Della Dobbs wants to take to the air – quite literally. At the dawn of the age of flight, she is captivated by the possibility of becoming a pilot and with determination, perseverance, natural aptitude and sheer good luck she manages to become one of the first women aviators. Battling prejudice, opposition and a patronising attitude from men both within and outside the aviation world, she manages to find the few open-minded men who are able to help her achieve her goal. It’s a fascinating tale and one that draws the reader in right from the start. Not only is Della’s story a compelling one, but the novel is also a well-researched and insightful account of these early days of flight. Real-life characters are introduced into the narrative to good effect and they add to the book’s authenticity. I do feel that the romance element is overdone towards the end, and the novel descends into a bit of Mills and Boonism, but that apart I enjoyed the book very much, not least for its social history, and if some of the plot lines by the end stretched credulity somewhat, I was invested enough to go along with it.

I have always been a fan of Rebecca Mascull's books and I know that I am in for a good read with scenes where I get lost in the moment and The Wild Air, Rebecca's third novel, again transported me to Edwardian England where planes are taking the world by storm and there are, of course, mixed feelings about these new machines. The Great War is approaching and female pilots are increasing in number.
I really enjoy Rebecca's writing style and as I previously said, I was transported into Edwardian England and I found myself liking the characters within this book. I really liked the characters of Adeliza, Della and Dawnay and enjoyed their wit along with their flamboyant style of speech.
I think this book is a great tribute to the world's first female pilot and I am in real awe of the ladies who made this possible.

Thank you to the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

Good historical fiction and a reminder to follow your dreams 3.5/5 stars.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The characters are mostly likeable, although it did take me a while to warm to the protagonist, Della. The historical research behind this story is meticulous and the (often surprising) details regarding the early days of aviation, the First World War and other small period touches all serve to give a vivid sense of the era and the male-dominated field Della chooses to navigate.

I preferred the first half of the book. It was great discovering Della’s love of flight with her, realising she has a true calling, and then following her as she overcame all obstacles and ignored appalling male scorn and sabotage to achieve her dreams. I also liked her Great Aunt Betty, who brought warmth and humour to every scene she was in.

I found the second half more hard going, which surprised me as I like a good romance. This is the only reason I haven’t given the book 4 stars. I wish I could be more specific as to why this section didn’t move me as much as the first, particularly as there was lots going on!

Overall: I would recommend The Wild Air to all fans of historical fiction and particularly to anyone who – like me – has everything to learn about the brave, pioneering women involved in the early days of aviation.

What an adventure you go on with Della in this book. If you are a lover of historical fiction this book is right up your alley. This book is set in more of the recent past which makes how far we have become from then until now so incredible it blows your mind completly

All Characters I connected to in some way but I did love being taken on this escapade along with Della.
This book is so well researched and I found the part at the end which Rebecca explains how she researched the book so fascinating. One day I would love to visit the Shuttleworth Collection. I also loved the fact the novel also features several real like female pilots. What amazing women!

This is my second Mascull novel I will certainly be looking out for more

Della Dobbs is the dull and plain one in the family, her oldest sister has successfully married and the middle sister is an actress, her younger brother is the apple of her father’s eye. She isn’t pretty or talented and the only thing she really enjoys is racing and fixing her bicycle. Then her Great Auntie Betty comes home to Cleethorpe’s from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina full of tales of the Wright Brothers and their incredible flying machines. Della is fascinated and develops a burning ambition to fly. Betty is determined to help her.

Can she overcome the Edwardian attitudes to women and learn to fly? And if she does will she be any good at it?

I really wanted to love this book. Full disclosure I’m working on a similar book and so I have a genuine passion for the amazing women that just did not take no for an answer. And let’s be clear, aeroplanes were little more than balsa wood, canvas and wire so anybody flying them was incredible.

But I couldn’t love it, I wanted to connect with the characters but the writing, though not terrible, was not good enough. The characterisations were ok but not absorbing, the plot and storyline were ok, the research was well done and the descriptions of flight were good. But in the end there were too many information dumps and I almost gave up on it because of that.

3 Bites

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews

If you love historical fiction then this is a book for you. This is a book about women ahead on their time and what adventure means to different people in the world of aviation. Follow your dreams people else you will always regret it.

