Title: Full Flight
Author: Ashley Schumacher
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication date: February 22nd, 2022
320 pages
5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
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.
A heartbreaking novel about finding your first love and what happens when it’s over too soon. Ashley Schumacher’s Full Flight is about how first love shapes us—even after it’s gone.
Review
Ashley Schumacher writes book that break your soul and it is a requirement to have a box of tissues next to you while you read. And I love every minute of it and will continue to read all of her books no matter what. Told in dual POV, Full Flight follows Weston and Anna, two high school band kids in rural Texas just trying to survive small town life. Paired together on a duet for bad, they spark a romance so beautiful it hurts. It helps that Ashley’s writing is the most enchanting and ethereal I’ve ever come across.
Firstly, dual POV’s are my favorites. Reading both character’s thoughts and reactions just adds another level and depth to the storyline in my opinion. I adored the small town setting, even though it was clearly a judgmental town with nosy busybodies – but that the two main characters were unique stars in a town of sameness. Weston was by far my favorite though. That boy deserves 100 hugs because he truly believed he wasn’t worth anything because he was different and his parent’s got a divorce. Like this boy was bullied and ridiculed because he wore a leather jacket. My guy needed Anna and her acceptance.
I made the mistake of not reading the synopsis before jumping into this book (it’s Ashley Schumacher, it doesn’t matter what it’s about I know I will love it). The heartbreaking moment, which isn’t a spoiler because it is in fact in the synopsis, smacked me across the face at 2am and made my face rain. I wish I was joking. I liked that the story continued past the event to show the grief process and growth that comes from an experience like this.
Read this book, read Amelia Unabridged, read Ashley’s grocery lists. You won’t be disappointed.
Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 