Fly Me to the Moon

October 30, 2006
Former flight attendant Noël's valentine to high-flying single gals is Sex and the City
at 37,000 feet, a fashionably dressed, ditzy romp up and down the jetports of major cities across America and Europe. Just when flight attendant Hailey Lane thinks her live-in pilot boyfriend, Michael, might finally pop the question, she catches Captain Cad with his pants down, forcing her to land a new apartment and a worthy boyfriend while finishing the novel she's writing. After a weekend of binge grieving with best pal Clay, the "born and raised in the OC" Hailey juggles dates with a pervy Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a wealthy businessman with performance issues and a Greek hottie with an Oedipal hangup. Noël's debut adult novel (she's written three YA novels) has some fun with the air-traveling public: the inane questions, the bad behavior, the mile-high club hookups. She also lobs a few barbs at an airline industry willing to sacrifice its workers' morale for the bottom line. There's never a doubt Hailey will land the right guy, the book deal and the great pad, and the romantic misadventures turn out to be no more memorable than a cross-country red-eye.

December 1, 2006
Flight attendant Hailey Lane has been uncommitted and capricious lately, especially since catching her boyfriend in flagrante, and her life and job are going nowhere. She used to enjoy work (especially the company of her coworker and best friend, Clay) but has tired of arduous shifts and nitpicking bosses who reprimand her for wearing opaque pantyhose with her uniform. Amid rumors of company downsizing, she returns to her dream of writing a novel. When she misplaces her long-unfinished manuscript on a flight, it is returned to her by Dane, a handsome passenger. Hailey then effortlessly finishes and submits her novel among flings in exotic Paris and Greece and misunderstandings with Dane, who gets worked in as Hailey's love interestthough for all but the last few pages she claims she can't stand him. Former flight attendant and current YA novelist Noël ("Faking 19") shines when describing the minutiae of a flight attendant's life, but Hailey's growth as a person and author and her relationship with Dane are so glossed over that she remains more self-entitled than enlightened. Despite this flaw, Noël has penned a solid adult novel debut.Lisa Davis-Craig, Canton P.L., MI

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.