A quiet but excellent novel about a family dealing with the loss of their mother. I especially liked the focus on the in-laws and the way they still struggle to fit into the family, despite being married for years with young kids. A dramatic event with a friend of a family adds some tension, giving the family an outlet to resolve their differences and wrap up the book nicely. Beautifully written with a lot of interesting interiority!

It’s Christmas, and brothers Martin and Henry and sister Kate, gather together with their families at Henry’s home to celebrate. Their mother Helen has recently died, and this will be their first Christmas without her. Helen’s loss is felt, but there’s little talk about her, and more about how to handle her house now that she’s gone.

Henry’s wife Alice is a social worker. Through the holiday, she’s keeping an eye on one of her clients, Quinn and her young daughter Maddie. Alice can’t have children, and she’s become rather fervent about Maddie and her welfare. Quinn herself is very young, 23, and she’s trying really hard to be a good mother to her precocious daughter while holding down a job. With no support system to back her up, and despite how much she loves Maddie, it can be a struggle.

Alice is an artist who’s put her art aside while her husband continues creating. He’s fixated on the environment, and his work reflects that. While he is involved with his family, all he really wants to do is be out in his studio working.

The rest of the family members each have their own compelling stories. While they came together to celebrate the holiday and to remember Helen, they all want to be off pursuing their own agendas. Will the togetherness change their thinking, make them realize how important time with family truly is?

Families are dynamic; they change, they separate, they come back together. Children, families, have problems you need to work through. Families have likes and dislikes, friendships, enemies, obsessions, but you put up with those things for the greater good of the family. I think that’s what this book is truly about, learning to be a family when the central, guiding figure is gone. They have to work through all the things that Helen dealt with when she was alive.

This book touches on some sensitive subjects: parental loss, miscarriages, jealousy, envy, missing children, children with ADHD, status differences, and what kind of work is important and what kind isn’t.

I enjoyed this book. It’s not one I’d likely have chosen to read if it hadn’t been offered to me by the publisher, but I’m glad I read it. I believe I’ll be thinking about these characters for quite a while. My few complaints about this book is that while it takes place in the United States, with US born and raised characters, it has a very British tone, especially in its phrasing and spelling. I also found the long soliloquies to be off-putting. They didn’t help me understand the characters better because I zoned out reading them. Neither complaint is a big thing.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

I wanted to love this one, it sounded right up my alley. But I was so bored by the halfway point that I just had to put it down. Maybe it was right book, wrong time, and I'll come back to it one day, but it wasn't working for me. It has blurbs from authors I love (Lily King, Rumaan Alam) so if you're interested in it, give it a bit and put it down if you aren't liking it because from what I've heard it stays the same throughout.

Flight is a fabulous family saga mixed with ecofiction. It's the first Christmas after their mom died, and her three children gather together, with their spouses and children to celebrate together. They're all navigating their grief, as well as the stresses of their lives. I loved the time I spent with this family. I didn't love this novel quite as much as Want, but I would recommend it to all who like family sagas, ecofiction, and fiction that explores privilege and class

Perfect holiday season read. Gives off a lot of The Family Stone vibes. A short but powerful book about family and the drama that ensues when you loose the matriarch. Siblings are complicated and throw spouses/kids/not being able to have kids in the mix and you can find yourself having hard and uncomfortable conversations.

This book is told form multiple POVs which makes the beginning a challenge but you understand their unique voices after a few chapters. Its also suspenseful which makes for a fast paced read. I found it so relatable and emotional!

As the book opens, siblings Henry, Martin and Kate and their spouses (Alice, Tess and Colin) and young children are gathered in NY state for their first Christmas after the death of their mother, Helen. They're still mourning Helen and trying to make sense of the holiday with the old family traditions, but without the force who drove the traditions. And, yes, they need to make a decision about what to do with their family home in Florida.
That alone would make for a stressful and challenging weekend, but there are further complications. Anybody who has adult siblings with children should be able to relate to the conflict (often unspoken except to partners) about differences in parenting styles. And then there are the relationships between siblings - from when they were children to the present day. Thrown into the mix of the sibling conflicts and looming decision is the story of Alice's client, Quinn, and her daughter, Maddie.
I especially liked how the author captured the element of family dynamics with grown children and a living parent. "What no one talks about but everybody knows - in the ways that families know things, in this case because of Helen (who would have never known if not for Henry, who called and told her), who called and told the rest of them...."
Overall, an interesting read. I liked the siblings and found their stories and conflicts realistic and interesting. Quinn and Maddie's storyline added a little depth/distraction, and provided an important perspective, but wrapped up a little too easily for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mariner Books for the opportunity to read Flight in exchange for an honest review.

