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worldsunlikeourown 's review for:
The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West
by Sara Ackerman
Find this review and more on my blog at Worlds Unlike Our Own.
3.5 stars
Thank you to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Fearless young pilot Olivia West wants nothing more than to take part in the 1927 Dole Air Race, a race across the Pacific from the West Coast to Hawaii. But flying is a field very much dominated by men and Olivia soon realizes there’s no way she will be allowed to qualify. In a last effort to be a part of it, she becomes a navigator for one of the pilots on this dangerous crossing to Hawaii. Sixty years later, Wren Summers inherits several acres of land in a remote part of the Big Island and plans to sell it and use the money to live on. But when she arrives to inspect the place, she finds an old barn where several interesting objects are stored that will reveal an unknown piece of history and lead her path to cross with Olivia’s.
Sara Ackerman has become an auto-read author for me over the last couple of years and I always enjoy her historical fiction novels, so I signed up for this blog tour immediately!
I’d never heard of the Dole Air Race before this and had no historical context when reading this book, which in a way was good as it’s more fun sometimes to just discover the story as it unfolds without constantly comparing it to the historical facts I know about the events.
The concept behind this book was definitely a fascinating one. It’s not the first book with the air race premise I’ve read – Stateless was similar, but the focus there was more on the mystery aspect. Here, the actual flight mechanics and the experience of a dangerous crossing was front and center and I really appreciated how much detail the book went into. The author did a marvellous job of setting the scene and raising the tension throughout the story and once the race began, it felt like I was right there next to the pilots on their flight.
The second timeline however, was rather lacklustre and I didn’t enjoy it. There’s wasn’t much action and all the interesting stuff was happening in the 1927 timeline, which made this much slower in comparison and after the first couple of chapters, I was speed reading through these just to get back to what was going on in the race.
This was a very easy to read book as is always the case with this author’s books and I flew through it in under 3 hours. The pacing was somewhat choppy though, starting off slowly, then progressing to the excitement of the race and then becoming slower again. In the future timeline, the plotline wasn’t really working for me, and I found the pacing to be on the slower side.
Olivia was a likeable character, determined and fearless, and it was very easy to root for her. Wren on the other hand, was a character who simply did not hold my interest and I ended up skimming so much of her POV chapters.
I liked the way Olivia’s story ended and the way the future timeline tied up those last few unanswered questions. One thing I didn’t understand is the very odd pacing of the plot. The race took until around the 30% mark to start and was finished before the 70% mark with very little excitement left after that which is what lowered my rating for this book.
Overall, this was a fun read and I enjoyed learning about this bit of history that I’m definitely looking forward to reading more about. I would recommend this book for historical fiction fans!
3.5 stars
Thank you to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Fearless young pilot Olivia West wants nothing more than to take part in the 1927 Dole Air Race, a race across the Pacific from the West Coast to Hawaii. But flying is a field very much dominated by men and Olivia soon realizes there’s no way she will be allowed to qualify. In a last effort to be a part of it, she becomes a navigator for one of the pilots on this dangerous crossing to Hawaii. Sixty years later, Wren Summers inherits several acres of land in a remote part of the Big Island and plans to sell it and use the money to live on. But when she arrives to inspect the place, she finds an old barn where several interesting objects are stored that will reveal an unknown piece of history and lead her path to cross with Olivia’s.
Sara Ackerman has become an auto-read author for me over the last couple of years and I always enjoy her historical fiction novels, so I signed up for this blog tour immediately!
I’d never heard of the Dole Air Race before this and had no historical context when reading this book, which in a way was good as it’s more fun sometimes to just discover the story as it unfolds without constantly comparing it to the historical facts I know about the events.
The concept behind this book was definitely a fascinating one. It’s not the first book with the air race premise I’ve read – Stateless was similar, but the focus there was more on the mystery aspect. Here, the actual flight mechanics and the experience of a dangerous crossing was front and center and I really appreciated how much detail the book went into. The author did a marvellous job of setting the scene and raising the tension throughout the story and once the race began, it felt like I was right there next to the pilots on their flight.
The second timeline however, was rather lacklustre and I didn’t enjoy it. There’s wasn’t much action and all the interesting stuff was happening in the 1927 timeline, which made this much slower in comparison and after the first couple of chapters, I was speed reading through these just to get back to what was going on in the race.
This was a very easy to read book as is always the case with this author’s books and I flew through it in under 3 hours. The pacing was somewhat choppy though, starting off slowly, then progressing to the excitement of the race and then becoming slower again. In the future timeline, the plotline wasn’t really working for me, and I found the pacing to be on the slower side.
Olivia was a likeable character, determined and fearless, and it was very easy to root for her. Wren on the other hand, was a character who simply did not hold my interest and I ended up skimming so much of her POV chapters.
I liked the way Olivia’s story ended and the way the future timeline tied up those last few unanswered questions. One thing I didn’t understand is the very odd pacing of the plot. The race took until around the 30% mark to start and was finished before the 70% mark with very little excitement left after that which is what lowered my rating for this book.
Overall, this was a fun read and I enjoyed learning about this bit of history that I’m definitely looking forward to reading more about. I would recommend this book for historical fiction fans!