Flying-Megan Hart

Flying Megan Hart Mira, Apr 29 2014, $14.95 ISBN: 9780778316220 Every two weeks, Stella Andrews Cooper takes a long weekend escape by flying from Harrisburg to any other city. Where she goes means nothing to her; only to go so that she can leave her dismal life for a couple of days. In her arrival airports like Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, Stella seeks strangers for no-strings including no contact info trysts before returning to her miserable life for twelve days and starts the cycle over again. In Chicago, Stella encounters Matthew Shepherd. Instead of a one weekend stand of sex, sex and more sex, for the first time since Stella became depressed, she talks to him about her emotional traumas. Matthew empathizes as he has monster issues eating at his soul too. However, though Stella craves more than a one-weekender with Matthew, she fears telling him her real name. Flying is an intriguing character study that enables the enthralled audience to understand how emotional demons can drive a person feeling all alone even in an urban locale to despair and desperation; Stella’s escape from her reality is sex with strangers in different cities. Although her former husband is a stereotype of an acrimonious angry adversary and Stella behaves out of character at a key moment (though one can argue she chose a different flight over fight path), readers will enjoy Flying with this broken woman. Harriet Klausner