Full Flight by Ashley Schumacher

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Title: Full Flight
Author: Ashley Schumacher
Published by: Wednesday Books
Release Date: February 22, 2022
Format: eARC
Pages: 270
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Winter, Lenoreo's 2022 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Everyone else in the tiny town of Enfield, Texas, calls fall football season, but for the forty-three members of the Fighting Enfield Marching Band, it’s contest season. And for new saxophonist Anna James, it’s her first chance to prove herself as the great musician she’s trying hard to be.

When she’s assigned a duet with mellophone player Weston Ryan, the boy her small-minded town thinks of as nothing but trouble, she’s equal parts thrilled and intimidated. But as he helps her with the duet, and she sees the smile he seems to save just for her, she can’t help but feel like she’s helping him with something too.

When her strict parents find out she’s been secretly seeing him and keep them apart, Anna and Weston learn what it truly means to fight for something they love. With the marching contest nearing and the two falling hard for one another, the unthinkable happens, and Anna is left grappling for a way forward without Weston.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — Huh.  I probably should have reread the blurb before reading the book, and then I wouldn’t have been quite so startled with the turn of events.  It’s weird how things are hinted in blurbs, but then you forget, and suddenly the author is murdering all your emotions.

Another rollercoaster ride of a book.  I think I need to take a break with something light and fun after this.  Which is not to say I didn’t love this book, I truly did.  But wow.  My heart.  Ouch.

One of the things I truly loved about this book is how it showcased 2 very different individuals struggling with mental health.  We so often think about depression in one way, but I can vouch that Anna’s form of depression is very real.  I really connected with her on it, and the struggles that she went through.  I can’t help but look back on my childhood and wonder how long I was struggling before it became impossible to ignore in my 20s.  The need to continue being the “good child”, the struggle with how other people see you, and wanting them to see you in one way.  I don’t know, I just really connected SO MUCH with Anna.  She was quirky, awkward, adorable, caring, and genuine.  She wasn’t perfect by any means, and I cringed watching her make certain decisions, but I could understand it.

Weston was a deep well that no one took the time to look inside.  I loved seeing him embrace what Anna brought into his life, even as he struggled and was terrified of that.  The way he was shaped by the events in his life is probably very realistic for many young adults.  He had a really interesting way of looking at the world, and I loved that he helped Anna broaden herself as well.  It was a perfect give and take.

They were seriously so cute together, everything I love in a YA couple.  Their emotions were so strong and overwhelming.  I loved that they balanced each other out, that they found another lonely soul who would understand them.

I adored (in a heartbreaking way) the way both the duet and the story of the Kauai ‘o’o bird were woven into the narrative.  It was beautifully done.

Even though we don’t do marching bands up in my neck of the woods (prairie Canada), I was a band geek in school, and so all that band stuff really did hit a mark with me.  Mr. Brant reminded me of Mr. McLean in so many ways.  The weird band friendships, the feelings from that time in my life…it was perfectly nostalgic.

So yeah.  I need to recover now.  I shouldn’t be surprised, Ms. Schumacher’s debut did the same thing to me.  So many of the things I wrote in that review I could have written in this one as well.

COYER Community: I buddy read this book with Lillian from Mom With a Reading Problem, and she gave it 5 stars (her review).  I finished before her, and sent her a blotchy face picture.  She replied “This book is going to break me, isn’t it?”  Yes.  Yes it is.