MixedWashington Independent Review of BooksThe vibe is Nancy Drew + Top Gun ... Despite the display of various period details, readers unfamiliar with 1940s America will learn little more than that handwritten letters served as the primary means of long-distance communication, and social dancing was far more prevalent than it is today. They may also develop the impression that coincidence, or stalking, served as the indispensable driver of romantic pursuits ... That is about the extent of any focus on the events and attitudes of the time. In the world of this novel, never an angry word, much less an ethnic slur, is expressed against the Japanese by the nearly all-white cast. In a similar vein, the narrative is perfectly blind to racial segregation in the military or anywhere else ... As for the broader portrayal of gender relations: Even the disdain and sexual harassment the female pilots face, covered in a couple of brief sketches, serve mainly to underscore their gumption. The toll such adversity takes remains unexplored ... And, yet, the story flows along agreeably and with pace. It is welcoming and immersive, even for nitpickers who notice timeline glitches and misfired words ... As a standard-issue coming-of-age romance, The Flight Girls soars to its destination and delivers its payload directly onto the target. Mission accomplished for fans of the genre. But readers drawn by the title, the Eleanor Roosevelt epigraph, and the proclamation \'A novel inspired by real female pilots during World War II\' may expect a different type of story. Honest marketing would replace those warplanes on the cover with a strapping airman — his flight suit fully zipped, given that the steam setting is on low. Enjoy this tale for what it is. Isn’t that the essence of love?
