Review of Nothing But Sky by Amy Trueblood
Genres: Historical, Romance
Pages: 284
Publisher: Flux Books
Release Date: 27/03/2018
Grace Lafferty only feels alive when she's dangling 500 feet above ground. As a post-World War I wing walker, Grace is determined to get to the World Aviation Expo, proving her team’s worth against flashier competitors and earning a coveted Hollywood contract.
No one’s ever questioned Grace’s ambition until Henry Patton, a mechanic with plenty of scars from the battlefield, joins her barnstorming team. With each new death-defying trick, Henry pushes Grace to consider her reasons for being a daredevil. Annoyed with Henry’s constant interference, and her growing attraction to him, Grace continues to test the powers of the sky.
After one of her risky maneuvers saves a pilot’s life, a Hollywood studio offers Grace a chance to perform at the Expo. She jumps at the opportunity to secure her future. But when a stunt goes wrong, Grace must decide whether Henry, and her life, are worth risking for one final trick.
The one thing I really, really hated about this book was that I really want to love it instead. It's a story about an 18 year old stunt performer in the 1920's who walks on planes for a living, this should be one of my favourites of 2018. Unfortunately it was bogged down by bad writing and a subpar romance plot that I just didn't care about.
I feel like romance in YA has changed and readers want the romance to be less forced and obvious. I also hate overflowery words and crap like "his lips drew me in with the force of a thousand suns" (it didn't actually say those exact words but you get the gist). It was obvious the moment that Henry stepped in that Grace would fall in love with him and I was pretty bored by the whole fake angst thing going on.
The relationships between Grace and her makeshift family really worked though. We learn that she was sent to her Uncle at 13 after her own parents died and now at 18, she has her Uncle and war veterans Daniel and Nathan as her family. They make a great team and I wish we could have had a little more of that relationship.
The story does suffer from bad writing unfortunately, sentences seem to be repeated within the same chapter and Grace often thinks the same things over and over, making the story feel repetative. It felt like each chapter played out like an episode of a soap opera to be honest. I also did not like the portrayal of PTSD and I think readers would be insulted to find that Henry basically overcame his PTSD episode at one point because he wanted to protect Grace or some rubbish.
The historical side is clearly intensely researched and I really appreciated that. You get plenty of 1920's slang and terms I've never heard of which really did make me feel like I was in that time period. The descriptions of Grace's stunts were vivid too and easily the best parts of the whole book, and often gut wrenching at times.
I had this on my TBR list but I don't think I'll pick it up now. I too hate overly wordy romance plots especially when they're subpar at best.
ReplyDeleteHonest reviews like this are the ones I blog for! Lol.