From the best-selling author of the Destination Love series and the two-time winner of the Watty Awards comes yet another light, enjoyable, and interesting romance novel. Divided into 47 chapters of moderate length, this novel is an easy-breezy and definitely cheesy read. The main highlight of this romantic comedy is the female protagonist, Pippa Edwards, from whose perspective the book is written. Pippa enjoys tropical fish, planes, and synonyms. She does not like repetitive patterns, school reunions, tight clothes, or being asked why she’s still single. She’s engaged in a profession that requires a lot of routine work, which constantly demands attention and requires her to take a lot of responsibility, though she enjoys it all.
Pippa happens to be an air traffic controller who directs the routes of flights and instructs pilots from the air traffic control office via intercom. One pilot with whom she has been exchanging flight path details is Andrew Boyce Jones. They have never seen each other but only had exchanges over the intercom until one fine day when they get a chance to meet face-to-face only to realize that they have a lot in common other than the fact that they work in the aviation department of the same airport. Of course, they both feel mutual interest and attraction and are clearly in need of a date. The twist in the plot is the fact that they both have a bumpy dating history and are also involved in highly demanding professions. They both remain unsure about the initial sparks that fly in the air between them, and Pippa is shown to be quite tired of every one of her past relationships that end even before they have begun. She turns up at a school reunion in Cape Town and tries hard to dodge questions about her relationship status, while Andrew faces similar challenges with his loving family, who want to see him sort out his love life and be settled. So, they end up in a pact regarding a fake dating plot called Flight Six Zero Zero just to get all the people off their backs who are constantly troubling them with annoying questions about their love lives. The lightheartedness of the plot adds to the quirky charm of dialogues that can get really warm-hearted and mushy to almost leave butterflies in one’s stomach.
Love At First Flight is rather predictable to some extent in the fact that though they play along with the fake dating pact due to social and family pressure, they eventually fall for one another. In this sense, the plot is straight forward, simple, easy to read and understand, does not have unnecessary twists and turns or long moments of separation, bad fights between the two characters, or weird misunderstandings, though Pippa does feel unsure about her feelings for Andrew, and likewise, Andrew also needs to verify if what he feels for her is not mere infatuation of the moment but something that he wishes to take forward seriously. As they say, actions speak louder than words, and Andrew’s actions do provide Pippa with enough reason to uncontrollably fall head over heels in love with him, not only because he cares for her but also because he accepts her for who she is and the way she is, regardless of the fact that the character of Pippa has a neurodivergent trait that brings her under the autism spectrum.
Characterization is central to Love At First Flight, as both characters are well-built and complement one another, are courteous, and are non-toxic. The idea of bringing in a central female lead with a neurodivergent element is something new and has semi-autobiographical aspects that help raise awareness in a positive manner about this condition through a character that is highly functional, intelligent, emotional, and just like anybody else. Andrew is also portrayed as a thorough gentleman who patiently puts up with the confusion that Pippa goes through about her feelings for him. He helps her realize that she truly loves him without coaxing her to do so. He is a straight-forward, responsible, and hardworking individual, just like Pippa. This sense of equal, shared values helps strengthen their relationship and build mutual trust between them, which all seems plausible in the real-world scenario, making the content of this book highly relatable.
Love At First Flight‘s writing style is lucid and full of subtle lighthearted humor, and apart from some cheesy, romantic dialogue exchanges, there is a third-person omniscient narrator who narrates the story while focusing more on the perspective of Pippa. There are some WhatsApp exchanges, like that of the school reunion group with emojis, that add to the fun quotient of the plot, which makes this book an engaging one-time read that will be of interest to readers who enjoy rom-coms or modern-day aviation industry romances.Â
