I had very high hopes for this book when I first saw it. It had "The Mountain Between Us" vibes to it, which excited me.

Unfortunately, Turbulence just didn't cut it for me.

My main issues were with the medical inaccuracies. The main character, Paul, is a doctor. After a plane crash, he self-diagnoses himself as having broken a couple ribs. But then he proceeds to administer several rounds of CPR to another victim. Okay, I'll buy that. He's probably got loads of adrenaline coursing through his body, dulling the pain. But afterward, there are only one or two mentions of some pain from his broken ribs for the rest of the book, and he digs around in a burning plane, carries heavy loads, shovels snow, hikes mountains, etc, with no problem. Broken ribs are extremely painful, and the simple act of breathing can cause excruciating pain. But let's say he just bruised his ribs - that's still incredibly painful and he should not be able to hike mountains and shovel snow with little-to-no problem. And if it was a mild bruise . . . considering he's a doctor, I would expect a more accurate diagnosis.

Our superhero Paul pushes on, accomplishing all kinds of amazing things with broken ribs as well as severe cuts on his back from broken glass. Then, he develops a critically high fever within the course of only a few hours, which renders him unconscious. Seems a little sudden to me. Fortunately, he gets medical help and antibiotics and fever reducers that bring down his fever.

Now, at the same time, our other MC, Maddie gets medical help and is diagnosed with a concussion. Strange, because she showed no signs of a head injury for more than twenty-four hours, and even after the strange diagnosis, she still doesn't seem to have any of the symptoms you would think.

But our superhero decides it's a good idea to drive Maddie to see her father because she shouldn't be driving with a concussion. So he leaves the hospital AMA (against medical advice) with an underlying fever and infection to drive her. (The antibiotics and fever reducers didn't take away the infection, just reduced the symptoms.) I am really confused at this point, and even more so when his infection seems to have miraculously cleared up, as it's not mentioned again for the rest of the book.

Aside from those medical inaccuracies (and others. I still find it strange that no one had frostbite or hypothermia), the characters felt unrealistic and unrelatable, and the plot, while an intriguing idea, seemed a little far-fetched. Also, Maddie's issues with faith never seemed to be wrapped up, and Paul has no problem entering a relationship with someone who (as far as we know) has a lot of issues with God.

Overall, Turbulence is not a book I enjoyed, nor would I recommend it. ( )