The Flight of Gemma Hardy

I bought this from a used bookstore months ago and am just now getting around to reading it. I'm sure I read the description before I bought it but didn't read the inside cover before I picked it up to read it the other night. I'll start out with my loves...

I love the setting. I love Scotland and I love the history so I was especially pleased that the author described so much of the Scottish landscape and delved into the histories of the areas. When I read a good book I see it in my mind as if I'm watching a movie and I had no trouble picturing Gemma's surroundings. It wasn't just the landscape and the history either...I really enjoyed the local folk stories that were woven throughout the book.

I love it that Gemma didn't need to be constantly rescued. Sometimes she got herself into situations that I wanted to slap her silly over, now that I'm no longer a teenager and prone to hormone-induced dramatics, but she wasn't always being rescued by a man. She did depend on the kindness of strangers, but as a young person that's to be expected and isn't the same as waiting for a knight in shining armor.

Now for the things I didn't especially love...

As I mentioned, I didn't read the dust jacket prior to beginning to read it. It didn't take me long to see the similarities between Gemma and Jane Eyre, which I enjoyed at first but got old as the story went on. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite novels and I couldn't bring myself to love Gemma the way I love Jane. I just didn't connect with Gemma as a character in the same way that I connected with the setting of the story or with Jane Eyre as a whole.

Something about the end of the book just felt...incomplete...to me. I actually reread the last few pages several times trying to wrap up the story in my mind and I just couldn't.

Overall it was a decent book. I don't know that it's one that I'd read again and I'm not sure that I won't sell it back to the used bookstore to make room on my bookshelf for something else, but it was an enjoyable read.