A detailed recounting of one woman’s passion for aviation above all else.
A young woman leaves her family home to fly airplanes for the British Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II and gets caught in a confusing love triangle.
In 1932, Rosalie Wright, a 10-year-old farm girl from Cambridgeshire, takes her first ride in an airplane and is forever smitten with flight. When she turns 16, her parents finally allow her to take flying lessons. Only a short time later, World War II erupts, and the local airfield halts civilian operations. It seems Rosalie will be stuck working the family farm forever. But then she stumbles on an article about Pauline Gower, a pilot she's long admired, who has been appointed to the Women’s Division of the Air Transport Auxiliary, a group that ferries airplanes for the Royal Air Force. After repeated rejections based on her age, she finally secures a position with this elite squad of aviatrices, often referred to as “Attagirls.” As Rosalie builds her career within the ATA, she develops close friendships with the other Attagirls and also finds a love interest. Unfortunately, the man has questionable intentions, and another intriguing fellow is vying for Rosalie’s attention. As the story progresses, it is unclear whether Rosalie will realize that sometimes the best route to happiness comes from following the path of least resistance. Full of interesting details about the different types of airplanes used by the British during World War II, as well as the purposes of each, the narrative takes an unhurried approach toward detailing Rosalie’s adventures. The book reads almost like a diary, delving into many of the mundane parts of Rosalie’s life, often too deeply, before getting to the juicier tidbits. Even so, the author manages to depict Rosalie’s friendships with fellow Attagirls and RAF pilots in a manner that is both realistic and touching. A few twists and turns keep the story engaging despite its often sluggish tempo.
A detailed recounting of one woman’s passion for aviation above all else.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64385-527-1
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Alcove Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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