Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Fly With Me by Andie Burke

10 reviews

hmatt's review

challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There were parts of this that were very cute, and I think the characterization of the MCs were pretty well done, but I was disappointed by the flimsy fake-dating. It felt sloppily inserted into their otherwise much darker, more challenging (and WAY more interesting) lives. I also wasn't a fan of how the author repeatedly side-steps describing important events by inserting a plot twist - this is hard to describe without spoilers, but it's something that I noticed after it happened more than twice. It felt lazy, and I guess laziness is the main issue I had with the book. The gay-is-okay is a little on the nose at times, and there is a very bad trope-y stalker ex plot

that doesn't get resolved!!!

that I would describe as lazy too. It makes for a weird balance when these bits intersect with the nuanced, well-done exploration of tough topics like  mental health and terminal family illness. I felt these serious bits were well done most of the time

, but even some of these don't get resolved at the end

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Biphobia and Religious bigotry

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It’s not often that a book will genuinely hook me from the first page, but this one did it. I instantly loved Olive and related so strongly with her inner monologue. Both Olive and Stella felt like they could be real people. I appreciated that, while still being a romance, they had other things going on in their lives and legitimate shit to deal with. This is not some fluffy romance novel - it seems like it could be someone’s real life. Ok, maybe without saving Mickey Mouse’s life. (It wasn’t Mickey Mouse, I know, I know!)

Speaking of real life, there are so many random details in this book that aren’t exactly the same as my actual life but absolutely coincide with my life and I just… 👀 Andie Burke, did you write this book just for me? Lol

Anyway, I loved Fly with Me and I highly recommend it. It is romantic, heart wrenching, touching, and even has a little dash of spice. OH! And my favorite thing: SHORT CHAPTERS!! 🙌🏻 Seriously, give it a read. I adored it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content, Chronic illness, Sexual content, and Death

Minor: Lesbophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Transphobia, Vomit, Racism, Biphobia, and Dementia

joannchristine's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Bullying, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

wanderonwards's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Thank you to Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions. 

 

Fly With Me was a decent debut: I enjoyed the writing style and liked the meet cute romance between two lovable main characters. This book tackles some heavy subjects, and while I usually gravitate to lighthearted stories, I thought these subjects were handled with compassion and balanced with the romance plot so they never felt overwhelming. 

 

However, some of the plot choices weren’t my favorite and for a book that’s projected to be 384 pages, I wish things felt both more developed and more resolved by the end of the story. This book tries to tackle so many different things, which means some things progressed too quickly and many things never really got the attention and development they deserved. Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Car accident

liligilsoul's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Dementia, Death, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Homophobia, and Grief

booksdogsandcoffee's review

emotional medium-paced

3.0

Overall I think the premise of Fly With Me is wonderful, but the execution and the romance wasn’t there for me. 

Olive, an ER nurse who hates flying, is tasked with saving a life mid flight on her way to a Run Disney Marathon. As the plane gets re directed one of the flight attendants, Stella, offers to drive her the rest of the way to Orlando to make it to the Marathon in time. Insert and adorable date at Disney World! Once Stella’s airline gets wind of Olive’s heroics, Stella sees this as her chance to make her way up in the company. So they devise a plan to fake date and help each other out. 
 
The book does a wonderful job discussing grief and loosing a family member to both dementia and fatal accidents. As well as anxiety, and toxic family relationships. 

Where I think the book actually fell short for me was the romance. Olive and Stella, to me didn’t feel like they actually had chemistry or even a likable relationship. It seemed more like the book was trying to hit the tropes and (fake dating and miscommunication) some really good spice. Which the spice was quiet well done. 

Cw
Gaslighting 
Toxic family
Toil relationship 
Grief
Death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Misogyny, and Lesbophobia

rickireadss's review against another edition

2.5

thank you to netgalley for the earc!

i wanted to like this more than i did, and i'm sad that it just didn't live up. while there were some aspects i liked, the bad heavily outweighed the good for me.

****potential spoilers below****

what i liked:
- our mc olive -> i related to a lot of her inner monologue and overall really liked her.
- olive's brother jake -> even though he wasn't even an active character, i could feel their love for each other.

what i didn't like:
- the love interest, stella -> she seemed like SUCH a flat character, and this may be due to the single pov. i honestly could not deal with her back and forth with olive, of wanting to be just friends or wanting to blur the lines. also, the fact that it wasn't made known that she was Latina until 25% in felt like that was just added in last minute. besides her mentioning it one or twice and her dad calling her mija or mijita, the rep felt really underdeveloped.
- ALL of olive's family (besides jake obvi). -> her sister needed to grow a backbone. her parents were THE WORST. i literally could not deal with them everytime they were on page. their treatment of olive was so uncalled for and i wish she had gone no-contact with them ages ago, but like i also know why she didn't. her mother rubbed me wrong the most and quickly made my list of "characters i hate".
- the side character lindsay -> not only was she a manipulative, selfish, ableist piece of shit, but i don't feel like olive truly dealt with what she did throughout the book but especially at the end. there wasn't really OW drama, but her constant addition to the plot was uncalled for and wasn't resolved.

there is probably more i didn't like, but i am tired of thinking of this book. i loved olive, i really like this cover, but this one just didn't do it for me.

⚠️: death, grief, toxic relationship (past ex), religious bigotry, gaslighting, emotional abuse, ableism, chronic illness (celiac), panic attacks/disorders, terminal illness (Parkinson's), lesbophobia, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia, medical content, car accident

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Ableism, Death, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Car accident and Transphobia

dconlon's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Overall this book had a cute story, and I appreciated how it talked about discrimination, mental health, and self confidence throughout. I liked how both main characters learned more about themselves and became more confident throughout the story. However, this story felt slow-paced and drawn out, and I thought it could have been shortened in some places. Also a lot of the situations felt over the top and required a suspension of disbelief in a way that felt more extreme than other books in the romance genre.  Thank you to netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Car accident, Sexism, Racism, and Sexual harassment

kayladaila's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is a very sweet sapphic romance! Olive is on her way to run a Disney marathon when, on her very first flight, she has to save someone’s life. Through that experience, she meets Stella, one of the pilots. Stella thinks that if her and Olive fake a relationship, it will help her get a promotion. Drama obviously ensues. I loved this book because the characters and experiences felt so realistic. There were moments where I was laughing and other moments where I was having a panic attack right next to Olive. The side characters and personal growth stories for both characters were also very meaningful. I highly recommend this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Biphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Chronic illness, and Stalking

Minor: Lesbophobia and Death of parent

shector1's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Abandonment and Car accident

Minor: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Misogyny