the reader of books

I blazed through this book and I had VERY high hopes - perhaps too high.

Yes, this book is interesting and sad and a really great story about two best friends stuck in a crap situation (aka WWII). BUT...I did not love it nearly as much as I expected to and I suspect a large part of that is due to the copious descriptions of airplanes and flying, topics of which I am not entirely familiar with or remotely interested in. The only flight related description I enjoyed was when Maddie took her first flight over the Pennines at the very beginning. Little did I know THERE WAS SO MUCH MORE TO COME. So much.

A Scottish flight officer is captured by the Nazis after an ill-fated flight to France and to gain some extra time, she's spilling the beans to her captors. As you probably can tell from the other reviews, plot twists and surprises abound. And maybe because I read in so many reviews that there would be huge plot twists, I just wasn't that shocked, though there was a major thing that I most definitely did NOT see coming.

Let me say that in comparing books about young women in Britain during WWII, I personally prefer the Montmaray books much more. World War II fiction is my jam, and while I try to read about the experiences of soldiers serving during the war, I have come to realize that I am more interested in the experiences and stories of those (mostly women) left behind on the home front. And yes, the Montmaray books are probably fluffier and more young adulty but I like what I like and as much as I imagine myself as a Maddie or Verity (or even a Veronica or Henry), I am probably a Sophia.

Ugh I hate when I read a book that is universally acclaimed and then I am like, "...it was good, I guess" because it's as if there is this secret that everyone knows except me. That secret is probably called critical reading. I shall never understand it.

This is the second book I've read this month about an English pilot crashing into France during WWII. Maybe this will be my new thing.