Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When the love of Tasha’s life, Luca, joins the air force to fight against the evil Nazi invaders, she knows she has to follow her heart—and him—into battle. Headstrong, impulsive and a daredevil, she’s the perfect recruit.
Tasha’s sensible older sister Nadia plans only to stop Tasha’s madness and bring her home. But a chance encounter puts her in a plane, soaring above the clouds, and she also finds her calling.
Underestimated by their superiors, Nadia and her sister find themselves in airplanes barely fit to fly, being sent on perilous missions with little hope of return. But before long their battalion is being nicknamed ‘the Night Witches’ by the Nazis, their ownership of the skies second to none.
But danger is up in the storm clouds with them, and when both sisters are shot down behind Nazi enemy lines, and taken to a brutal prison camp, they expect to never see their beloved homeland again.
Until Tasha’s eyes meet across the wire fence with someone she never expected to see again: the love of her life, Luca.
But with love comes peril… Will one sister have to sacrifice everything to save the other?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of We Fly Beneath the Stars to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
We Fly Beneath the Stars by Suzanne Kelman underwent a cover change prior to me reading this book and I have to say I adored the first cover and didn’t see the need to change it. But now having read this remarkable story of bravery, courage and female strength and empowerment, I can see that the new cover fits the subject matter perfectly and gives the reader a glimpse into the content of the book. I love the title because it encapsulates the main theme of the book, that of a group of women who went against convention and did their bit for their country time and time again. They stepped way beyond their comfort zones and fought for their country at a time when the evils of Hitler were spreading throughout all of Europe. The first quarter or so I found a bit slow but once the two main characters Nadia and Tasha embark on a life-changing experience that’s when I found things picked up and I found their journey to be exhilarating, perilous and heart-breaking in equal measure.
There is so little about women female pilots that in fact I hadn’t even realised women were pilots during the war participating in bombing raids. Suzanne Kelman has shone a spotlight on a little known aspect of the war and written a fascinating story that brought to me a deeper awareness of the indomitably of the female spirit and shows how tyrants should always be challenged and ultimately defeated. A brief prologue introduces us to Tasha in the summer of 1985. She still feels deep regret for that one action over 40 years ago that caused such a terrible chain of events leading to the worst mistake of her life. This has haunted her for so long but to find out what this was we are taken back many years to Russia where Tasha lives with her sister Nadia and grandmother Babka. Her parents died many years before and it has been the three women ever since. Tasha is deeply in love with Luca and he wants to marry her but Tasha declines and the most beautiful description is used as to why she is not yet ready although one day she hopes to be. She describes it as a giant bird inside of her that wants to break free and soar and see all that life has to offer before she is tied down by taking care of children and a home.
Tasha for me is a divisive character and that’s because her actions throughout the book were so selfish with her only thinking of herself for the majority of the time. She has always felt that there is something bigger inside of her that she is meant to do and she is always in competition with her sister. Although Nadia doesn’t see it that way at all. Tasha wants to live her life fully in every possible way that she can but to me that was often at the expense of others. She strives to be the biggest and best at everything but gave scant regard for the consequences of her actions on others. She finds it hard to control her emotions and opinions and this gets her in serious trouble and I think these qualities are what caused her to have such a deep regret all through her life once the war was over. She is a genius at what she does namely flying planes but at the same time she is reckless and irresponsible and at times I found her to be self-absorbed and frustrating. It sounds like she is all bad but really she isn’t and her one goal - to see Hitler defeated and have her back in the arms of Luca is a strong and admirable one. It’s just her actions throughout the book made me feel differently about her at different junctures within the book. The further the book progresses you can see Tasha doing an about turn so to speak and getting her act together but will it be too little too late and will her actions have consequences that can never be repaired or forgiven?
When Luca enlists as a pilot, Tasha is devastated and knowing she has experience flying (having received lessons in payment for cleaning of the local flying club) and that she can’t just sit and wait for Luca, she escapes her small village and heads to the big city where her cousin lives. She soon hears of a female flying unit being set up and figuring this will bring her closer to Luca and at the same time fulfil this deep need and urge inside of her to do something dangerous, exciting and brave she too enlists. He had promised her that he would not die and now that she has put herself in the firing line so to speak she makes the same promise to herself. Soon she is at a training camp where all her abilities, both mental and physical, are put to the test and this is where she often lets her emotions get the better of her especially when it comes to dealing with men who are also training. Tasha becomes reckless and to me she showed her immaturity. Yes, she felt in Nadia’s shadow but I think Tasha brought those emotions on herself and convinced herself that that was the way things were when in reality if she had been more open and talked to her sister perhaps a very different picture would have emerged.
Nadia is the complete opposite to her sister. Steady and sensible she feels a need to always be in control. Tasha is always in direct competition with Nadia but it’s more a competition of her own making rather than being rooted in any sort of reality. Nadia always has to be doing the right thing which in itself can be a curse rather than a good thing. She marries Ivan and she does love him but marriage is not what she had hoped or wished it to be. Ivan does not show any kind of emotion, care or love. He is a member of the communist party and does not show any kind of intimacy towards Nadia which she deeply longs for. The loneliness increases for her and she feels her marriage is a failure and she is trapped. When Ivan is called to serve his country and news reaches Nadia of Tasha’s own foray into the female fighter squad she too arrives at the female training camp. To say this does not go down well with Tasha is an understatement and I found her reaction to be so childish and selfish. Nadia soon proves to be a genius at the training and will be a worthy female pilot and well able to drop bombs on the designated targets. But the squads missions are fraught with danger with every night flight that they undertake and when Tasha does something purely for her own needs and wants which I have to say really infuriated me, will this lead to disaster for all?
We Fly Beneath the Stars takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster which when the story gets going you really can’t and don’t want to get off until the very last page. The story veers off in so many twists and turns that I never expected, and my heart was in my mouth at what was unfolding and what the eventual outcome could possibly be. It’s heart-breaking and emotional but the characters learn an awful amount of much needed life lessons, especially Tasha. The courageousness, strength, bravery, companionship and solidarity shown by the female bombers and their squadron was remarkable. It teaches us how we must never take things for granted and that women when tasked with something are powerful and remarkable. Suzanne Kelman has written a fantastic story in which you will learn an awful lot and it has a brilliant ending that will bring a smile to your face and a tear to your eye.
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