The Flight Risk

Sometimes, rarely, a story is so beautifully told that it feels almost perfect. This first person account of travel writer Baylee Lawrence's life is told in both present and flashback over 19 years, taking readers on an incredible, emotional adventure. Baylee is a wonderfully unique, incredibly self aware character and her journey - and the people in her life past and present - is truly unforgettable. While I'd love to ramble on about how expertly woven this story is and the individual characters I absolutely fell in love with, I think it would do a disservice to those who haven't read it yet. They deserve to have the wonderful experience I just did without any preconceptions. Those that loved The Art of Us by KL Hughes and Separate Like Stars by Diana Kane will be just as enamored with this one - and that's saying a lot. This is moving onto my all-time favorites list. I don't expect to recover from it for a long time. I read the ebook, but need to own the paperback as well to cradle it to my chest and hold it like the treasure that it is. It's just that good.

This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Beautiful writing, beautiful characters, beautiful ending. It's long but worth reading every page. I would have been fine with it being even longer. Characters are beautifully flawed but were so very real.

This book is fantastic. I loved the development of the characters and the writing. It brought everything and everyone together at the end just like one of my favorite books A Prayer for Owen Meaney (which is referenced in this book). This is one book that I will read again.

The Flight Risk is poignant, beautiful puzzle of a story that breaks your heart while simultaneously healing the wound. Moments in time in the magnificent story of Baylee, Harper, Tovi, and Rivers are gradually shared and a beautiful picture slowly emerges. What you find in the end is a story about love, heart shattering, unshakeable, universe-conspiring love. It is also a story about forgiveness, redemption, and what it means to come home. I laughed, I cried, and I hold a tender spot in my heart for the characters in this novel. My only criticism is about the formatting. I did read the kindle version, so I am curious to see how this looks in paperback. It would have been nice to have the text message conversations stand out more or printed differently. And, I would have loved a table of contents. I found myself scrolling back to the beginning of a chapter or section just to know where and when the story was taking place. These were but small inconveniences in an otherwise sweeping tale.

I saw this book when it was first published. It garnered rave reviews and I have a healthy suspicion of that. I myself write them rarely for books because of my perception of how tainted the process has become, that and, what is a review but someone’s perspective right. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, I had time. I read it and do have thoughts to share. I see the draw, the reason why many gushed. It’s a clinic in trauma filled writing, and it’s not gratuitous. That is to be lauded. I agree that I wouldn’t necessarily classify this as romance, as the romance acts almost as a backdrop to the unrelenting trauma with most if not all of the characters. By the time the happy ending comes, and it was difficult for me to classify it as such, it’s anticlimactic. The writer employs the use of the red herring, a notable and worthwhile literary device, yet (and I qualify this impending assessment by stating I usually never question the writers choices believing them inherent to the text) it is grossly misplaced. It is where I fear the writer lost the thread, at least to me. Who we thought it was, should have been who it was making it right that one of the most painful and wrenching scenes about platonic love and romance, be justified somehow. It was a choice, one that shaped my view of the book. This does not dull the true beauty of the hero’s quest, and the relationship she builds with her young charge. What dulls it overall is a slow and painful transformation that almost doesn’t…