Thank You For Flying Air Zoe by Erik Atwell
Publisher: BookTrope
Release Date: 28th June 2011
Rating: 5/5
Source: Bought for Amazon Kindle
Amazon Summary:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fasten Seat Belt sign has been turned on, but feel free to ignore it, because sometimes life is best lived on its dizzy edges. Your cruising altitude today will be sky high, and you will be flying at staggering speeds as you travel alongside Zoe Tisdale, former Valley Girl and rock star turned bored butter saleswoman. On the heels of a brush with mortality, Zoe concludes that she’s been letting time pass her by. Realizing she needs to awaken her life’s tired refrains, Zoe vows to recapture the one chapter of her life that truly mattered to her - her days as drummer for The Flip-Flops, a spirited, sassy all-girl garage band that almost hit the big time back in 1987. But reuniting the band won’t be easy. The girls who were once the whiz kid guitarist, the prom queen bass player, and the hippie lead singer grew up and became women who are now a reclusive dog trainer, a wealthy socialite, and a sociopathic environmentalist. Will Zoe bring the band back together and give The Flip-Flops a second chance at stardom? Is it possible to fully reclaim the urgent energy of youth? As you follow this wild flight path, please know that your destination could be anywhere at all, complimentary oxygen is provided upon request, and baggage flies free. We hope you enjoy the ride, and Thank You For Flying Air Zoe.

Thank You For Flying Air Zoe is a book that’s been on my radar for a little while now. I don’t know how I first stumbled across it, but the title stuck with me and I kept a keen eye out on Amazon for its release. It’s Erik Atwell’s debut novel, and it appears to be self-published through BookTrope, but because of its awesome title I was always going to read it. It eventually appeared on Amazon and since the Kindle version is a mere $2.99, I treated myself to it and it’s one of my best decisions of the year. This book is a steal. I’m the first person to say self-published novels can’t be five stars - if they’re really that good, surely they’d already be published traditionally, no? - but I’d never have guessed it wasn’t published by a major publisher, it was excellent.

Thank You For Flying Air Zoe had me hooked from the very first page. It’s the kind of novel I was excited to come back to as I climbed into bed each night. I even stayed up until 1am to finish the novel, that’s how enjoyable it was and I’m not one to stay up so late so lightly (I need my sleep). Recently I’ve really been struggling with Chick Lit novels. They’re all so predictable and although I’m well aware Chick Lit is meant to be predictable, it gets a little bit wearing every time a main character takes back an ex-boyfriend who should instead be consigned to the I’ll-not-even-touch-him-with-a-barge-pole pile. But Thank For You Flying Air Zoe was a breath of fresh air, and while it was predictable (like I said, Chick Lit is mainly predictable), it was my favourite kind of predictable. If that even makes sense.

Usually I find it difficult to connect to characters who are 35+ and with Zoe and her ex-band-mates all being into their 40s, I was concerned I wouldn’t really care for Zoe’s story, but Zoe, Ginger, Lo and Melinda are the youngest 40-somethings ever. I could quite easily picture them all as much younger. I mean, seriously, they’re the coolest adults ever. Zoe is easily one of my favourite Chick Lit characters. After a difficult flight from Mexico (and by ‘difficult’ I mean ‘near-death experience’) Zoe decides she needs to shake her life up a bit. She isn’t happy being a butter - organic butter in fact - saleswoman and jacks her job in and decides to make her dreams come true: She’s going to re-unite The Flip-Flops, the all-girl garage band she had when she was a teenager with Ginger, Lo and Melinda. Not only that but they’re going to perform at The Whisky. I found the plot to be insanely absorbing. Not many Chick Lit books sees a girl doing everything she can to make her dreams come true and I enjoyed Zoe’s joie de vivre (God, I hope that’s the right expression).

Like I said, I loved the characters. Zoe was amazing and I was so incredibly sad to leave her at the end of the novel. I’m not someone who has dreams (God, that makes me sound like some kind of weirdo). What I mean is, when I was growing up there wasn’t any one thing I definitively wanted to be. I liked the idea of being an air hostess but it was fleeting at best. But Zoe, Zoe knew what her dream was: To play at the Whisky. It’s one heck of a dream mind, but I enjoyed Zoe’s journey. I equally enjoyed meeting her band-mates. We travelled back in time to see what they were like in ’87 when The Flip-Flops were all the rage and we learn why they broke up and it did make me sad that so long passed between all the girls meeting up again. Lo was the only one Zoe really kept in touch with, being her next-door-neighbour and best friend and all that. Ginger became a socialite in the intervening years, living in a mansion worthy of Brad Pitt and having everything a socialite should need and Melinda had moved to Montana and become very much ‘at one’ with nature and the way the Earth was. I found each of them to be so intriguing, I loved how Lo consistently quoted Latin phrases, how Melinda cared about the Earth and how Ginger was a bit dim. I also really liked Silas, Zoe’s ex/boyfriend, I thought he was incredibly sweet.

No doubt about it, I loved Thank You For Flying Air Zoe. It was such a breath of fresh air for me, to read a novel that didn’t see Zoe have any of the predictabilies that usually befall a Chick Lit character. I was rooting for Zoe and for all the girls the entire way, wanting their dreams to be realised. I thought the ending was something so totally special (seriously, it made me go all ‘Aww’). I can’t believe this is Erik’s debut novel, it was everything I wanted it to be and I enjoyed every page. I could easily see this being picked up by a major publisher - I’m sure lots of reviewers say that about self-published/indie authors but I truly believe that about this book. It’s incredibly well-written (my internal editor picked up no spelling mistakes or mis-spelled celebrity names, nothing of the sort). I’d hugely recommend the novel, it’s well worth flying air Zoe, because she has such a stunning story to tell, one I immensely enjoyed. I can’t wait for Erik’s second novel (I sincerely hope there’s a second novel) and I wouldn’t mind catching up with Zoe and the gang again. I can totally see them trying to conquer Glastonbury or somewhere similar…

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