Praise for Love in Midair
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“Wright understands female friendships, the interplay of love and envy, the way one woman’s change of fortune can threaten the group’s equilibrium. Astute and engrossing, this review is a treat.”
(People Magazine [three and a half stars])
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“Wright hits it out of the park in her debut, an engaging account of a woman contemplating divorce. Despite finally getting her husband, Phil, to attend counseling sessions with her, Elyse Bearden realizes her marriage is dead in the water. Though Phil’s a doting father and a decent man, he’s also the occasional jerk who snickers at his wife in lingerie and is generally indifferent to her. Elyse already knows she’s going to leave her husband when she meets Gerry Kincaid and soon begins an affair that allows her to escape from the crushing banality of her suburban life. Serving as Elyse’s foil is her beautiful best friend, Kelly, now married to an older, wealthy man.
While the idea of housewives complaining about their husbands over lunch may strike some as a conventional hen-lit trope, Wright conveys friendships and the blasé everyday with authenticity and telling detail, while passages depicting Elyse’s inner life are rife with the same wit and insight that infuse the dialogue. Though this story is one that readers may have seen many times before, Wright delivers fresh perspective and sympathetic characters few writers can match.”
(Publisher’s Weekly [Star])
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With a successful dentist husband, adorable young daughter and close-knit group of female friends, Elyse, like so many heroines who have it all, could not be more miserable. She’s stifled by her suburban life, and she cannot communicate with her taciturn hubby, Phil. She fortunately happens to have a creative outlet (she’s a talented potter) and it is during a flight for work that she finds herself seated next to Gerry, an attractive Boston-based investment banker who, like her, has a spouse at home. The two strangers have an instant rapport, and back at home in Charlotte, N.C., she calls him. That leads to an erotically charged encounter in New York, followed by brief monthly meetings that help to convince her that marrying Phil was a mistake. But while Gerry certainly seems besotted with Elyse, he offers her no promises. Phil, unaware of her infidelity but sensing her growing unease with their life, agrees to marriage counseling, as long as they use his best friend Jeff, their minister, as mediator. Big mistake. Elyse goes along with it while mentally making plans to leave him. Meanwhile, her affluent inner circle senses something is amiss, with her best friend Kelly, herself in a less-than-ideal marriage, feeling threatened by Elyse’s risky behavior. Knowing full well how her actions will impact her entire community, Elyse bides her time, until a shocking act of violence forces a decision. So will she choose her husband, her lover or neither? Sharply written and emotionally accessible, Wright’s debut offers a clear-eyed taste of hope without letting anyone, especially Elyse, off the hook. A modern take on adultery that does not shy away from the costs—and benefits—of a post-marriage life.
(Kirkus)
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“From the first line I was drawn in to Wright’s marvelous novel. This is a spare, intense, honest and sexy book, simmering with love, powered by the will of one woman who, despite the odds, demands that she choose her destiny.”
(Alison Smith, author of Name All the Animals. )
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“Funny, sexy, heartbreaking, wise. Love in Mid Air is the kind of novel you will stay up late for. I read the first page and was hooked, I couldn’t put it down. It is not simply the story of a divorce, the story of an affair, the story of one woman caught between two men; it is a delicate exploration of the pull that almost every woman will feel at some point in her life for the unhindered freedom of ‘something more.’”
(Dawn Clifton Tripp, author of Season of Open Water )
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“Kim Wright’s brilliant first novel is not only funny and wise, but also illuminating in surprising and fresh ways, as she shines an unforgiving and yet deceptively generous light on modern day marriage and takes us to places in it that we have never seen before. This is a wonderful read, from first page to last, for anyone who has ever been married or has ever contemplated it.“
(Fred Leebron, author of In the Middle of All This )
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“The characters feel like people you’ve met before.”
(Charlotte Observer)
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Elyse, perhaps because of her flaws, is an incredibly relatable and likeable narrator and the consummate guide to this universal story.
(BookPage)
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…And the blog tour reviews are in and they’re stellar!
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“Addictive, intense, and honest.”
“Open and unflinching.”
“Hooked by the second page.”
“Amazing.”
“One of the best I’ve ever read.”
“Utterly engrossing.”
“A literary grand slam.”
“Bring on the sequel.”
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…And Love in Mid Air was featured in an animated review Drawn to Read by the brilliant Ward Hutton on barnesamdnoblereview.com