Ok this was really deep! Leah was an old soul who just loved planes. She wanted to be a pilot and she had so many obstacles to overcome to get there. She had the overwhelming passion to fly and that was so strong at a very young age. Mr. Hall becomes her mentor and sort of father figure for three years. This man, who was in his 50’s, had a an x wife and three sons. The story was woven really well and I have to say I was so sad reading her story about her moving around for so long. I can not give away plots, but on Kindle the writing in on the wall about 50% then you just sit there and go OH My all of the plans and motives come out. Why not be truthful and move on than to smile and lie and be unhappy?? I think that Leah and her bff Molly have learned from each other. Starting with how their friendship began and that they are extreme opposites really doesn’t cause dramsa, only makes it more real.
What appealed to me about Leah was her passion for the flying. Leah had that start at such a young age. As for Jake who is Hall’s oldest son, that is a spoiler. Grayson and Leah and their plans that include lies and deceit, are spun well. At one point I know there is regret on Alec’s part and Grayson because it seems Leah knew so much about their Dad and his motives. Mr. Hall had a lot to say in death and his voice and lessons carried on long after. Leah learned that you may come from a background but the path in life is what you make of it, nobody but you controls it.
5 books !!
“Most people hear an airplane in the sky and think, ‘There’s an airplane,’ and go back to what they were doing. A few folks look around for the airplane, try to figure out what kind of plane it is, and watch it from the time they spot it to the time it disappears on the horizon, maybe after that. Those kids are the ones who will be pilots.” He pointed at me. “I knew that about you. I’ve just been waiting for you to show up.”
“I had wanted something from him. Even expected a confrontation. To be ignored was a sentence without a period.”
“When I’m with you,” he began again, “it’s like… I still don’t feel normal. But I can see normal at twelve o’clock on the horizon.” He pointed past me, through the windshield of an imaginary airplane. “At least I know normal is still out there. I’ve spent the last three months not sure of that at all.”
“A girl needs to be held right now, and comforted, and told that everything is going to be okay. I’m sorry I can’t do that for you. I don’t have any of that left.” “I have a little and I’ll lend it to you.”
“Love isn’t something you have to deserve.”
“Grayson looked at me again. This time his gaze traveled form my hair down, and he let me see that he was looking. What he meant by this was that he thought I was beautiful, it was not just my miraculous hair, and we shouldn’t be distracted from our true love by the pesky detail that he was blackmailing me into dating his brother.
Right.”
“It’s easier to remember your lies if they’re close to the truth,”
“We wanted to enjoy the afterglow and we were trying our best to bond, but it was difficult with so many people between us, even though most of them were ghosts.”
“The TV said you should ignore bullies and they would stop harassing you. In practice this worked about half the time. The other half, you ended up with two tall boys shadowing you through a trailer park, their fingers taking little nips at your clothes, like dogs.”
“I squeezed the controls to brace myself so I wouldn’t shiver with the chill of wanting. Normal people got that feeling when they quit smoking cigarettes. I had gotten it then too.
Normal people did not get that feeling when faced with danger.”
“I guess’ will get you killed.”
“When something awful happens, sometimes people get stuck.”
“Sarcasm was a weapon for children.”
―
“Men always do that to women when they feel threatened. They tell everybody the woman must be giving out blow jobs because there’s no way she could be successful otherwise.”
“And” – his voice was soft now – “you’re a beautiful girl. If you show the slightest interest in Alec, he’ll want to go out with you. I know I would.”
My skin prickled with goose bumps, a chill in the hot April evening. My brain knew Grayson didn’t have the crush on me that I’d imagined when he got mad at me at the airport that afternoon. He wouldn’t have asked me to date his brother if he’d been interested in me. But my body didn’t know this, or didn’t care.”
“But when I was a little girl, my mom always told me to be nice to everybody, no matter what they looked like or how they treated me, because I never knew who might be an angel God had sent to Earth in disguise.”
“You’re not a whore. You’re a chick who hasn’t exactly grown up with every advantage, and you’ve learned to use what you’ve got. You don’t do it on purpose. It’s second nature. You act girly and helpless and make men think you’re harmless.”
“I remembered what Mr. Hall had told me when I first asked him for a lesson: the kids who watch planes are destined to be pilots.”
“He tilted his head to one side, considering me, his weathered face impossible to read. But his voice was kind as he said, “There are lots of mistakes you can make. Pilots make them, and pilots die. Obstacles will kill you. The weather will kill you. But, as I’m about to show you, the airplane is your friend. The plane wants to fly.”
“If I were stepping down from the bus at the rich end of town instead of the trailer park, I wouldn’t have to watch every word I said to make sure it wasn’t slang for an orgasm.”
“It was better that we never apologized to each other. Then we’d be admitting that we were wrong and we owed each other something. That’s where people got into trouble.”
“Some people have problems, when something awful happens, sometimes people get stuck.”
Reading Renee 