I really liked the idea of this book, working at the Aer Lingus check-in desk and acting as matchmaker on flights by seating people in certain seats, i.e. Row 27, and it really worked, I loved the story.

Cora was the flight check-in attendant playing matchmaker and her friend, Nancy, a stewardess, helped push things along once on the flight by giving free drinks and chatting to them more. Cora was just passing through this job until she decided what she wanted to do. Her Mum had worked there for many years so it was comfortable and everyone knew her. Her Mum unfortunately now had dementia and was in a home/research facility and was slowly getting worse every day which was really sad and it effected Cora a lot, but the matchmaking distracted her, sometimes to the point of obsession.

There are a variety of side characters that I really liked, regular passengers and people working at the airport. I especially liked Aiden and Ingrid who were regular passengers and also really central to the story, especially Aiden.

I loved the way one strand of the story was about Cora and her life, and the other about the matchmaking she tried to do on the flights with a variety of characters, so we get snippets of their story too. It originally sounded like quite a light story but actually had so much more depth with her Mum and her dementia.

A really impressive debut for Eithne Shortall and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.