A career-stuck woman finds love at 30 thousand feet with a doctor traveling back and forth from NYC to LDN to plan her cousin’s wedding to the love of her life post-pandemic.
Five-Star Review: Frequent Fliers by Noué Kirwan
Hi Librarygoers!
Frequent Fliers is written by a new to me author but she’s absolutely now a fave! I actually discovered it when researching 2024 romances to pre-order. Airport meet cutes are always fun (Denise Williams’ Love and Other Flight Delays and Gia de Cadenet’s Not the Plan are two examples) so I was curious about how an airport powered romance could work.
Spoiler alert: really well! This is a novel about long distance love and if you’ve ever been in a situation where that kind of love felt impossible, this will make you a believer.
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What is this story about?
Imagine you (Lanie) are boarding a flight to London the first time since the pandemic. You spent all of your childhood summers there visiting your Antiguan grandmother and are excited to get the chance to see her. As well as your cousin who happens to be newly engaged to the love of YOUR life. You didn’t even know they were dating but with two-ish years apart, it was easy for you not to notice.
That’s not important right now though because right now you’re having to contend with an incredibly rude businessman (Dr. Ridley Aronsen) swearing on the phone and blocking your way, all the while your mother is on the phone in your ear wondering if her aerophobia is going to be responsible for you dying. After calling out said businessman for being a jerk, he realizes the error of his ways and you all manage to have a good time for the lengthy flight. Then he gets weird, he didn’t have on that wedding ring before, and you part ways until meeting in the airport weeks later again and exchanging numbers.
Ridley is not married but grieving a wife who died three years ago and in the middle of a custody battle with the daughter he raised and her biological father. His life is team too much so he doesn’t have time to fall for the gorgeous curvy woman he met all those weeks ago in the airport. Especially because your meeting is so transitory. You will only be traveling to London at this exaggerated schedule until your cousin’s wedding and he’s only going to be in New York for the length of his medical research study.
You two take advantage of your time together. Sometimes you’re tourists in New York and other times you’re would-be-lovers in London. The two of you form your own little bubble across the depths of the oceans but the longer you all spend together, the more your bubble feels pressured. Ridley’s enticed by you but is devoted to his daughter and the memory of his wife. The both of you have family issues galore. And you’re perfectly content being everything for everyone else and settling for a mediocre career, when you can be so much more. Will your relationship be a good time or can you overcome the distance and find a way to be in each other’s lives for a long time?
What is the tone of this book?
It’s both hopeful and transitory. A lot of their on–page relationship building happens digitally via text messages and video calls. They might spend days in one another’s cities but they can often hardly connect for more than the timeframe of a date.
It’s not rare for them to spend time in the airport with Lanie departing and Ridley arriving or vice versa. Everything feels fluid, nothing feels permanent but it still feels like it’s building. Outside of their burgeoning love story, there are laugh out loud funny moments with their families. There are also people in their families I’d like to lock in a closet until we read ‘the end’.
Above all, it’s hopeful. They don’t always have answers to their problems but you want to root for Lanie and Ridley to find a way.
What are some of my favorite scenes?
When Ridley surprises Lanie with coffee on a day that they’re passing ships at the airport. He waits hours to spend minutes with her. King-ish.
Gavin’s playful energy when he picks up Ridley and Lanie from the airport.
There’s a one-hotel room, one-bed scene. They get creative with sexy times and no condom access. WHEW!
Who would you recommend this book to?
If you love the idea of airport meet cutes, a woman who constantly feels like a fish out of water finding her way, single dads, and messy messy family drama, this is the book for you.
Are you also a fan of single parent romances or the nanny/boss dynamic? Let me know if you’re adding this to your TBR!
Hello I MUST have this book🤩🤩