Book Club: The Last Flight

Book of the Month does it again! The Last Flight by Julie Clark was an intriguing read from the first page to the last. Which was exemplified in the fact that it took me only a few sittings to finish this book.

Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.

Two women whose lives couldn’t be more different, but they both find themselves anxious to escape them. You have Claire, whose life seems completely perfect from the outside, but in reality, she’s married to a monster. A monster who is from a family of power in the political realm. Who also has complete control over Claire’s life, well-being, and future. Or so he thinks. When her initial plan to escape her marriage and leave her current life behind is foiled, Claire is left reeling over what she should do next.

And then you have Eva. Eva has lived a life that hasn’t given her much of a choice to make good decisions. Which is why she time and time seems to make all of the wrong ones. A woman who always was dealt a poor hand in life, with no one around to give her a break. Until a chance meeting in an airport with Claire, and they decide to trade plane tickets. They believe the trade will give them each the fresh start that they desire (and deserve), until one of the planes goes down.

The Last Flight was a quick read for me since it did such an amazing job ensuring the reader is completely invested in the lives and outcomes of these two women. Despite how crazy it must sound to trade your plane ticket with a complete stranger at the airport, let alone feel like you can get away with it, desperate times call for desperate measures. And these two women were the textbook definition of desperate. Both escaping situations they can’t control and the people who hold their futures in their hands. Though their motivations couldn’t be more different, if all would have gone to plan, their end goal was the same.

Julie Clark did a fantastic job sharing these two women’s stories simultaneously, though on a different timeline. You got to know about each of their childhoods, their motivations, their fears, and their utmost desires. She kept me intrigued and questioning the ending right up until the very last pages. Which, in my book, is the sign of a great writer. I didn’t see it coming, but once I got to the end, I saw no other way for it to go. The Last Flight was well-written, well-paced, and well-executed throughout.