Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have read Beatriz Williams before, so I expected to like this book, but I did not expect to love it as much as I did! This book was fantastic! I’ve read and enjoyed many books about female aviators, but most have been about women in the WACS era. I’ve also always been intrigued by Amelia Earhart, who served as inspiration for this book, so this was a must read for me.

The story is centered around two women and the man they loved. The man, Sam Mallory was an early aviator. Irene Foster was his protege who disappeared on an attempted circumnavigation flight. Janey Everett is a young photojournalist who has always been a fan of Sam’s, and now wants to write a book about him, but to do that, she needs the story from Irene, who she finds living in Hawaii.

The book is written in alternating times; present day 1947 and the years from 1928 until Irene disappeared. I found it interesting one chapter tells the present day story from Janey's point of view, then the next chapter is a chapter from Janey's book telling Irene's story from her point of view. Until I figured this out, I did have a little bit of an issue because the voice of Irene and the voice of Janey was very similar, but I think that is because the women were so similar; both strong women who knew how to get what they wanted.

The story had so many twists! I can’t tell you how many times I put the book down for a moment to say “Wow! I did NOT see that coming!” I can’t think of a thing I would have changed about this book. It’s early in the year, but I won’t be at all surprised in December if I say that this is the best book I read in 2020!

I won an advanced copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

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