This book by Soraya M. Lane was an impulse buy that Amazon managed to get in front of me at just the right time a few years ago. After finishing I Know My Own Heart, I was looking for another ebook in my library I could pick up for a few minutes and put down again, and I remembered I had bought this one a while back. I’ve been trying lately to be better about reading books as soon as I buy them, so even though this one had been sitting in my Amazon account for a few years, I don’t feel too bad because that’s a lot less time than some other books have been sitting unread in my library.
Anyhoo, this one was only OK. I did learn a lot about the women who ferried fighter pilots from base to base during WWII in England and a couple women who started to do the same thing here in the U.S. before they were shut down.
I bought this book because it looked like a good feminist read, and I can always use some of that in my life. Unfortunately, this book was neither as good nor as feminist as it could have been.
First of all, the writing was only OK. There were a lot of times where the dialogue felt forced and stilted, and there were a lot of unnecessary descriptions of what was going through a character’s head, when showing their actions/dialogue would have done a better job of conveying the same thing.
It is mostly feminist, but there was at least one comment made about how women can’t not make a fuss over someone crying. If you’re trying to write a feminist book, maybe don’t make sweeping generalizations about women, especially if you’re going to turn around and complain about male characters doing the same thing.
Towards the end of the book, there’s talk of a movie that was based on the women ferrying the planes, but they’re disgusted that all the movie does is depict them as flirtatious girls batting their eyelashes at male officers, and yet the book pairs each main character with a man before the end of the war, so I’m not sure how it could complain about a movie doing the same thing.
The romances weren’t very well written either, but I’m enough of a sap that I found myself rooting for the couples anyway.
Apparently Lane has a bunch of historical fiction books that focus on the various roles women played in WWII, and while I appreciate that the women who have fought for this country are getting a spotlight, and I did learn a lot from this book, I think I’ll skip Lane’s other books. The next time I want to know about fighting women, I’ll pick up a nonfiction book.