Captain Bill Hoffman is a pilot in a charge of a flight heading from Los Angeles to New York. However, shortly after takeoff, Bill is informed that his family are being held hostage. His wife Carrie has a bomb strapped to her chest and their two young children are in immediate danger. Their captor requires Bill to make a decision – crash the plane or his family dies.

Wow. What a read! Gripping, suspenseful, brilliance.

It’s a thought-provoking read that has you questioning how you would react in the same situation. Would you save the lives of your family, or all those onboard who have entrusted their lives to you?

So many thrillers can actually be quite lacklustre, but this is a thriller that really does thrill! It’s fast paced and the tension builds rapidly, and yet the author still manages to create a cast of characters we can actually care about.

The story is gripping and suspenseful and yet still managed to be really emotive. I felt a lump in my throat during several moments in the book.

If you like your thrillers gripping, emotional and suspenseful, Falling is the book for you.

You can read my full review at https://mmbbookblog.com/falling-by-t-j-newman-book-review/

This is a quick read because it′s difficult to put down. It′s a story of a hijack except the hijacker isn′t on the plane. Instead he′s holding the chief pilot′s family hostage to force him to crash the plane.

Despite the distinctive plan, there is a lot of this book that progresses as you might expect. But what makes the book interesting is the major part that the flight attendants play in the story. The pilots may be key figures in whether the plane crashes or not, but it is the attendants who are focused on keeping the passengers alive. There was an interesting fact that out of all their training, the hospitality section is miniscule, and the main part is how to cope with all the emergencies that might arise on a plane. They are the first responders of the sky, and in this book they show what they are capable of. It was absorbing to see how they functioned, managing to cope with the passengers and make plans to cope with the unfolding threat.

This is the kind of book that could easily be made into a film since it′s a tense, energetic plot, and if they do I hope they let all the crew shine.

I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley.

A great premise and a pretty enjoyable read overall.

You are an airline pilot and terrorists have kidnapped your family and give you a choice, either crash the plane or they will kill your family.

Thats pretty much it but it does it really well for the most part. I will say it has a pretty bizarre opening that is quite graphic and feels totally detached from the book itself. An odd choice I’d say.

When we get into the meat of the story there is plenty of tension and excitement. The fact that the author worked in aviation industry does give a lot of the narrative a realistic feel. I’m a sucker for anything to do with planes so I was in my element reading the story unfold on board. Some of the tension was unbearable.

A few problems I did find. The “baddies” are a little cliched and their story felt quite uneven in tone, one minute sounding ultra realistic and harrowing and the next suddenly having doubts and empathy with their captives.

There is also a sequence towards the end that was saccharine sweet in its narrative and felt extremely clunky. Nationalistic and jingoistic(ironic given the nature of the terrorists). It stuck out like a sore thumb. I’m sure it was meant as a positive point in the story but felt like totally unrealistic nationalistic propaganda. I’ve no idea why the author decided to take the sequence that way.

Still, my above complaints aside, this was a fun read for the most part. Ironically an “airport read” type book. Its not without it’s faults but there is enough there to entertain in this enjoyable, if somewhat uneven story.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

One hundred and forty-three souls are on-board a five-hour flight to New York with Bill as their captain. They don't know that he has to weigh the cost of their lives against those of his wife and two small children, back at home. They are being held hostage and either Bill crash-lands his plane and releases a chemical attack over America, or the ones he loves the most will perish.

This concept intrigued me just as much as it filled me with horror. I thought Newman did an incredible job of relaying the facts of all that transpired, to deliver a highly suspenseful and fast-paced thriller, without ever doing an injustice to the similar scenarios that have previously occurred.

I was left with a racing heart, a dry mouth, and tear-filled eyes throughout the entirety of this novel, as both the emotions and the actions of the characters impacted me so deeply. A multitude of perspectives illustrated the story from all angles and this only ensured the harrowing nature of all that took place was never lost on the reader.

"Falling" is a massive adrenaline shot of a book. T.J. Newman has drawn upon her experience as a flight attendant to bring us a truly nerve-shredding thriller. The pacing is perfect and tension builds from the opening pages. Newman's plot provides commentary on family, duty, entitlement and privilege. I found some elements particularly moving and thought-provoking. Her characters are well-rounded, my favourites being Jo and Big Daddy who both bring bucket loads of heart and humour. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!

OMG. This was so good, I want to read it again and again. It is such a change from the usual thrillers as this one is set in the air in an airplane. All these passengers aboard don't even realize what has happened, the pilot's family has been kidnapped, but the only way his family will stay alive is for all the passengers to die, what a predicament he has. They want him to crash the plane but what does he decide to do? I really felt how tense the pilot was and how scared he was, I couldn't believe what happened in the end. If you are after a nonstop thrilling ride then this is the book for you. I loved it. Wow.

I love a good thriller, and this one was no exception. For me it was one of those fast paced, unputdownable reads, that I had to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to finish, and read it in one sitting. I really enjoyed the pacing of this book. It was never dull for me, each chapter really pushed the story forward well.

One thing in particular that I thought the author did well was utilizing multiple points of view. I don't always enjoy multiple POV shifts but I thought the author did a great job of using them to push the story forward. Based on the synopsis I actually thought the story would center much more around the character of pilot Bill Hoffman, but you really get to delve into the minds of all of the main characters in the book.

Superbly well written with an engaging plot, Falling is everything you would want it to be in a thriller. T.J. Newman has written a brilliant debut and I can see why this book has a lot of hype, it kept me gripped and is one of the most unique storylines I have read in a long time.

Falling, this summer’s surefire bestseller, is the story of an impossible choice. A decision without a winner. A decision where the only answer is death and destruction.

Captain Bill Hoffman, with his copilot Ben Miro, has just begun his long cross country flight when he receives a text from his wife Carrie. It is not from her. It’s a photo from her kidnapper showing Carrie, strapped with a vest of explosives, tied up with their son Scott and baby daughter Elise. The kidnapper has a simple request. Crash your plane when I tell you to or I will kill your family. What will Bill do?

From the first electrifying chapters to the tense, nail biting conclusion, Falling doesn’t slow down. This thriller isn’t just all action. The characters are well described and quickly become people you care about. Flight attendants Jo, Big Daddy and newbie Kellie must do creative work under unbelievably great pressure. Throwbacks show Bill and Carrie’s relationship and why his family is so important to him. Facts about flying make the story even more interesting (not that I will ever fly again). For instance, I now know why the plane passenger count is called souls on board.

In the author’s notes, T.J. Newman writes that Falling was rejected by 41 agents before publication. I’m glad she persisted and I am sorry for them. This is a fantastic read and should be made into a movie. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster UK and T.J. Newman for this ARC.

I was very excited to read this book, but sadly it fell flat. This is a debut, I get it, but isn't that even more a reason to use a good and consistent editor?

Much more than this, however, I was disturbed by the stereotypical, unoriginal and flat out racist depiction of the villains. In 2021, I had hoped that we could all do better.