The Last Flight by Julie Clark

This book surprised me. I almost stopped reading it when Eva pretended to have a heated, emotional phone call within earshot of Claire to set into motion what she hoped would be an agreement to change flights and identities. I couldn’t imagine how the author thought that the coincidence of two women, (who are strangers to one another) both planning to escape their lives, ending up within a few feet of one another in a security check line at an airport was okay, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and read on. Surely her editors saw this mistake, I thought! Lol. I kept getting distracted thinking that if Claire just hadn’t FedExed the package with all of her new identity information and money to the hotel in Detroit, she wouldn’t have been found out by Rory and could regroup and make a new plan. Why would you risk sending that crucial piece of your escape plan through other hands and have it land at a hotel where you’re supposed to arrive on a specific day? What if you got deathly ill and couldn’t make it there? Silly plan when the stakes are so high. But that’s just me, thinking clearly, from the comfort of my couch and not running from an abusive relationship like Claire. Well, I did run from an abusive relationship, but not while reading this book.

When Claire and Eva are exchanging clothes and purses and phones in the airport bathroom, I had a good, but uncomfortable feeling about what that would be like, just handing over your stuff, putting on someone else’s jacket or sweater that smells like a stranger and what of the purse essentials? Lip balm? Migraine medicine? Tiny safety pin that saves you when your wardrobe malfunctions? Can I fly for longer than an hour without these things? I love these moments in books that tug at me emotionally. How would I feel? How would I handle this situation? I hate that I need specific man-made things to be life compatible (like allergy meds) and I like to imagine a world where I could just get up and go without any of it. I could hand it all over to a stranger in an airport and be fine, like Claire and Eva.

I really like how the author moved us forward in Claire’s life, while moving us backward in Eva’s life, to catch us up on Eva’s story until the time of the flight to Puerto Rico. Claire’s relationship with Kelly and Eva’s relationship with Liz did seem a little too deep, too fast and too convenient, but at that point, I was committed to seeing where their lives were going, so I rolled with it. Also, I think the author was trying to show, in a speeded-up version, how one person’s kindness can help to change your life. When we reach for people, even in small ways, we can be doing them a world of good, without knowing the full impact of our overtures.

When Eva visits her grandparents, I thought of an old film I like called “Our Very Own,” in which a beautiful young woman who was adopted as a baby visits her birth mother and is devastated by who her mother is and how she lives. I deeply felt Eva’s disappointment when she faces the awful reality of who her grandparents are versus how she had imagined them for years and years.  So often we do this in life. We imagine things very differently from what they are and we live with that image and let it shape us even, and never discover the truth of it if we can’t or don’t get an opportunity to learn that truth.

This story was so pro-women. Every man in the book was a bad guy. Rory, Bruce, Dex, and even Castro, who seemed like he would be a decent man, maybe, if he wasn’t so committed to his job. Rory abused, Bruce aided and abetted, Dex manipulated and exploited and Castro stalked and threatened, albeit gently. I thought Danielle was the only woman complicit in this men versus women struggle, but then she steps up and supports in a way that helps to win the day for Claire.

The ending surprised me, which was very refreshing, but I can’t say I love what happened. It was clever, though, how the author fed us just enough information to make us think Eva had dodged the flight to Puerto Rico. I have to admit, I was rooting for her. I didn’t like that Liz wanted her to return to California and work with Castro to shut down the drug ring. Eva was right; Liz didn’t know the danger Eva would be in if she returned and aided Castro in Dex’s capture. Law and order do not prevail in the underworld and you can’t rely on it. Has Liz never seen the Godfather? Lol.

Overall, I liked this book. It’s not stellar, but the ending really saves it from being another heartwarming story where women prevail despite the odds. Take it along to the beach this summer and dive in.