Flight Lessons (original 2002; edition 2003)

I picked this book up at the YMCA library because I thought it was going to have hot and steamy sex in it! I was so looking forward to that! I read the first four or five pages and then put it back and the next time I went to the gym I snagged it because just in the first four or five pages I was totally sucked into the story-line.

It has been a *long* time since I've read a book that made me stop reading it, reflect on how the story-line correlates with my own life (yell at and worship God more so for His unbelievable timing of things), and write about the story in my journal. That happened with this book -- I absolutely loved this book. (And I would say I despise "Women Fiction", which this book is.)

Anna likes to run away from everything instead of facing it or dealing with it. As this catches up with her into her adulthood she's sort of forced to go back home (because she doesn't have anywhere else to go, really), and back home is where her memories and circumstances she's been running away from reside. She's asked to help her aunt manage her restaurant and get it making a profit again -- my church is closing and if we don't make drastic changes our church will be closing (well, it's already slated to close but we're hoping to overturn that ...). *Some people* don't want to make the drastic changes necessary to get the restaurant making a profit again -- that would be me as I don't want to make changes to the church, why can't people change instead? Why can't they just come to our church instead of their church since their church isn't slated to close ... why do they have to be so selfish????

There was sex in the book but it certainly wasn't hot and steamy by any stretch. it was actually kind of dull and icky -- and I'm not talking about the old people sex either (the lady is at least 60 and the man was dying ... I don't know enough about sex to know if that can really happen but ... it did in the book). I found the old people sex to be some what sweet and found myself crying ... I found myself crying at a few places in this book. I really loved it.

The ending wasn't great by any stretch but I *suppose* with this kind of novel it has to be this kind of ending ... the kind of ending that makes you forget about the rest of the book and say to yourself, "I will never get that time back again. That kind of sucks."

Adrianne ( )

Great beach read - women comes home to help run the family business after discovering her boyfriend in bed with someone else. She struggles with trust issues as she tries to find her way......realistic characters and story......satisfying ending typical of women's lit...... ( )

Anna is bitter towards her Aunt Rose after she discovered her aunt in bed with her father 16 years earlier. But she's forced to set it aside when she returns to work in the family restaurant business. Can she let her bitterness go & find happiness with her family and a man who shares her fears? ( )

I'm giving this one 5 stars for the writing, which is flawless, but 3 stars for enjoyment, so it evens out to 4 stars. I'm reminded again why I don't read women's fiction. I was so freaking depressed through the whole book. The heroine comes back to her hometown after breaking up with her boyfriend, who she caught in bed with her boss, and agrees to help her aunt by taking over the management of the family restaurant. She's never forgiven her aunt for having an affair with her father, so there's that issue. And the aunt's boyfriend has a degenerative disease which provides another issue. And the aunt's boyfriend's stepson is the mysterious bird photographer who provides the love interest. The people were all very real, but the heroine's attitude toward her aunt irritated the heck out of me, even though I believed it. My main problem, though, was that the book made me feel like I was a horrible person. In fact, every time I'd put down the book to go do something else, a little voice in my head said "you're a horrible person." Gah. Who needs that? ( )