I loved the details and the background to this book. I loved the fact that there were so many historical figures mentioned. It made this book all the more special. And when you finish the book there is a little section where Rebecca goes into more detail about all the historical figures and events mentioned here.

I loved the determination and passion Della has for aviation. She refuses to bow down to convention and the opinion of the time - that women and aviation does not mix. She proves them all wrong by her attitude, her ability and her daring. I really liked her romance with Dud, I felt that it was true and because we got to see Della grow, I felt that the romance between Dud and Della was natural and obvious. I also love Auntie Betty - another woman born before her time - she is a fiery creature and it is her determination that rubs off on Della.

When the story moved the war years, it was a haunting and emotional read. Especially when you read the letters. Each provides a harrowing account and makes no illusions about the war. At times it made it difficult to read and a hard book to keep pushing forward. But throughout I felt that Della offered her strength not only to the reader but also to the letter writer.

This historical tale of romance and daring follows Della from a teenager to a grown woman. And along the way we witness her first loves, her accomplishments and her experiences. This leads to an inspiring read.

This is a thrilling read, that effortlessly blends fact with story telling. The thrill begins right from Della's first flight until the very end of the book. This is a brilliant book that manages to entertain and inform. So much so that it becomes unputdownable and a enthralling read.

The Wild Air is a wonderful novel, it drew me in from the prologue and had me captivated right through to the final page. This is the story of Cordelia (Della) Dobbs who knows that her place in life is to help her mother until such a time that she marries and has children of her own to raise. Della loves cycling and mending her bike and is fascinated by how things work. So when her Great-Auntie Betty arrives from America and introduces Della to kite flying and later aeroplanes it seems her life might be about to change beyond all recognition.

This book is so much about female ambition and determination and I loved that: from feisty, no-nonsense Great-Auntie Betty to her niece Della whose quiet desire to fly planes slowly becomes a real possibility. I so enjoyed seeing Della’s confidence slowly grow – it was lovely to see her find her voice, to begin to tentatively step forward and ask for what she wanted, to stand her ground. Even Della’s mum quietly admits to a long ago desire to achieve in a man’s world but it was something that she just couldn’t push ahead with. It means she has a real understanding of her daughter’s desire to achieve her dream though and she’s always very supportive of Della.

I’ve always been interested in the history around women pilots – I grew up near Hull so was always fascinated by Amy Johnson. Della felt like a real person to me, I absolutely believed in her – her sheer joy of flying planes just shines throughout this book and I was rooting for her all the way. It’s hard to imagine just how difficult it must have been for women in the Edwardian era to find a way into such a male-dominated arena. Della is referred to by one newspaper man as ‘little Della Dobbs’, which is so demeaning for an adult woman who is accomplishing so much in her field. It was also totally believable but still really quite shocking that some of the women who came to see Della were less than impressed with her achievements and were more interested in ‘the arrangements for [her] undercarriage’ – i.e. whether she still wore a corset! I really enjoyed reading about this obviously very well-researched time in history and about the women who paved the way for women pilots like Amy Johnson.

I have to mention one of the male characters in this book too. I loved Dud, he is such a great man and I loved his gentle nature and his enthusiasm for Della’s ambition to be a pilot. He believed in her from the day he saw her flying a kite and he never waivered in his belief in her. It was hard to read about what happened to him during the war, but again this was so beautifully and sensitively written – it really moved me.

The writing in this book is so beautiful and very evocative. My heart was in my mouth as Della gets her first taste of flying – I swear I could hear the propellers and could taste the engine oil. I was holding my breath as I willed her to get it right, to show the men on the ground exactly what she was made of. The moment she feels the wind in her hair for the first time, I could have been up there with her. The sheer magical joy just emanates from the page, it’s fabulous!

Rebecca Mascull really evokes what it was like to live in an era where flying was new and scary and exciting. This novel brought to life the way it must have felt to people to see these flying machines for the first time, and then for people to see female pilots in a time when women were expected to marry and raise a family, and not to have ambitions to have a career in any way equal to a man. The Wild Air is a beautiful, captivating novel and I highly recommend it.

I received a copy of this book from Hodder via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Wild Air is due to be published on 4th May by Hodder & Stoughton and can be pre-ordered now.

This wonderful story of a young woman with a passion for aviation is the first book I’ve read by Rebecca Mascull, but I enjoyed it so much I will certainly be going back to read her previous two novels. Set in the Lincolnshire town of Cleethorpes in the first two decades of the 20th century, The Wild Air is both fascinating and inspirational, with a heroine I loved and connected with immediately.

Her name is Cordelia Dobbs – Della for short – and her interest in flying begins at the age of fourteen when her Great Aunt Betty comes home from America, where she has lived for the last twenty years. Della is a quiet girl who often feels overshadowed by her more attractive and talented siblings, but things begin to change with Betty’s arrival. As the sister of a railway engineer, during her time in North Carolina Betty has been paying special attention to all the latest developments in engineering and flight and has even had the opportunity to see the planes produced by the famous Wright brothers.

Seeing that she has a kindred spirit in Della, Betty takes the girl under her wing (pun intended) and together they take part in kite-flying sessions on the beach while making plans to design their own flying machine one day. Despite the disapproval of her father, Della is determined to turn her hobby into a career and become an aviatrix – a female pilot. It isn’t easy – on approaching a flying instructor to ask for lessons, Della is told that ‘the air is not the place for a woman’ – but now that her mind is made up, she will stop at nothing to achieve her ambition.

I don’t personally share the characters’ love of aviation, but their enthusiasm – and the author’s – shines through on every page. Even though the descriptions of Della’s flights and the technical details of planes and flying didn’t always interest me, I could tell that they fascinated Della and that was all that mattered. I could also appreciate how much research Rebecca Mascull must have carried out to be able to write so convincingly about the subject. She brings each scene to life so well: visiting the Blackburn School of Flying on the beach at Filey, an air show Della attends with Auntie Betty – and her first flight as a passenger with the Belgian aviatrix Hélène Dutrieu, going through the full range of emotions from fear to wonder during this amazing experience. I know I would never have been brave enough to do what Della did; bearing in mind how new aeroplanes were at that time, how unreliable they could be, and that accidents – often fatal – did happen, I’m sure I would have been terrified to go up alone in one. We owe so much to these early pioneers of aviation who were prepared to take risks and try something new.

I wondered at first whether Della was a real person, but I quickly discovered that she wasn’t. However, I didn’t mind at all that I was reading about a fictional aviator rather than a real one; it allowed the author to take the story in different directions and develop personal storylines and relationships for Della without worrying about sticking to biographical facts. I loved the relationship that forms between Della and Auntie Betty as this quiet, reserved girl finds someone with whom she shares a bond and something she can put her heart and soul into. One of the most interesting relationships, though, is the one Della has with her father, Pop, a former actor who has been left angry and bitter after an injury brought his theatrical career to an end. Della feels that Pop has never shown her any love or encouragement and as the story progressed I kept hoping that the two of them would find a way to understand and accept each other.

In the second half of the book, World War I dominates as several of Della’s loved ones go off to fight and Della herself searches for ways in which she can play a part. Towards the end of the war, things take a dramatic turn and, without going into details and spoiling the story, this was the only part of the novel that I thought stretched the imagination a bit too far…until I decided that actually it was consistent with Della’s personality and just the sort of thing she would try to do. If I haven’t already made it clear, I loved this book – and now I really must read The Visitors and Song of the Sea Maid sooner rather than later!

Thanks Hodder & Stoughton and netgalley for this ARC.

A new and exciting subject for a novel that will have you blown away.

Thanks Hodder & Stoughton and netgalley for this ARC.

A new and exciting subject for a novel that will have you blown away.

A cracking adventure story with an unusual heroine. In two parts, the first telling the story of shy Della who is inspired by an aunt to become an aviatrix, one of the first, and make her living as a pilot across Europe. The second part tells of how Della's career is interrupted by the First World War, and how her husband has to fight, and then fly, in the conflict. Well researched and full of action and adventure this was a fun read, with a cast of charcters well worth getting involved with. I enjoyed this very much, and will post a review online as part of the promo blog tour whent eh book comes out on publication.