Flight depicts a family in transition. It could be just about any family across the country. Three siblings have to decide what to do with their mother’s house. They spend one last holiday, along with their spouses and children.
The dynamics’s among the family are good and believable. The author picks up on the cadences and rhythm that can apply to most families.
It’s also about acceptance and perhaps seeing each other with new eyes and accepting changes and people do evolve.
I thought it was well written and I could identify with several Characters like Kate and Tessa.

I love family dramas and this book brings plenty. Reading this at Christmastime is absolutely perfect as this story unfolds around the first Christmas since losing their matriarch. I remember so clearly my first Christmas without my mom, the uncertainty about traditions and roles, I could completely relate to the siblings in this story. I loved how their past dramas unfolded while the current storyline was also drama filled. Great book that I will definitely recommend.

Flight introduces 4 couples, the family members and spouses of the matriarch, Helen, who has recently passed away. They are having their annual get together to decide the future of her estate in Florida. You meet each couple individually and their struggles, and then the story puts them all together, as their collective struggles begin working themselves out.

I read this one for #bookfriendsbookclub. This book is big on family drama, if that is something you enjoy reading.

I tried, I really tried.
Unfortunately, this book had so many characters in the beginning that I was constantly lost. I put the book down, thinking maybe my concentration was just off due to the holidays. I picked it back up, same problem. I then tried the audio book and even wrote notes about who was who...but, I couldn't keep the siblings, their spouses, their children and who lived where straight.
I decided to DNF.
I may try again in a few months.

This book takes place around the Christmas Holidays (so it was fun to read right now as this season is currently upon us!) as 3 siblings and their children and spouses gather for their first Christmas without their mother/grandmother, who passed away 6 months prior. The siblings are all mourning their mother in their own ways and struggling to see how they will keep alive the traditions that she started, and how do they continue to connect with each other in the future when their personalities and goals are so wildly different from each other? The larger issues of climate/environmental change, sexism, infertility, jealousy, wealth, inheritance and midlife crisis (are we doing what is meaningful in our personal lives and is it too late to change?) also play a large role in this book, as there really isn't much of. plot, but more of a snapshot into these lives as they struggle with these issues. A few of their issues are hinted at being resolved, but unfortunately more is left hanging up in the air as the book comes to a close. There was a subplot of a lost girl, but honestly it really didn't add to the story and rather detracted from it and would have been more cohesive had it just focused on the family, as it more time could have been spent on building the characters and their back-stories/relationships and more time on resolution would also have helped to resolve where the family was going into the future.

I adored this novel about three siblings and their spouses coming together at Christmas time. They have lost the matriarch of the family and must make tough decisions
Wonderful developed characters and a masterful plot. Not to be missed.

Family drama set around the holidays, what could go wrong? I was so excited to read this book!

While I loved the premise of the story, there were just too many people to keep track of siblings, spouses and all their children. I was confused several times. The book overall was short and there wasn’t much time for character development. I wanted to get to know the family and feel invested in what was happening to them.

The book wasn’t bad it just felt incomplete. It needed to either be longer, have less characters or be book 2 in a series were the reader had already been introduced to the family.

I look forward to reading another book by the author as I liked the writing style and storyline.

I wanted more from this story. I’m not a fan of the chapters laying out all the characters. I would rather let them evolve through the story. The ending just left me flat. I didn’t want more,. I was just glad to be finished with the book.

This was a bit difficult to get into with all of the family members and the lack of backstory and distinction. The matriarch of the family has died and this is the first Christmas without her. The tensions are well written and the side story of a single mother and her daughter under the eye of social services provides additional conflict, internal and external. A good story with a bumpy start.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

3.5 stars.
Flight is a short novel about a dysfunctional family over their first Christmas after the matriarch of the family has died. The look at each families daily lives and strife was very familiar. This quote in particular stood out as a New Yorker myself:

“We paid 1.2 million dollars for this damned apartment Tess said we had to own, to have an asset. Colin’s therapist doesn’t take insurance. Summer camp is twelve hundred dollars a week. There does not seem to be an end to the amount of money that we need each year.”

I found some of the stories interwoven more compelling than others. The young mother post addiction, the couple in a marriage on the edge, the siblings fighting over what to do with a family house.

But some of the book I felt didn’t quite hold my attention and maybe it’s because there were so many characters and family switches. That said, I really loved this authors previous book Want, and would absolutely check out what she does next.

Started as a slow burn, but by the end, it was such a page-turning thrill of a read! Strong really excels at writing complex, real characters - I wish she'd been given another 150 pages to bring us even further into these characters' worlds.

I loved this tight family drama filled with characters with complex motivations. I recommended it on my podcast Novel Pairings for a perfect holiday read that isn't too syrupy sweet, but will still leave you feeling hopeful.

I liked the first half of this book a lot! It is a complicated family drama with a charming end to the story.

I almost DNF'd this, but it was short enough for me to finish. There was absolutely not plot or character development. The writing was everywhere. There were waaaaaay too many characters to keep track of.