Out of curiosity, I went back into the Dew's archives and counted how many Karen White books I have reviewed. Since Spring of 2009, I have reviewed ELEVEN of her books. Flight Patterns is #12.
Karen is a prolific writer, and unlike some frequent writers who I'm suspicious of how many of the words are from their actual hands, I fully believe Karen writes every single line, thereby leaving me wondering when she sleeps.
Her stories are never sloppy or quickly written, they are always in-depth and deeply character driven - no one is cardboard and there are no throwaway lines. Flight Patterns continues her winning streak of incredibly readable novels.
Georgia's family is a hot mess. Mama doesn't talk, the girls haven't spoken to each other in 10 years since one banned the other from their hometown, and Grandpa seems to be hiding a secret. Heck, they ALL seem to be hiding secrets from each other. But as we go back in time, first 10 years, then 70 years, we slowly discover who's hiding what and why. The true question here is what can be forgiven, what needs to be forgotten, and can any of these people find peace and love together again as a true family?
Throw in a handsome guy who "might" be imagined from the pages of Outlander :), and you have a story that sticks and doesn't let go. As I said when I first received my copy - I picked it up to look it over and the next thing I knew I had pushed aside the book I meant to read and was five chapters into Flight Patterns.
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Print Length: 416 pages
Publisher: NAL (May 24, 2016)
Publication Date: May 24, 2016
Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
The New York Times bestselling author of The Sound of Glass and coauthor of The Forgotten Room tells the story of a woman coming home to the family she left behind—and to the woman she always wanted to be...
Georgia Chambers has spent her life sifting through other people’s pasts while trying to forget her own. But then her work as an expert of fine china—especially of Limoges—requires her to return to the one place she swore she’d never revisit...
It’s been thirteen years since Georgia left her family home on the coast of Florida, and nothing much has changed, except that there are fewer oysters and more tourists. She finds solace seeing her grandfather still toiling away in the apiary where she spent much of her childhood, but encountering her estranged mother and sister leaves her rattled.
Seeing them after all this time makes Georgia realize that something has been missing—and unless she finds a way to heal these rifts, she will forever be living vicariously through other people’s remnants. To embrace her own life—mistakes and all—she will have to find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets she was forced to keep...