What a perfect match for Part Two of Anita’s Women at War Series: The Pilots. Girls of Flight City is where reality meets fiction about an era in American history. This is a powerful and realistic story of three women bound by common denominators: an airplane and war.
Girls of Flight City
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Author: Lorraine Heath
Genre: Historical, Inspirational, WWII
Inspired by true events, a breathtaking WWII historical novel about the brave American women who trained the British Royal Air Force, by New York Times bestselling author Lorraine Heath.
1941. A talented flier, Jessie Lovelace yearns for a career in aviation. When the civilian flight school in her small Texas town begins to clandestinely train British pilots for the RAF, she fights to become an instructor. But the task isn’t without its perils of near-misses and death. Faced with the weight of her responsibilities, she finds solace with a British officer who knows firsthand the heavy price paid in war . . . until he returns to the battles he never truly left behind.
Rhonda Monroe might not be skilled in the air but can give a trainee a wild ride in a flight simulator. Fearing little, she dares to jeopardize everything for a forbidden relationship with a charismatic airman…
Innocent and fun-loving Kitty Lovelace, Jessie’s younger sister, adores dancing with these charming newcomers, realizing too late the risks they pose to her heart.
As the war intensifies and America becomes involved, the Girls of Flight City do their part to bring a victorious end to the conflict, pouring all their energy into preparing the young cadets to take to the skies and defeat the dangers that await. And lives from both sides of the Atlantic will be forever changed by love and loss…
Review of the Girls of Flight City
From Anita:
What a perfect match for Part Two of my Women at War Series: The Pilots. Girls of Flight City is where reality meets fiction about an era in American history. This is a powerful and realistic story of three women bound by common denominators: an airplane and war. Their story is captivating, enthralling, and heartbreaking. The story also underscores what many women faced as the specter of war hovered over the country. It is a story of women breaking down the traditional barriers in aviation, proving they were just as competent in flying aircraft as their male counterparts. It is also an emotional story of the grief and despair they experienced.
Author Heath hits all the marks for the legitimacy of the hurdles, discrimination, and prejudice within a small Texas town so accurately portrayed. The characters and even the supporting characters will draw you into the story, compelling you to keep reading. The small town and its residents were so reminiscent of the small town where I grew up that, at times, I felt as if I was reliving a bit of my past. When a fictional book can elicit that type of emotional response, it is high praise for the author. Girls of Flight City is a five-star read.
From Kimberly:
This book was dynamically written and speaks hard-won truths. Men will appreciate this book, but for women, it tells a story that hits close to home.
Lorraine Health is known for her story female characters and romance stories set in historic times, so when I saw Girls of Flight City on the horizon from her I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the story within. Would it be another romance I thought? Or is she truly going in a completely new direction with her writing? It took me a few years of push and pull with my TBR to find out.
Girls of Flight City is a romance. Yet, it is so much more than that. From the first pages, we are invited on a journey with Jessie as she is learning to navigate the expectations the world around her is trying to impose – all the while she fights to pursue her dream of flying which at that time was something women weren’t seen as being capable of doing.
Then we get Rhonda. She was a woman who knew when to play and knew when to be serious. Her zeal for life was contagious and sensual; Lorraine Heath wove her characters with beautiful balance showcasing her flirtiness and her dedication to teaching the cadets to the best of her ability—showing how much she truly did care for them.
And Kitty the youngest so full of hope and dreams…She shows so much naïtivity, that it brings home the realities of how young she was during all of this.
Lorraine Heath did one heck of a job bringing to life the feelings and emotions of the time (some of which still linger today). She wove these girls’ stories together flawlessly and took me on a ride I didn’t expect, but one I am greatly appreciative of.
Read Girls of Flight City only if you are ready to go back in time and feel it in your heart. Readers who like Kristen Hannah, Sarah Sundin, Aimie K Runyan, and Pam Jenoff will really enjoy this story’s narrative.
*Note: this book does have language, sensual elements, and talk of war (obviously).
Check out the book review of Girls of Flight City on YouTube
About Lorraine Heath
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lorraine Heath always dreamed of being a writer. After graduating from the University of Texas, she wrote training manuals, press releases for a publicist, articles, and computer code, but something was always missing. When she read a romance novel, she became not only hooked on the genre, but quickly realized what her writing lacked: rebels, scoundrels, and rogues. She’s been writing about them ever since. Her work has been recognized with numerous industry awards including RWA’s RITA(R).
Visit her at: https://www.lorraineheath.com/
