Love at First Flight
Tess Woods
HarperCollins Publishers Australia
ISBN: 9781460752647
Description:
What if the love of your life is not your husband? A compelling novel that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty, viewers of Offspring, The Good Wife and movies like Up in the Air.
‘Looking back on it now, I can see it was instant. The second we locked eyes. Boom. Just like that. The me I had spent a lifetime perfecting began its disintegration from that moment. And despite the carnage it brought to all our lives, I still don’t regret it.’
Mel is living the dream. She’s a successful GP, married to a charming anaesthetist and raising a beautiful family in their plush home in Perth. But when she boards a flight to Melbourne, her picture-perfect life unravels. Seated on the plane she meets Matt, and for the first time ever she falls in love.
What begins as a flirty conversation quickly develops into a hot and obsessive affair with consequences that neither Mel nor Matt seems capable of avoiding. As the repercussions hit friends and family, Mel’s dream romance turns into nightmare. She learns that there are some wounds that never heal and some scars that you wouldn’t do without.
LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT will take everything you believe about what true love is and spin it on its head.
PRAISE FOR LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT:
‘Love at First Flight is no light romp in the hay. It’s a mature, finely drawn effort that examines the emotions and motives behind an affair – and, ultimately, its ramifications. I dare you to resist’ – Jennifer Ammoscato, author of Dear Internet: It’s Me Avery
My View:
More than chick lit – perhaps this fits best in the new sub-genre “life lit”?
A very impressive debut that will connect on so many levels – this is life – real, honest, ugly at times. Steamy, personal, HONEST. (Tess Woods where did you get you get the idea for this one?) I don’t think I have read anything that tackles a woman’s personal life crisis/ her emotional dilemmas quite like this.
The dual perspectives – Mel’s and Matt’s provide great insight. The characters are credible if not a bit uncomfortable to read at times.
Despite this definitely not being a genre I usually favour – this had me staying up late to finish – read in one sitting.
“The verb love is what counts, not the feeling of love. When you feel love, it’s selfish, it’s just for you and it affects nobody but you. But when you act love, you committing the act of loving somebody. Do you understand the concept?” p 290.
Do you?
Read the book and discover the depth of real meaning, real feeling and real life… in these words.
Reading, Writing and Riesling 
It sounds like a very gut-level story, Carol. And those are the stories that feel the most human, I think. They’re the ones that have characters who really feel real. And I have to say, a long flight is a really effective context for meeting someone like that.
This book will resonate with many women ( and maybe a few men too) – love, family, relationships, teenagers, life, death – it is all here Margot. A very gut -level story.
I’ve read this as an e-book, Carol, and I loved it so much I bought the print version when it came out earlier this year. It’s a jaw-dropper isn’t it… and I bawled at the big ‘no spoilers’ event that came late. That caught me completely by surprise.
This would have been a perfect read to finish 2016 I’d reckon. You can’t ask for more than a book that keeps you up all night.
Happy New Year to you in 2017.
xx
I was pleasantly surprised at how much this resonated and I imagine aspects of this will resonate with many others. Happy New Year to you to Lily
I loved this book! Like Lily I read it as an ebook, then when it went to print I received a copy and re-read it which is something I never do (with a TBR pile like mine 😉) but this book deserves to be read. I was fortunate enough to meet Tess briefly when she visited Melbourne for an author talk. What a charming and funny lady she is. We have an exciting new Australian author in our midst Carol, and I agree this is definitely a life-lit novel 😀
And Tess said no formal research for this one – which is quite interesting in itself Janine .
I might just have to read this one … has good ratings on GR too
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Sounds like my type of novel. Will hunt down a copy. Happy reading in 2017 Carol 🤗
I will be interested to hear what you think Anne