Love in Mid Air [Paperback]

Kim Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2011

A chance encounter with a stranger on an airplane sends Elyse Bearden into an emotional tailspin. Suddenly Elyse is willing to risk everything: her safe but stale marriage, her seemingly perfect life in an affluent Southern suburb, and her position in the community. She finds herself cutting through all the instincts that say "no" and instead lets "yes" happen. As Elyse embarks on a risky affair, her longtime friend Kelly and the other women in their book club begin to question their own decisions about love, sex, marriage, and freedom. There are consequences for Elyse, her family, and her circle of close friends, all of whom have an investment in her life continuing as normal. But is normal what she really wants after all? In the end it will take an extraordinary leap of faith for Elyse to find--and follow--her own path to happiness.

An intelligent, sexy, absorbing tale and an honest look at modern-day marriage, Love in Mid Air offers the experience of what it's like to change the course of one's own destiny when finding oneself caught in mid air.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (July 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446540439
• ISBN-13: 978-0446540438
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,393,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. 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. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Contentedly married Elyse is returning to her pleasant home in North Carolina on a flight from Phoenix when she meets Boston businessman Gerry. They start to talk, exchange numbers, and suddenly Elyse finds herself undergoing a sea change. In no time, she’s engaged in a dangerous affair with Gerry, jetting off to various cities, receiving mysterious packages, and taking secretive phone calls, risking her marriage, her idyllic life as a housewife in suburbia, and the position she holds at her local church. Elyse’s longtime friend Kelly is perplexed and concerned as Elyse spirals deeper into the affair with the stranger. As Elyse questions what she wants out of life, she must weigh the risk of what will happen if, or when, her husband finds out about Gerry. An intense, thoughtful novel about love and friendship, or the lack thereof, in a marriage. --Hilary Hatton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (July 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446540439
• ISBN-13: 978-0446540438
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,393,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You've never heard it like this! March 28, 2010

By Amy Grigg

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Really, how could it be possible to tell the story of bored housewives with troubled marriages in a new way? Kim Wright astonishes with honesty and wit. She says so many things that we've all thought and could never find the words to express. A stirring read that will keep you talking and ruminating for days. Bravo!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love in Mid Air January 14, 2011

By D. Ferrier

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I ordered the book to read with some friends thinking it was about marriage. I later realized it was about a woman who has an affair. I hesitated because I have worked long and hard to have a good marriage and didn't think I needed to be sitting around complaining about my husband and marriage.

It turned out to be great therapy and a push to take my marriage to the next level. The discussions we had around this book and the issues it raises only strengthened my convictions about marriage and what it takes to make it work.
Elyse and her friends struggle to find out who they really are. Did they marry for love or to find a "life" that they wanted?

"What would happen if a woman was completely herself within a marriage?"

That is an excellent question and one that requires that she actually KNOWS exactly who she is.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful debut novel! May 16, 2010

By Elizabeth A. Fenton

Format:Hardcover

Marriage is complicated. And Kim Wright writes about it beautifully in her debut novel LOVE IN MID AIR. Elyse Bearden's marriage is already in trouble when she meets a handsome stranger on her flight home from Arizona. Her husband, a doting father to their young daughter but inattentive husband, has been communicating with her via post-it not for far too long and seems content with having sex in the kiss-less "X" position once a week. So it's not surprising when she starts a torrid affair with the man she met in row 29 to try to recapture the excitement she feels is sorely missing from her marriage and her life in general.

As some of her closest friends begin to realize that their seemingly harmless weekly banter about unhappy marriages has gone to a whole new level for Elyse, it stirs up emotions in each one of them that they'd rather not deal with. Because it's one thing to be unhappy, but it's a whole other thing to actually do something about it. Wright does a beautiful job questioning whether a marriage can only be successful if both parties embrace mediocrity and asks what truly defines happiness-and do parents even have a right to try to find it?

