Bookish Challenges discussion

The Last Flight by Julie Clark was voted as our book of the month for August 2024.

10 points will be awarded at the end of the month for everyone reading and discussing the book in August.

Happy reading!

Just started today and was engrossed in a reading binge this morning. I like the setup and the differing pov.

I have also started the book and agree with Maritza that its quite engrossing. Will revert with more thoughts later.

I finished the book and for me, it was an averagely good read. The story flows very fast but I was probably asking for something more from a thriller.

(view spoiler)[ I have no idea why I wanted few bigger twists than what it had. It was an average tale but I liked both the stories and the characters.

For a minute, I was hoping it would be a bigger conspiracy like Petra being involved or a twist that I did not see coming. I think the concept of the book covers the whole plot - that was my issue - like after you have set the premise, nothing else is that exciting. That was my issue.
(hide spoiler)]

I agree with Nistha about feeling it could have been so much more. The ending was kind of perplexing for me as we thought something else was going on.

I started as well but only 1 chapter in so far. Let's see if I agree with you.

I'm starting it also towards the end of the week, looking forward to see how it is

I'm in chapter 10 now and like it a lot.
Excited to see where it leads. I'm already spinning some wild theories.

I couldn't sleep last night and I started reading it. I'm almost one third in and it's quite interesting so far.

I enjoyed the dual storyline between Eva and Claire. I wasn't expecting to like Eva as much as I did and when she started to open up to Liz, I loved that.

The twists were very well done and I didn't see them coming.

(view spoiler)[I was scared for Claire when she was in the car going to the CNN studio, I was willing her to finally escape that animal she was married to. (hide spoiler)]

Finished 8/14/2024

A bit more than halfway through it, and I am not a fan of Eva. Other than her reminding me of a very popular TV series, I don't feel a lot of interest towards her line of the story. So far I like Claire better and I think her character shows more depth

I'm done too now and rated it 4 stars.

(view spoiler)[I definitely felt that Eva had a connection to someone in Claire's life and I was right. Claire's husband really was the worst and I'm glad she got to escape him and that he was exposed so publicly.
I think overall I would've liked a little more action, a litte more suspense. Other than that, I really liked the book. (hide spoiler)]

Melanie wrote: "I enjoyed the dual storyline between Eva and Claire. I wasn't expecting to like Eva as much as I did and when she started to open up to Liz, I loved that.

The twists were very well done and I didn..."

I agree with your spoiler (view spoiler)[I just think that it probably would've benefitted of a little more action in a scene like that. Maybe have her dramatically escape the car and run through the city to get to the CNN building, something like that. (hide spoiler)]

Fiona, (view spoiler)[I was willing her to jump out and escape.

It was too convenient that the driver had the tattoo (and it was emphasised so much) and so did the man the husband hired. I did think that was pointed out too much at this point but I'm sure that's what the author wanted us to notice. (hide spoiler)]

Totally agree!

I just finished it. To me it felt slow, boring at times and I struggled to pay attention towards the end to what was happening because not much was happening. Eva's story was just plain bad, while Claire's, even though slightly more interesting than Eva's, was full of useless details and lacking substance. 1 star, not a fan.

Interesting to see so many different viewpoints. I guess I agree with both school of thoughts that on one hand it was entertaining but definitely needs more action / story. To me, it was not a "bad" read as I have read so many horrible thrillers but the story did not really go much anywhere / gave a "what just happened" moment to me after the main plot elements were introduced.

For me it felt disappointing. The start was not bad, and it had so much potential. But somewhere after that it feels like the author lost interest and missed so many opportunities to make it interesting - the side story with Liz, Petra's phone number, Rory's Google doc, Eva's boarding the airplane story.

I can definitely see your points, Elena. I was missing someone as well but I still enjoyed it.

Just finished reading it today. It took me a while just because of work, but I found it easy to get into. I enjoyed the differing lives of both women. I have to say when I started I was hoping that it wasn't Claire on the plane. I felt more drawn to her storyline, but I still enjoyed Eva's. That last chapter threw me. I was really thinking a different way.

Melissa, would you mind putting in a spoiler what happened in the last chapter for me? I completely forgot already lol

I don't know how to hide the spoiler, but the author revealed what happened rather than leaving it open ended with regards to Eva. Usually the author leaves you hanging with what happened and what could be. It was nice to have an ending and yet sad to have the ending.

Alright, thank you for the reminder!

You can hide a spoiler like this:

<@spoiler>Your text here @spoiler>

Just remove the @ signs and it looks like this:

(view spoiler)[Your text here (hide spoiler)]

Thanks! I'm always learning something new.

Trying my hand at spoilers. But I did have an observation about mother daughter relationship that I felt was a bit misleading.

(view spoiler)[Did anyone else feel that there was something going on between Liz and her daughter Ella, until it was revealed that Ella and Danielle were the same?spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

Regarding the spoilers - for some reason it doesn't show the whole thing in my example - to close the spoiler off, you have to put < and / before spoiler>

About the relationship (view spoiler)[I already had the suspicion that Danielle is her daughter but I did find their interactions a bit weird (hide spoiler)]