Book Review | Cabin Fever: The Sizzling Secrets of a Virgin Airlines Flight Attendant, Mandy Smith, Nicola Stow

The Book

Title: Cabin Fever: The Sizzling Secrets of a Virgin Airlines Flight Attendant

Author: Mandy Smith

Co-Author: Nicola Stow

Cover: ?

Publishing: Plume 2014

Type: Non-Fiction

Pages: 289

Series: x

Genre: Memoir

Subgenres: Travel, Aviation

Audience: Adult

Content Advisory: Explicit Sex, Domestic Abuse, Sexual Harassment, Strong Language

My Details

Purchase Date: 2023

Purchased At: Dollar Tree

Cost: $1.00

List Price: $12.99

Version: Paperback

Read: June - August 2025

Rating

2/5

Quick Overview

"Cabin Fever" is a good title for this book - it's also appropriate, but that's where it should have ended. The author, Mandy Smith, is indeed a former Virgin Airlines flight attendant who spent a decade in the skies and she certainly has stories to tell, but most of her memoir focuses on her life on the ground. The book dives deep into her personal escapades filled with sex, alcohol, and shopping - instead of the secrets and a behind-scenes look of the airline industry, like the title promises. There are a few entertaining recounts about the late 90's/early 2000's Virgin Airlines experience, along with a bit of humor, but ultimately the memoir falls short of what it advertises. There is little reflection and no real sense of growth from the author. We're privy'd to more gossip and continuous missteps, rather than any sort of real insight. Cabin Fever is a cheeky read that starts out fun but never quite takes off.

Publisher Synopsis

The secrets of the Mile High Club revealed... Mandy Smith spent twelve years strutting down the aisles as one of Richard Branson's sexy and sassy flight attendants. From dealing with projectile vomit and celebrity tantrums to sipping Manhattans and shopping in New York, this inside account is riotous good fun. Set against a backdrop of exotic locations, the cast of zany characters includes everyone from Courtney Love to Sir Richard himself. Mandy's jet-setting job allowed her to search the globe for Mr Right, which led her to many steamy love affairs.

I was fooled.

I discovered this book around the same time I discovered that Dollar Tree stores were a solid place to find good books. When I read the synopsis for "Cabin Fever", I thought I had hit the jackpot! A sizzling, spicy insider look at the airlines industry! How did such a unique book end up in a Dollar tree?! But I know better than to question gifts the Universe presents.

It took a couple of years to find the right time to read it, but I decided what better way to start than literally on a plane! So, on my trip down to San Diego this summer, I started what I thought was going to be a fun page turner that I wouldn't be able to put down. -I was wrong. So, wrong.

Like, many reviewers of this memoir before me that I have come across, I too feel it's title and synopsis are misleading. -I blame the publisher.

Yes, Mandy Smith was a flight attendant for Virgin Airlines. However, we're led to believe that we're about to get all of these insider secrets about the airlines industry, as well as exciting tales of celebrities aboard. Instead, we end up with a peak into the industry and a few celebrities named.

This book should have been marketed as a memoir, first and foremost. It's not a guide to the airline industry or travel. The synopsis should have stated it was about Smith's personal journey - surviving an abusive relationship and using an opportunity with Virgin Airlines to build a career, move out of her parents house, and heal. -The misstep here feels like it falls on the publisher. It looks like they sought to sell a book version of a reality TV series, believing that sex, alcohol, and drama were better than the airline industry itself. Unfortunately, what they advertised and what readers believed they were picking up, turned out to be two different things.

It's just not believable.

Worse than the misleading synopsis, is the way the book is filled with stories and highlights that sound too good to be true - or, rather scripted. For example, that amount of alcohol Mandy and the majority of the people she mentions are said to consume in the timeframes described, not only makes them alcoholics, but makes it nearly impossible for them perform or maintain their jobs, while also partaking in the other activities mentioned. She writes as if the alcohol has little impact on their lives, despite this narrative that reads like they are drinking on Spring Break for a decade.

There are also several scenes that read like a TV show script, instead of a lived experience. For instance, there is a part in the book that literally reads:

On cue we all extended the handles of our Delseys, turned and walked away in a sassy red line toward secuirty. We all stopped and, as though rehearsed, looked over our shoulders and with big cheesy smiles sang, "See ya," then carried on walking through security.

The first time I read a passage in this book in the same fairytale fashion, I was wowed. After a while, I said: WHAT ARE THE ODDS!, really?!. -These questionable recounting of tales feels shaped by an outsider. There is another name attached to this book: Nicola Stow. After researching her, I found that she is a professional ghostwriter. She was likely hired to make the book more entertaining, but she seemingly striped Mandy's story of its authenticity.

Where was the landing?

What is most disappointing about the whole book - and, also, the saddest part - is that the author never grows. Mandy never seems to learn and in the end she just moves on to the next thing.

The book starts and ends with drinking, partying, and sexcapades. The one theme that stays with Mandy throughout the book is her quest for love. After a years-long romance, she repeatedly finds love in all the wrong hook-ups that leads her to hook-ups and removing romance. Right after a solo journey in South America that was meant to focus inward, she decides rich men are the answer to the absence of love in her life. While the book does end with her getting married and having a family, it feels like the writing is ignoring a lot of personal issues, or we're missing essential parts of Mandy's personal journey.

Even within her career, Mandy genuinely doesn't grow. In one chapter, she recounts being sexually assaulted in a club by a pilot. She details the fear and emotional damage the violation caused her. Yet, not much later, she and two other female co-workers lure a different pilot into getting naked with the belief he's about to get urinated on, only to find that several of his co-workers - including Mandy - are there to photograph him naked. Mandy never writes any reflection on her own act of sexual misconduct. There is no lesson learned and we're left with only her own humor in the matter, but no remorse, regret, or even a sorry.

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Recommended

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. The book starts out well, but ends up falling out of the sky. At first, I became interested in Mandy's personal story. Then I was excited as she took me along on a journey, starting with filling out her Virgin Airlines application, then through training, and eventually up into the skies! But the book seems to get stuck in a loop that repeats itself in both topics and scenarios.

I recognize that my age range may not be the target audience. I believe young people around the ages of 18-25 may find this an exciting read, particularly those who have recently experienced a breakup or are searching for love. As well as, people with little career and worldly experience. However, people with experiences in these areas will see the flaws in Mandy and her co-workers actions, both in work and their personal lives. The fairytale-like scenes will stick out like a toy plane amongst real commercial jets to them.

The book has a decent pace, the chapters are a good length, and Mandy does a good job with the takeoff, but I found it hard to have the motivation to finish the book after it starts to decline around chapter 7.