FLY AWAY by KRISTIN HANNAH: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED 
FLY AWAY
BY KRISTIN HANNAH

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Tully Hart has always been larger than life, a woman fueled by big dreams and driven by memories of a painful past. She thinks she can overcome anything until her best friend, Kate Ryan, dies. Tully tries to fulfill her deathbed promise to Kate---to be there for Kate’s children---but Tully knows nothing about family or motherhood or taking care of people.

Sixteen-year-old Marah Ryan is devastated by her mother’s death. Her father, Johnny, strives to hold the family together, but even with his best efforts, Marah becomes unreachable in her grief. Nothing and no one seems to matter to her . . . until she falls in love with a young man who makes her smile again and leads her into his dangerous, shadowy world.

Dorothy Hart---the woman who once called herself Cloud---is at the center of Tully’s tragic past. She repeatedly abandoned her daughter, Tully, as a child, but now she comes back, drawn to her daughter’s side at a time when Tully is most alone. At long last, Dorothy must face her darkest fear: Only by revealing the ugly secrets of her past can she hope to become the mother her daughter needs.

A single, tragic choice and a middle-of-the-night phone call will bring these women together and set them on a poignant, powerful journey of redemption. Each has lost her way, and they will need each one another---and maybe a miracle---to transform their lives.

An emotionally complex, heart-wrenching novel about love, motherhood, loss, and new beginnings, Fly Away reminds us that where there is life, there is hope, and where there is love, there is forgiveness. Told with her trademark powerful storytelling and illuminating prose, Kristin Hannah reveals why she is one of the most beloved writers of our day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kristin Hannah is the New York Times bestselling author of novels including Night Road, Firefly Lane, True Colors and Winter Garden. She was born in Southern California and moved to Western Washington when she was eight. A former lawyer, Hannah started writing when she was pregnant and on bed rest for five months. Writing soon became an obsession, and she has been at it ever since. She is the mother of one son and lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

To read more about Kristin Hannah's life, check out her "Bio" on her website HERE.

AN EXCERPT FROM FLY AWAY:

September 2, 2010
10:14 P.M.
 

She felt a little woozy. It was nice, like being wrapped in a warm-from-the-dryer blanket. But when she came to, and saw where she was, it wasn’t so nice.
 

She was sitting in a restroom stall, slumped over, with tears drying on her cheeks. How long had she been here? She got slowly to her feet and left the bathroom, pushing her way through the theater’s crowded lobby, ignoring the judgmental looks cast her way by the beautiful people drinking champagne beneath a glittering nineteenth century chandelier. The movie must be over.
 

Outside, she kicked her ridiculous patent leather pumps into the shadows. In her expensive black nylons, she walked in the spitting rain down the dirty Seattle sidewalk toward home. It was only ten blocks or so. She could make it, and she’d never find a cab this time of night anyway.
 

As she approached Virginia Street, a bright pink MARTINI BAR sign caught her attention. A few people were clustered together outside the front door, smoking and talking beneath a protective overhang.
 

Even as she vowed to pass by, she found herself turning, reaching for the door, going inside. She slipped into the dark, crowded interior and headed straight for the long mahogany bar.
 

“What can I get for you?” asked a thin, artsy-looking man with hair the color of a tangerine and more hardware on his face than Sears carried in the nuts-and-bolts aisle.
 

“Tequila straight shot,” she said.
 

She drank the first shot and ordered another. The loud music comforted her. She drank the straight shot and swayed to the beat. All around her people were talking and laughing. It felt a little like she was a part of all that activity.

To finish reading this excerpt from FLY AWAY, visit the Macmillan website HERE.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

What makes a person physically embrace a book when they finish reading it? Is it that one is so satisfied with the whole experience, or is it wishing it had never ended? Is it only me that does that kind of thing? Perhaps, although I think not because those who truly are lifelong readers and love the written word probably do that or something similar. All this so you can understand how much Kristin Hannah’s FLY AWAY meant to me. It has now taken up residence in my “Top 5” book list next to GONE WITH THE WIND, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, SHE’S COME UNDONE, and THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TOULANE.

As a long time fan of Kristin Hannah’s ever since I read FIREFLY LANE, I found that this sequel, FLY AWAY, did not disappoint. When you treasure a book and the characters that have stayed with you as long as Kate and Tully have, one is hesitant to read a sequel. However, not to worry! FLY AWAY not only continues Kate and Tully’s story but does it in such a beautifully written way! I first thought I perhaps should go back and reread FIREFLY LANE but in that I knew and loved the characters so much, it wasn’t necessary. This also bears well as it means that FLY AWAY stands solidly on its own. Of course, I would recommend you read both in order, but if not, never fear as Ms. Hannah has taken care of her characters very well.

Thanks to the author’s remarkable, creative technique and detailed commentary, FLY AWAY lets readers understand how Kate Ryan and Tully Hart became best friends as children and the part each played in the other’s life as they grew up. Using different characters’ points of view to tell the story allows readers to understand all the feelings involved while the characters are not afforded that luxury. As the story opens, Tully is at an all time low which we come to find out about as the narrative is peeled away one character layer at a time. This allows readers to understand the full picture of how each person fits into the puzzle that Kristin Hannah has created for them. As Kate is losing her battle against cancer, they all handle it in a different way. From her husband, Johnny, to her twin sons, from her teenage daughter Marah to of course Tully.

Tully is Marah’s Godmother so her care is entrusted to Tully which is a proposition that terrifies Tully. We see how far down Tully has gone and how her career is on the skids. When she somehow physically skids her car and winds up in the ICU at the hospital, her own life and death battle begins. I was very pleased that Tully’s mother, “Cloud”, tells her side of the story as it cleared up so much from the first book. All of Kristin Hannah’s characters are real and easy to identify with and many of us probably know people just like them. I believe it is this and the various points of view that allow readers to become so absorbed in the story and the characters. I hope that if you don’t have a copy of FLY AWAY in your hands right now, that you will take care of that quickly. I can not recommend a book any more than I do FLY AWAY by Kristin Hannah. Thank you, Kristin, and I hope all my followers enjoy FLY AWAY as much as I did! 

SOME OTHER BOOKS BY KRISTIN HANNAH- HAVE YOU READ THEM ALL LIKE I HAVE? CHECK HER WEBSITE HERE TO SEE ALL HER BOOKS:

                    

                    

                   

GIVEAWAY

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