Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 367 pages
Author: J.A. Forde
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: August 19th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

What if the very last thing you’re looking for turns out to be exactly what you need?

Joss Morgan is perfectly happy with her life in Sydney, thank-you-very-much. She may be single, have only one true friend, and live alone… but she doesn’t need a man… or more friends… or anything at all.

Wes Anderson boards a flight to Sydney intent on escaping the cinders of his life—the dreams that have all gone up in smoke. One year. One year of freedom to be anyone he wants; that is, anyone but the man he always thought he’d be.

When Joss and Wes’s worlds collide, he steals her breath—in more ways than one—and she seems to steal all the space in his already full head. Now, life is determined to throw them together and what starts as an awkward dance of unlikely friendship—each trying to contain their own emotional landmines—turns into something they never saw coming.

But can two people with enough baggage to bring down a plane help each other heal? With their pasts lurking around every corner like airport security, Joss and Wes must decide:

Is it safer to fly solo or would a life together be worth all the risk?

On a Flight to Sydney is the first book in the Love Along the Way series. It’s a swoony, laugh out loud, tug on your heartstrings, romance filled with friendship, surfing, and two people doing their best to navigate this thing called life.

I WILL READ MORE.

This (I believe) is a debut romance and y’all, I will absolutely pick up the next book in this series. I really enjoyed this one and found myself continually wanting to pick it back up.

Now, there were some writing quirks in the first half, that are hard to describe, but weren’t clicking for me. And then I did notice in the second half that seemed to have settled a bit. I could feel the progression of the writing and story as the book went on which makes me excited for future stories.

I liked Joss and Wes a lot. They were easy characters to fall for and their heated but sweet story was swoony and deep. There were many good themes and quotes throughout that I resonated with and I liked how the situations were handled.

There isn’t a third act break up (yay!) but I did feel like the last quarter dragged a little bit into this awkward extended epilogue rather than closing the story out. Kind of like it was setting up for book two more than tying up the ends to book one first. My enjoyment levels were still there though for the overall book.

Overall audience notes:

• Contemporary Romance
• Language: low – moderate
• Romance: heated fade to black
• Violence: low
• Content Warnings: panic/anxiety attacks, mentions of PTSD due to a plane crash (recounted), emotionally manipulative mother, absent father, brief scene of attempted assault

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph