The Long Flight Home book review

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Long Flight Home by Alan Hlad
Published by Kensington Publishing Corp. on June 25, 2019
Pages: 304
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

Inspired by fascinating, true, yet little-known events during World War II, The Long Flight Home is a testament to the power of courage in our darkest hours—a moving, masterfully written story of love and sacrifice.
It is September 1940—a year into the war—and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan—loyal, intelligent, beautiful—but none more so than Duchess. Hatched from an egg that Susan incubated in a bowl under her grandfather’s desk lamp, Duchess shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world.
Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, a young crop-duster pilot named Ollie Evans has decided to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. His quest brings him to Epping and to the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert assignment. Codenamed Source Columba, the mission aims to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. Many will not survive. Those that do make the journey home to England can convey crucial information on German troop movements—and help reclaim the skies from the Luftwaffe.
The friendship between Ollie and Susan deepens as the mission date draws near. When Ollie’s plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know how remote the chances of reunion must be. Yet Duchess’s devotion and her singular sense of duty will become an unexpected lifeline, relaying messages between Susan and Ollie as war rages on—and proving, at last, that hope is never truly lost.

The Long Flight Home was an E-ARC and I have to be perfectly honest I don’t think it’s for me. I struggled to connect with the characters and the storyline. It all felt a little outlandish and didn’t quite hit home for me. I wish there had been more for me to enjoy and learn from the characters. I did enjoy learning about the pigeons and seeing Susan and her grandfather but I felt as though everything else was surface level. I didn’t connect enough to feel sad when the awful things were happening. I usually love historical fiction, especially WWII but this one missed the mark for me.

We follow Susan and her Grandad as they look after their pigeons and get them ready to be sent into war. I thought the emotion that was portrayed all the way through this process really brought to life. I wish that the other relationships had been given the same amount of love and attention because I felt as though the others were a little lacking and I struggled to connect and care for them!

The best bit of The Long Flight Home would have to be learning about the pigeons and how that was integrated into the war effort. I think I went into this story expecting more about that and really latched on to these parts of the story. I loved watching Susan looking after the different pigeons and the emotion she feels as they head off into the war-torn countries. It made me start to feel love for these birds and gave me a sense of what they were going through and how it might have felt to say goodbye to those animals. Plus the relationship between Susan and her Grandfather it was really lovely to watch them deal with how scary the war was.

The worst bits for me would definitely have to be the fact that everything seems to happen SO fast, it felt as though we were running at full speed. There didn’t seem to be a lot of time for us to get to know the characters and understand the motivations. I thought the way the characters acted and “fell in love” was superficial, I wasn’t sure how they were supposed to in love when they only knew the base level about each other. I really did struggle to connect with them and back them when it came to the hard points in the story. I also wished there had been more of a focus on the pigeons and their part in the story all the way through this book there wasn’t any closure. It ended with some sense of predictability and I feel as though half the characters were forgotten about!

I don’t know that I would recommend The Long Flight Home, I enjoyed the story and finding out more about the pigeons that were sacrificed throughout WWII but I’m not sure the pay off was there. Everything kind of felt as though it was all surface-level without much depth

Have you read any good historical fiction lately? What was your favourite? Let me know in the comments!