloon.
Meanwhile, Vivian works to muster the courage to breakout of her servant-assistant role, and Lucy turns her craving of going to Florida’s Harry Potter Land into a larger angst about being the have-not child of divorce.

The books zaniness, unbelievable coincidences, and humor lift the story beyond the really bad behavior of the grown-ups and saves you from questioning whether humanity itself is worth salvaging.

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

This was a breath of fresh air—a true delight. Marcy Dermansky’s weird, funny, straightforward way of writing captivated me from the very first page, and I was barely able to put it down.

What could have been (and admittedly was, at times) an absolutely absurd story, was relatable and honest and every good thing you want out of a book. I loved it.

Hot Air is a riot: quirky, sharp, and completely unhinged in the best way. I loved how Marcy Dermansky explores lust, power, and absurd wealth through a cast of messy, hilarious characters. The premise of a billionaire crash-landing a hot-air balloon into a first date sets the tone for the wild ride that follows. The post-pandemic setting worked well for me. It was present without being heavy-handed and added depth to the story. Fast-paced, entertaining, and sneakily smart, this book was a total delight.

Hot Air is described by the publisher as “a joyfully unhinged story of money, marriage, sex and revenge”, and I can’t possibly think of a better elevator pitch for this one. It’s a fast-paced story about messy characters doing messy things, with themes of relationships, power, parenthood and ego weaved through it. If you’re in the mood for something quirky, absurd and downright ridiculous that is still able to communicate important messages, Hot Air might be for you!

The story takes off when billionaire Jonathan and his philanthropist wife Julia crash their hot air balloon into a backyard pool. That pool just happens to belong to Johnny, a man who is doing his best to woo Joannie and her daughter on a first date of sorts. From there, things take off in surprising and unexpected directions, from swinger culture to Universal Studios in Florida. Told in alternating points of view of all four main characters, we get to watch all of the bad decisions that they all make for all of the wrong reasons, all in hopes of gaining something more.

It’s such a fun ride that had me laughing and cringing, sometimes at the same time. There’s just something about Dermansky’s writing style that you can’t look away from, and I enjoyed it here just as much as I did in Hurricane Girl. It’s fast-paced and staccato-like, continually forcing you to just turn to the next page. The characters in this one are all shallow and unlikeable, with motivations that are selfish and messy, but somehow they’re also sympathetic at the same time and you can’t help but want everything to turn out alright in the end. I fully anticipated that four main characters whose names all start with J would leave me completely confused, but it didn’t bother me in the slightest, since each character was so uniquely themselves. If I had any criticisms here, it would be that I just wanted a little more of everything.

Hot Air would be perfect for a one-sitting summer read when you’re ready to dive into the lives of some chaotic, flawed characters that manage to enlighten us to so many of the complexities of this weird, eccentric world that we live in. Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m not sure what to say about Hot Air- it was a whirlwind of a book!

It had a few things I enjoyed- alternating POV, rich people behaving badly, and it was short. But that was about it.

Honestly, it needed some better character development. The whole book felt kinda pointless to me? Everyone was terrible and I didn’t understand what motivated any of them to do what they did. Also- why give everyone such similar names? It definitely made it tricky to follow.

I wouldn’t recommend this one.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

"Hot Air" began with a totally original (and slapstick silly) premise. It opens with a first date backyard dinner around a refreshing and inviting backyard pool. While contemplating where this date is heading, the man (with one young son) and the woman (with her own similarly aged daughter) share a first and decidedly unsatisfactory first kiss. Bummer. 😣

What happens next is in turns bizarre, dangerous, preposterous, and very funny... well, only in hindsight folks was it funny! ANOTHER couple (on a *save our marriage* 10th year anniversary date night), lose control of the HOT AIR BALLOON that they are traveling within and crash land into the aforementioned beautiful backyard pool!😬

Let the fun begin‼️

What ensues is the strangest "second chance" story I have ever read. Relationships are tested. Love is debated. Perspectives are shared and challenged, sometimes all at the same time! Yikes!

While this was an engaging, funny, ironic story of *adulting* gone awry, it was flawed, for this reader, when all characters (adult AND children) were mostly, if not totally, unlikeable.
Yup. Just dreadful people.

Perhaps other readers, as did I, will eventually decide, "Well, shoot. I'm good with the sheer slapstick-ish farce of this story. I want to see where this balloon ride takes me." But I honestly found it difficult to empathize with the very real emotions underlying the characters and their subsequent actions or reactions toward one another.

My thanks to NetGalley for offering this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.