Thank you to Wednesday Books for sharing a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Everyone else in the tiny town of Enfield, Texas calls fall football season, but for the forty-three members of the Fighting Enfield Marching Band, it’s contest season. And for new saxophonist Anna James, it’s her first chance to prove herself as the great musician she’s trying hard to be. When she’s assigned a duet with mellophone player Weston Ryan, the boy her small-minded town thinks of as nothing but trouble, she’s equal parts thrilled and intimidated. But as he helps her with the duet, and she sees the smile he seems to save just for her, she can’t help but feel like she’s helping him with something too. After her strict parents find out she’s been secretly seeing him and keep them apart, together they learn what it truly means to fight for something they love. With the marching contest nearing, and the two falling hard for one another, the unthinkable happens, and Anna is left grappling for a way forward without Weston. Reader, when I tell you I cried: I CRIED. This is definitely my fault for not reading the synopsis before starting the novel, but I fell so hard for Wes and Anna's relationship that I just completely lost it when they were separated. I'm talking: I was a sobbing mess on my bed for a full hour, and then had to go and call some people that I loved out of genuine irrational concern. Like with her debut, Amelia Unabridged (which reading Full Flight has given me a craving to read), Schumacher really knows how to tug at your heartstrings with her characters. We've got Anna, who's sweet and sunny and trying to find her voice & figure out who she wants to be. I really loved her journey of finding her voice with her friends and family while also learning to protect her relationship and fight for what matters in her life. Wes is the misunderstood loner of the novel, and it's immediately clear that the town has just generally mischaracterized him, which is why he's so drawn to Anna when she's interested in him past the assumptions and superficialities. The main reason that I was so invested in Wes and Anna's relationship was that I had no idea what was coming to them. I think in retrospect this knowledge makes their love all the much sweeter--Schumacher captures this incredible portrait of love and grief twined together that I'll be thinking about for months on end. Her prose is gorgeous, and she narrows down the essence of a storyline and then builds it up from the core in such full layers that I could be analyzing for days. There is no way for me to convey the spirit of an Ashley Schumacher novel in one review. You're just going to have to go read Full Flight for yourself. The marching band/music connection was so adorable, and I loved the full immersion into that world. I was never in a band, so I couldn't personally relate to some aspects of the story, but I do understand having one of those extremely time-consuming hobbies that basically becomes your community (yes, I was a theatre kid). Schumacher's portrayal of Wes and Anna's existence in this world is so accurate--their ties to the band community and seeing this bring them closer together remind me a lot of relationships I've formed in the past. I gave Full Flight 5/5 stars. This book wrecked me, and I was so grateful for that. It became a call back to the reasons I love reading in a moment where I thought I'd lost the ability to connect to books. I highly recommend this novel--out February 22nd!
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The BaronessHey, I'm Shreya! I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click the above link and make a purchase.
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