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Rating: 
Summary: Good writer, needs to ditch romance subplot ...
Review: Hmm - it's hard to know how to rate this book. The best I can say that it is very uneven - I LOVED the parts about the restaurant and the relationship between Rose and Anna, but I'm afraid that Anna's romance with Mason left me cold. It feels like something simply tacked on to give the book a romantic interest and I can't help feeling that the author didn't have her heart in writing these scenes. I skimmed over those bits in the end (especially when Mason was going on about wild birds of something) and I wish she had just concentrated on the restaurant and the relationships between the people who worked there - that was fascinating and I was constantly being amazed by the honesty and astuteness of her writing. I don't know if the publishers made her put in a love interest so the book would sell but I feel it would have actually been a great book if it had only focused on Anna's relationship with her aunt and her employees at the restaurant.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm sorry I bought this book.
Review: I did not enjoy this story because each time I read part of it, I could hardly remember what I had read once I had put it down. I did finish the book, I do that with all books no matter how awful, to at least give the author a chance to redeem him/herself, but in this story, the characters could have been cardboard figures. The plot is extremely arid, there just isn't enough "oomph". Anna Catalano is our protagonist and she is called home temporarily to help out in the family restaurant. For Anna, home is not a safe haven. Home is a place of bad memories and disappointments. Anna does return home eventually and the author tries to throw in some romance that might be an attempt at a plot. There just isn't much of it and it fizzles out. There are no "Flight Lessons", I must be missing something. The title doesn't seem to have any relationship with the book. Perhaps Anna Catalano's flight to home is the answer. If you must read this one, borrow it. To me, it was not worth my time or money.
Rating:
Summary: Uneven book
Review: I did not enjoy this story because I could hardly remember it when I put it down. The characters could have been cardboard figures, the plot is dry, there just is not enough "oomph" to get the story off of the ground. The character Anna Catalano is called "home" temporarily to help out in the family restaurant. For Anna, home is not a safe haven, but a place of bad memories and disappointments better left buried and sorrows best not come to light. Patricia Gafney, the author, does make an attempt to trhow in some romance, but there just isn't enough there and the story fizzles. There are no "flight lessons" unless the author is trying to describe Anna Catalano's flight to and from home, and herself. If you must read this one, get it from the library. To me, it was not worth time, effort, or money.
Rating:
Summary: Better the first time around . . .
Review: I listened to the ABRIDGED audio version of this story twice. It was much more interesting upon the first reading and didn't hold my attention all that well the 2nd time around. It tells the story of Anna, a young woman, who returns "home" reluctantly when she catches her lover in bed with another woman. Anna and her aunt were once close but betrayal and bad feelings have kept them at a distance. Anna is talked into going to work at the family restaurant and discovers new friends, a new love interest (in a reclusive, scarred man) and puts her past to rest. This is a very character oriented story with little action.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Read
Review: Patricia Gaffney presents us with a narrative involving unsolved family disputes and with the ease of a talented writer she draws you, the reader, into the midst of the conflict. Gaffney holds your interest with her many twists leading you into a well crafted and pleasing plot. Great story telling.
Beverly J Scott author of RIGHTEOUS REVENGE
Rating:
Summary: A pretty good read
Review: This book is not as good as her "Saving Graces" or "Circle of Three" ~~ but it runs along the same theme where women have friction in their relationships with one another and how they choose to solve their problems. This time, it's about Anna and her aunt, Rose, who she caught in her father's bed when she was 20. Thus began a history of Anna's flight from reality and truth ~~ and Rose. Rose needed Anna's help to get the family restaurant back into shape ~~ Anna needed a place to go after another failed love relationship ~~ and this is the basis of this novel.I enjoy this novel ~~ but it's not Gaffney's best. The heart and soul of this book is about women's relationships and how it define them in the world ~~ it lacks passion and fire like her previous books. The characters themselves don't move the reader like it should ~~ and somehow I get the feeling the book is stilted in its writing. Maybe I am just disappointed that it's not a good of a read like the others ~~ where you dive into the book and sigh with nostaglia over mothers and daughters and friends. Maybe this is because I don't have an aunt that I am very close to ~~ it is an interesting perspective on an aunt/niece relationship ~~ something this nuclear society hasn't seen much of. It is a good book ~~ quick and easy. If you're looking for a more in-depth reading ~~ this book isn't it. Don't expect this book to be like her previous books ~~ it's not. 2-25-03
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful book !
