Taking Flight by Siera Maley

Taking Flight by Siera Maley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars




There are some authors who I, once I actually find them, gobble everything by them up as quickly as possible (or, at least, whatever I can get my hands on). Then there are authors who have written books I’ve liked and who, for reasons that aren’t really clear to me, I take a lot of time getting around to reading other stuff by them. Sierra Maley falls into the second category – I’ve now read all but one of their six books, but it took me three years to read these five books.

Part of my slowness in reading these books is the nature of the books – all but one are contemporary romance young adult books, and that other one also involved youngish adults, though it was one of those high fantasy books. I’ve read a ton of young adult books – more than the 78 on my shelves (view spoiler)[(I have a tendency to go back and move my reading records and reviews, if any, to omnibus editions, as in, I’ve read a ton of Rick Riordan young adult books, but he doesn’t show up high on my authors read list because I moved my record of reading from individual books to omnibus editions). (hide spoiler)] Still, I seem to always be kind of reluctant to dive into young adult books, especially if they are romances. This is everything this author, Sierra Maley I mean, writes.

But enough of that.

Three months before the start of this book, Lauren Lennox’s mother died in a car accident. She, the mother, was somewhere around 42. Lauren, at the time, was 17. Before that tragic death, Lauren had two parents, but not the normal type of life experience that one would get from having two parents. Pops (not sure if his name was ever given) is an alcoholic and basically disappeared into the bottle long long ago – other than someone to stumble across as he is passed out drunk, Lauren doesn’t really have a relationship with her father. Her mother, on the other hand, disappeared from her life for another reason – she was an A-list movie actress and was constantly working. So Lauren has spent basically the last 10 years of her life with limited (any?) rules, and low level parenting and support (the mother became an A list star 10 years ago, though she’d been a child actress at some point, so she was always working, just not at the same level).

For the last three months, since her mother’s death, Lauren has basically spent her time in her bed. This is how she ended up in court for failure to attend school. This is not her first time getting into trouble for attendance. The Judge set her up with a program in a small town in Georgia. A quite religious town, with a Baptist family. Lauren, by the way, has been openly lesbian since she was . . . what, 14? Something like 14.

The early part of the book shows Lauren with her one good friend, Caitlyn, dealing with the issue of being shipped off (shortly, like in three days) to Georgia. Her plan, which she sets up with her friend before leaving, is to be a disagreeable sort with her program family, and once she turned 18, the friend would pick her up and they’d drive off, freeing her early. Money? Her trust fund has millions in it. Not that she can touch any at the moment.

The second part of the book (and no the book is not cut evenly in half) involve Lauren interacting with the small Georgian town, the Baptist family she lives with, and the small high school she attends.

There’s a lot about the description of Lauren, who and what she presents herself as, which would likely be annoying for me to read. But there’s more to her than this description, and she’s actually pretty fun to follow along.

There are many things I liked about this book, beyond Lauren: there’s quite good characterization, a good story-line, great side-characters, etc. etc. I like how this book mentions a young adult who is attending high school . . . and actually shows stuff in the school.

After that was lunch, only the lunch periods were beyond confusing, and I wound up sitting alone at a table for two lunch periods instead of one. Then it turned out neither of those lunch periods were the one I was supposed to have attended

Many seem to like to just skip that part. I liked how there is/was a romance in the book and it wasn’t a ‘love at first sight’ type of thing, nor was it without complications (I’m trying to figure out how to mention some of this without spoilers - (view spoiler)[like, I liked how Lauren attempted to date the only openly lesbian person in the school, Maddie, and kind of fucked it up

“Should’ve known. How on earth can you talk shit about guys like Trevor, being the way you are? How is what you’re doing here any better than what he’s done? You let me think you wanted to get to know me; that you actually liked me. Here I was, actually catching feelings for a girl I was spending time with, and meanwhile you just wanted to sleep with me."

; and . . . .well, other stuff (hide spoiler)].

The characters felt real. The story felt real. Quite good book.

I was literally huddled under a tree in the middle of nowhere during an increasingly heavy downpour, soaking wet, in order to watch a recently-pseudo-dumped blonde girl dance around and drink rain. Caitlyn would die of laughter if she could see me now.

Watching Cammie interact with Nate and Fiona was like watching a baby bird take a nosedive out of its nest.

- Lauren, being Lauren, had looked for some non-threatening looking people to sit with at lunch, so became friends with Nate and Fiona. They were initially quite confused, though, as to why Lauren would want to sit with them. Lauren, I've never mentioned, is white. Nat and Fiona are black. Lauren hadn't thought it would be strange to sit with them, but . . . while the small town wasn't necessarily racist, it was still a small town in Georgia, one that was about 99.9% white. Cammie, here in the quote, is Cameron Marshall, the young woman who Lauren lives with in the Marshall home. Cammie isn't specifically racist but never thought of sitting with Nate & Fiona. Until that particular part of the book.

“Don’t make fun of my boobs,” I hissed. She just giggled and pulled me down for another kiss.

Rating: 4.88

June 17 2018



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