This one has an almost romcom
meeting premise but is definitely a contemporary romance.
After spending two ill-advised
years in college and running up a student debt of about 40k, Alice Kaminski is now
a flight attendant scrambling to clear off the debt. To that end, Alice works
non-stop even choosing to be on-call when she can have an off. Also to the same
end, Alice participates in a secret monthly flight attendant bingo competition which
lists twenty-five tasks of varying difficulty levels to be completed in a
month. The person completing all tasks takes home the kitty and if no one
completed it, the prize money rolls over to the next month. The current kitty
stands at 10k which would go a long way in paying off Alice’s debt. One of the
tasks in the current month’s competition is to drop a beverage on the person
sitting in seat 3B. Alice is all set to complete the task but the gorgeous woman
in 3B, Anissa Khouri, shows unexpected politeness towards Alice and mid-task,
Alice cannot go through with it and spills the water on herself.
Alice’s klutziness is the start of
an unexpected series of events by with Anissa and Alice spend more time
together. And the more Alice sees of Anissa, the more she is attracted to her. An
attraction that is fully returned by Anissa who is less shy than Alice about
acting on it.
Alice and Anissa are both interesting
multi-dimensional characters. Alice is singly focussed on herself with little
time for her older sister, niece and nephew. Alice finds her sister passive-aggressive
and is not particularly there for or with her. But she is also kind, sweet and
something about her is rather young and vulnerable.
Anissa is into HR and is married to
her work. She is close to her family and generous with her time and interest in
Alice’s family. Of the two, Anissa moves in first sexually, but when it comes
to the emotional part of the relationship with Alice, she is chicken. In fact,
the entire emotional burden of the relationship is carried by Alice
singlehandedly. Between the two, Alice has a greater character trajectory
especially with her family.
We’re never big fans of lopsided
relationships and even less of one person ghosting the other. Nothing ends a
relationship more that blocking another. Yet romances would have us believe
that this is forgivable behaviour. Well.
The end is surprisingly hurried. There
is just no insight or lead-in to Anissa’s behaviour in the end. But all’s well
that ends well, so the happy ending (yes it is expected in a romance, but that
doesn’t make it less gratifying) makes this a worth it read.
BTW, hot, hot sex scenes ;)
⭐⭐⭐★