Review: Two years ago, I read Patricia Gaffney's The Saving Graces while on vacaton at the shore. It ended up being the best book I read that entire summer. When I saw that this author had a new book coming out for this summer, I bought it immediately with the intention of saving it for my vacation in the hope that I'd, once again, find another summer favorite in Gaffney's new offering. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. Even though Lavyrle Spencer has retired, I had the feeling that I was reading one of her stories -- albeit a very poor rendition of one. The setting is the Eastern Shore of Maryland but the reader never really gets the feeling that they are anywhere near the water, even though one of the characters lives on a boat. Anna Fiore has returned to her childhood home to help her Aunt Rose bring some life back into the failing family restaurant. This would all be well and good except for the fact that Anna really doesn't want to be there (or so she says) and fights her aunt and friends constantly by continually making sure they understand this is a "temporary" arrangement. By this time, I was wishing that Anna would leave already instead of waiting around while everyone begs her to stay. The reader will learn why she is so antagonistic towards her aunt and what the grudge is that she still holds against her -- some twenty years later. I've often been involved in discussions as to whether one can truly enjoy a book if they can't stand the characters. I find this very hard to do and this book is a perfect example of my contention. It is filled with surly, self-serving, phobia filled, sickly, beseeching and bad-tempered individuals who supposedly will all come together in a common goal. If the saying that "opposites attract" is true, then this book is right on target with its character development even though the combinations stretch one's imagination to the limit at times. My last criticism is in the title and the cover. I feel that this cover, of a white picket fence set in the sand dunes, is meant to give summer readers that "beachy" feeling they are looking for. It's deceptive because it is not a "beachy" feeling kind of book. And, what's up with the title FLIGHT LESSONS?? -- it's really not indicative at all of the story. The proper cover should have been that of a restaurant and the title perhaps "Cooking Lessons" but that might have been too boring (like this book). Well, whatever lesson was to be learned, I must have missed it. This three star rating, by the way, is on the low end of the scale almost leaning towards two stars.
Rating:
Summary: YAWN!!!!!
Review: Two years ago, I read Patricia Gaffney's The Saving Graces while on vacaton at the shore. It ended up being the best book I read that entire summer. When I saw that this author had a new book coming out for this summer, I bought it immediately with the intention of saving it for my vacation in the hope that I'd, once again, find another summer favorite in Gaffney's new offering. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. Even though Lavyrle Spencer has retired, I had the feeling that I was reading one of her stories -- albeit a very poor rendition of one. The setting is the Eastern Shore of Maryland but the reader never really gets the feeling that they are anywhere near the water, even though one of the characters lives on a boat. Anna Fiore has returned to her childhood home to help her Aunt Rose bring some life back into the failing family restaurant. This would all be well and good except for the fact that Anna really doesn't want to be there (or so she says) and fights her aunt and friends constantly by continually making sure they understand this is a "temporary" arrangement. By this time, I was wishing that Anna would leave already instead of waiting around while everyone begs her to stay. The reader will learn why she is so antagonistic towards her aunt and what the grudge is that she still holds against her -- some twenty years later. I've often been involved in discussions as to whether one can truly enjoy a book if they can't stand the characters. I find this very hard to do and this book is a perfect example of my contention. It is filled with surly, self-serving, phobia filled, sickly, beseeching and bad-tempered individuals who supposedly will all come together in a common goal. If the saying that "opposites attract" is true, then this book is right on target with its character development even though the combinations stretch one's imagination to the limit at times. My last criticism is in the title and the cover. I feel that this cover, of a white picket fence set in the sand dunes, is meant to give summer readers that "beachy" feeling they are looking for. It's deceptive because it is not a "beachy" feeling kind of book. And, what's up with the title FLIGHT LESSONS?? -- it's really not indicative at all of the story. The proper cover should have been that of a restaurant and the title perhaps "Cooking Lessons" but that might have been too boring (like this book). Well, whatever lesson was to be learned, I must have missed it. This three star rating, by the way, is on the low end of the scale almost leaning towards two stars.
Rating:
Summary: A simple dish, perfectly done
Review: While the plot of FLIGHT LESSONS may not be either particularly involved or original -- a woman returns home to help salvage the family's dying business, which in turn forces her to confront issues from the past -- Pat Gaffney's rich characterizations, as well as the emotional depth behind her deceptively simple prose, certainly made this story a winner for me. These are people with both strengths and weaknesses, whose actions and attitudes we might not always agree with but whose motivations are always made clear. Gaffney really nails the complexity of human relationships, that true-to-life mixture of tart and sweet that can make the reader both want to root for a character and knock some sense into him or her at the same time. The relationship between the sixty-year-old Rose and her dying lover Theo is a particular treasure, but the quiet, scarred Mason stole my heart (even though I agree with another reviewer that perhaps his emails were too long -- but at least he apologized for that!). A lesser man would have given up on the hard-headed Anna by halfway through the book: that he didn't makes him a real hero in my eyes. But perhaps what most impressed me was the way in which Gaffney seamlessly braids so many threads. I never felt I was reading about several separate subplots, since each character's situation so tightly intersected with the others'. Very difficult to pull off, but Gaffney makes it seem effortless. While I've read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Ms. Gaffney's previous contemporary novels, for some reason (Mason, would be my guess) this one's edged out the others as my new favorite. These were people I wouldn't mind checking up on in a few years to see how they're doing. And I can't ask more of a book than that.
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