Reviewed by Tammy
TITLE: Aviophobia
SERIES: Flight HA1710, #5
AUTHOR: Serena Yates
PUBLISHER: Diversity Novels
LENGTH: 104 pages
BLURB:
Richard Abbott finally overcomes his debilitating fear of flying, boards Flight HA1710 bound for Chicago, and when it crashes discovers that Aviophobia isn’t the worst of it…
All his life Richard has been afraid of flying. He has no idea what caused it, but nothing and no one will convince him to get on a plane of any size. His job as a member of a major bank’s IT department in London does not require him to fly—until he gets promoted. If he wants to keep his job, he has no choice but to deal with his worst nightmare.
Camden Marsh is a certified life coach who enjoys helping people redefine their priorities and their life. He is on his way to Chicago to attend an international conference for coaches and trainers when he begins a discussion with the extremely nervous man sitting next to him.
They have barely begun to explore their mutual interest when Flight HA1710 crashes and everything comes to a screeching stop.
REVIEW:
Richard Abbott works for a major bank in England in the IT department. Luckily his job doesn’t require him to fly anywhere because he is absolutely terrified of flying, not scared of flying but gut wrenching terror! That is until the day he gets promoted to Team Leader, of a project he has spent the last three years working on. Now, they expect him to fly to Chicago for a kick-off meeting! He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place on the one hand, the promotion and everything that goes with it, the other hand, the abject terror at the mere thought of flying! There was only one person Richard has ever told about his biggest fear, his best friend from uni, Theo. It was time to get help. Richard decided to he had to talk to Theo and he definitely needed a beer. Over a few beers and lots of discussion Theo helped Richard pick the right “Flying with Confidence” course. Two weeks later and Richard is all set to participate in the course so that he can fly to Chicago, attend the meeting and fly home! Richard can’t believe how well the course worked! He’s already been on a short flight, he survived the short flight and Richard now has the tools to survive a major flight like the one to Chicago!!
Camden Marsh is a Life Coach who doesn’t exactly relish flying but he does it. As it happens Camden is scheduled to fly to Chicago for the annual conference run by the International coach Federation. As luck would have it Camden and Richard are seated next to each other on the plane. Camden noticed right away how nervous his flight partner was, he decided the best way to get the man to relax and get past his nerves was to start talking. The more they talk the more Camden realizes just how good-looking Richard is and just how much he really does want to get to know him better.
Both Camden and Richard are so involved in their discussion about their respective lives that before they knew it they were taxiing down the runway. They weren’t in the air long before they hit “turbulence”. Richards worst nightmare is about to come to life and there’s not a thing he can do about it. Damn, he didn’t even get to kiss Camden! When he woke up next Richard was in a hospital, in a lot of pain but he didn’t have a broken bone anywhere. After hours of interviews with investigators and police Richard was exhausted plus nobody will give him any information about Camden! By the time Theo arrived Richard had all but convinced himself that his aviophobic feelings were right after all. Richard tried to talk to Theo about the crash but every time the memories came back he stated shaking so he told Theo all about Camden. The best thing Theo did for Richard was finding out which room Camden was in.
Two days after the crash and Camden was feeling very lucky. After surgery on a broken leg he became paralysed below the waist, thank god that was only temporary. The one good thing to happen was Richard turned up in his hospital room. Camden was so relieved that Richard had made it out alive. As they were talking they found that Camden was allowed out of hospital but he couldn’t leave because he had no-one to look after him. Richard couldn’t believe his luck, he decided to take a chance and go home with Camden to look after him. They were both just so happy to be alive. Camden tells Richard that they’re both going to have to talk to a psychiatrist so they don’t end up with any lasting emotional baggage.
When they got back to Camden’s place Richard found out how little his boss thought of him and his need to recover from a plane crash. He realised it was going to take him a lot longer to recover from the crash than he had originally thought! Whilst both men were recovering they realised the attraction they had felt on the plane was real and they were going to explore it. As they got closer Richard realised that his job was not exactly what he wanted to do especially since his discovery of what his boss is truly like. Both Camden and Richard realised they were falling in love and it was ok! They were helping each other with their nightmares and other anxieties that needed to be dealt with. The first thing Richard did was tell Theo that his life had turned upside down since the crash and he couldn’t be happier, Theo talked everything out with him and honestly Richard was over the moon. It takes nearly two months and an incredible amount of counselling after the crash before either man is ready to even contemplate getting on another airplane.
All in all, Aviophobia is well written addition to the Flight HA1710 series. This book takes an in-depth look into aviophobia and the resulting damage that is done not only to the person suffering from it but their family and friends. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to all m/m romance lovers.
RATING: 
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