While the premise of LOVE IN MID AIR may sound familiar, what makes it so compelling is Wright's subtle yet intense writing, which may make the reader both uncomfortable and intrigued at the same time. Wright navigates Elyse's everyday life and relationships with her church book club with such authenticity that you'll be thinking about these characters long after you've finished. A must read for any wife or mother, Wright's genius commentary is not to be missed.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this August 6, 2011

By Laura Keyes

Format:Paperback

I was given this novel as a gift by a writer. I was unsure about it because I don't read chick lit, and the cover gave the impression that it might be exactly that, woman on swing, the type font, etc. But what an astonishing book!! This is a book worth talking about. The main character, Elyse, is a complex protagonist, and the story is compelling, fast-paced, I read it in two days. The writing is crafted, literary, the relationships have levels of conflict, and depth. I highly recommend it. It would be a good choice for book clubs, because Elyse and her world-view will make some readers unsettled. There is a great deal to discuss here. And judging from several of the previous reviews on this page, it seems like her story, in some instances, might strike a little too close to home.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVED this book! July 25, 2011

By DM

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As soon as I finished this book, I searched to see if the author had written other novels, because I wanted to read everything she'd written. Unfortunately, this is her first novel, but I'm sure it won't be her last.

Love in Mid-Air is more of an analysis of the demise of a marriage than about anything else. The prose reads like poetry at times (for example, the scene on the church steps) and is so thought-provoking, I couldn't get my mind off this book for days afterwards.

Kim Wright excels at showing and not telling her readers about the characters, and presents a thought-provoking glimpse into relationships. Highly recommended!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Addictive Reading... June 16, 2011

By Darlene

Format:Hardcover

Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright was one of those novels I describe to myself and others as addictive. It's about a woman, Elyse, who is unhappy in her marriage and while on a plane trip home, meets a man that she finds herself extremely attracted to. She goes back and forth with herself on whether to pursue this interest even though she has a husband and daughter at home. Now I do have to say I don't condone affairs yet this book and the character of Elyse are so much more than a woman just deciding to have an affair.

Elyse is approaching 40 and has been married for nine years. The problem is she made a mistake in marrying Phil and while she's tried over the years to make it work, especially for their seven year old daughter Tory, she knows she's fighting a losing battle. When Elyse met Phil she knew he wasn't the normal type of man she went for but at the same time thought that because he wasn't, their relationship might just work. He's a good man, he's provided her with a very comfortable lifestyle yet something has always been missing from this seemingly perfect world that really is more broken than perfect.

At first things seem ok but as time wears on and Elyse gets older she realizes just how unhappy she is. Her chance meeting on the plane with Gerry is just the clincher in something she already knew - that her marriage was over and nothing was going to change that. Elyse jumps into an affair with Gerry - it's exciting, it's different, and it's fulfilling her in a way her marriage never did. She has no romantic notions about Gerry; she knows that he isn't going to leave his wife for her. Yet that doesn't seem to bother her; she shares all her thoughts and feelings with Gerry - in some ways I think this was healing for her as strange as that sounds.... She even tries counseling with her husband Phil but this doesn't change her feelings; really it only seems to make her more determined to end her marriage.

In Elyse's world, women stay in marriages even if they aren't completely happy. Really, who's happy all the time? They get up each day and carry on with their routines throughout the day, go home - make supper and get the kids ready for bed. Another day over and yet did they find themselves really feeling happy at any time in that day? Elyse is tired of all that and in this novel she is very real and straight forward about it. She doesn't make any apologies for her flaws or what she wants. She begins talking about it with her friends in her book club ultimately making everyone uncomfortable as they then have to step back and take a look at their own lives.

The author, Kim Wright, has a way of bringing her characters to life in a real and unflinching way. Nothing is sugar coated. I have never been married but have been in a long term relationship in which I felt very trapped. I could feel Elyse's unhappiness and I don't think it's about her wanting something more exciting for her life. It's about wanting something better, some reason to get up in the morning and look forward to the day and be happy about it. Elyse feels that Phil doesn't see her and doesn't listen to her. She needs to feel like she is somebody - somebody valuable. I get that. So while this book is about a marriage on the rocks and a woman wanting a divorce, you also need to look past that to the reasons behind it. To the woman wanting more for herself- Elyse.

We often wonder how things get to a point where there isn't any turning back but they do and most often it creeps up on you. This novel is really quite intense and honest. How well do we really know anyone's lives? We see people and think they're happy - they seem happy but this isn't always the case. What lies under the veneer of happiness is sometimes intense loneliness and unhappiness. Is it worth it to keep on and keep trying? That's a question with an answer that would be different for everyone. What I really liked about Elyse's story is that in the end she doesn't have any fairy tale ending - there is no tall, dark and handsome man waiting - there is only she and her daughter looking to rebuild their lives.

This would make a great book club read. There's so much to discuss and it's definitely a topic that would generate a lot of conversation. Be forewarned though that there is some pretty graphic hanky panky going on and bad language. It's not overwhelming but it's there. This is Kim Wright's first novel and I think it's a solid book well worth reading. Read more ›