FictionZeal

What would it take to make your dreams happen?  When Miriam Lichtenstein (Miri) was a young girl in the early 1940’s, it meant becoming a ‘fly girl’.  Now many years later, Miri, known as Mary Browning, spots an announcement in the paper that Congress was preparing to award women who’d served as Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during WWII.  Along with that article was a picture that Mary was familiar with … one that caused all the memories she’d buried to come flying back.  It was Murphee Sullivan, Grace Davinport, and Miri dressed in their flight suits standing alongside their plane, a Fairchild PT-19.

There’s a new girl that joins Mary’s writers group.  That, too, takes her back to the past because fifteen-year-old Elyse reminds Mary of her sister, Sarah, who she’d not seen since 1945.  Soon she begins to bargain with Elyse to write her memoir … tell her story of how she became a fly girl and how she served as a WASP.  What she didn’t expect was the close relationship that would build between her and Elyse.

Even though I really liked the character of Elyse, I felt her background overpowered the plot of Mary Browning and her past and her growing readiness to share that narrative in a memoir.  The story’s chapters alternated between Mary Browning, both now and when she was a young girl during WWII, and Elyse.  Mary’s personality was fun.  I loved her spunky and energetic spirit; I loved finding out the secrets she’d kept hidden for so many years; and I loved the connection which helped both her and Elyse to move forward.  Rating: 4 out of 5.