by Tess Woods
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
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.
What would you risk to be
with the love of your life? And what if your soul mate is the one who will
destroy you?
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 ,
she meets Matt and her picture perfect Stepford life unravels as she falls in
love for the first time ever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My Review:
This is an amazing novel that grabbed and held me from page one. Good and strong plot, believable characters and a unpredictable ending. I could only put it down with great difficulty, I wanted to see what happened next!
Matt and Mel do not know that get on that plane will change their lives forever. He is engaged to Lydia, has a study of physiotherapy but do not earn enough to meet the standards of his girlfriend. He is returning home after a job interview. He has refused that job, he can't live in another city. Mel has taken a brief holiday from her commitments with family and work. She's a GP, married for fourteen years and mother of two children. It's love at first sight. Matt is immediately fascinated by the beauty of Mel and the woman is not at all indifferent to the attentions that he reserves her. They understand that have found their soul mate but once off the plane back both to their lives. But they will see their life with different eyes and nothing will be as before.....
I really like that we get Mel and Matt's points of views, we can feel perfectly their inner struggles, the guilt for the betrayal, fear and desire to let go, to live this clandestine affair.
This is a wonderful story and very well written, does not seem to book a debutant writer. It's exciting, unpredictable, sweet and touching but also funny. The final is perfect as the whole novel.
Highly reccomend!
I received an advanced reader copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
I knew within
minutes of meeting him I was in deep, deep trouble. The power of my attraction
to him blindsided me. For well over a decade I’d seen other men as nothing more
than moving shadows, their features indistinct. But the intensity of his
coffee-coloured eyes was impossible to ignore.
When he
inadvertently confessed he found me beautiful, I felt the guilty pleasure of my
stomach sink. His baffling desire for me made it a struggle to maintain my composure.
It took all my self-control not to physically respond to him in the way my body
yearned to, and that terrified me.
It was his eyes
that undid me. Nobody had ever stared into me the way he did, as if he was
hungry for me. And I craved him strongly in return.
I was shamefully
turned on by how young he was. There was a raw masculine edge to his pale
unshaven appearance. His tall, taut and lean body, with wild, curly brown hair
that fell over his eyes when he looked down, was so incredibly sexy.
I’d never felt
this physical about a man in my life, including Adam. And Adam was no bridge
troll. Any woman with a heartbeat could see how handsome Adam was. He was built
like a Greek god, thanks to his rigorous daily early morning routine of
running, surfing and weight training. His perpetual tan contrasted with his
sparkling light blue eyes, his smile was always wide and welcoming, and his
wavy blond hair, only just beginning to be speckled with grey.
Adam was the
object of much swooning from the staff at the hospital where he worked, mothers
at our children’s schools, and our friends alike. His wealth and charming
personality didn’t hurt him in that department either.
I was considered
by many far too lucky to have landed him, I was sure. I definitely thought he
looked great, especially when I compared him to my friend’s husbands of a
similar age who had succumbed to middle age with balding heads and beer
bellies. Occasionally, Adam would step out of the shower and it would make me
mildly excited, but those moments were few and far between.
Although I was
married to an Adonis, Greek gods had never been my type. On the flight, I had
discovered what my type very much was.
It wasn’t just
physically that Matt was the catalyst for my analysing Adam like this.. He was
so intense! I loved that. And it made me wish Adam was that intense.
It never ceased
to amaze me how serious Adam was when it came to work and sport. At home his
constantly relaxed attitude infuriated me no end. It was something I’d
initially found charming about him; his easy jokey manner, so different from my
own. And he was a clown who made me laugh a lot. But somewhere on the flight I
realised that I wanted a side serve of passion with the pleasant.
It was as if the
blinkers were suddenly off and I realised I didn’t want my husband the way I
wanted a stranger on a plane.
Adam was loud,
extroverted, funny and immensely popular, typical of someone so affable. He was
gregarious without being obnoxious. Adam was Mr Likeable. His unshakeable self-assurance
and magnetism drew people to him. He had more friends than he had time to spend
with them. And he was always in a good mood around me or anybody else. Always.
If something played on his mind, he would disappear for a few hours to play
golf on his own or go run it out in the soft sand, and then come home again, as
smiley as ever. Always perfect.
On occasion it
drove me crazy, this perennial cheerfulness of his. But whenever I complained
about how unnatural it was, he told me to be grateful I wasn’t married to a
grumpy old bastard. And I would laugh and realise he was right. Until now.
Matt had shown
more hurt, anger and frustration in a few hours than I’d seen from Adam in
years. And that turned me on more than anything. Everything about Matt that was
different to Adam turned me on. Whereas Adam managed to make new friends going
to the shops for milk, Matt had admitted he felt misunderstood by most people
he met and that, through choice, he could count his friends on one hand. That
turned me on.
Even their voices
were different. Adam had a deep and booming baritone with a reassuring
smoothness to it. The perfect doctor’s voice. Matt’s voice was low and husky,
bordering on raspy. He sounded as though he had either been partying too hard
or smoking too many cigarettes. It was the sexiest voice I’d ever heard.
That a man so
dramatically different from my husband elicited such desire from me was wrong.
Of course I knew that. But somewhere mid-air between Perth
and Melbourne I
was honest with myself about my feelings for Adam for the first time. I had
experienced niggles of doubt through the years, and sometimes those niggles
were annoyingly loud, but I had successfully shut them down. Adam’s perfect, I
would tell myself. He’s perfect. Be grateful. And that had worked until I met
Matt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Tess Woods is a health professional who
lives in Perth , Australia with one husband, two
children, one dog and one cat who rules over all of them. Love at First Flight
is her first novel.
When she isn't working or being a
personal assistant to her kids, Tess enjoys reading and all kinds of grannyish
pleasures like knitting, baking, drinking tea, watching Downton Abbey and
tending to the veggie patch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Tess will be awarding an eCopy of Love at First
Flight to 3 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.
Sounds like a fun book! Thank you for the giveaway.
RispondiEliminaThank you Jen, good luck in the competition :)
EliminaThank you so much for the lovely review Veronica at Libri Amori Mei! I am so thrilled you enjoyed my story and I think this is my first ever European blog review which is very exciting for an Australian author like me :). Thanks again!
RispondiElimina