Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Review: The Art of Crash Landing

Mattie Wallace has reached a new level of screwing up her life. She is broke, in a major fight with her boyfriend, and just found out she is pregnant. With each bad decision, she is reminding herself more and more of the alcoholic mother who always let her down. When Mattie discovers her grandmother has passed away and left her an inheritance, she decides to make a last-ditch trip across state lines to the town where her mother grew up. She finds that the people in Gandy, Oklahoma both remember her mother with fondness and despise her for leaving them all behind without a word of explanation. Can Mattie uncover what really happened to make her mother leave her home and everyone who loved her? Can she finally stop making the same mistakes as her mother?

As I started reading this book, I was rather dubious. Mattie makes terrible decisions, again and again. It becomes kind of frustrating to watch her mom's ex-boyfriend and other characters reach out to her, only to have their kindness shoved back in their face. But somewhere along the way, Ms. DeCarlo makes you care. Mattie is a seriously messed up person and she actually wants to change - she just doesn't know how to do that.

As readers start to care for Mattie in spite of her, they will also fall head over heels for the residents of Gandy, Oklahoma. Where else would you find a cranky librarian known to the locals as Aunt Fritter or a sulking teenage girl who seems like a stand-in for April from Parks and Rec? Mattie slowly starts to get to know the people of the town and discovers that the people who look like they should have their stuff together are often the ones hiding the biggest secrets. Perhaps there is room in this community for one more person who has made big mistakes.

This book is funny and written so smoothly that you won't even notice that you've been reading for an hour. While the premise of a girl going back to her hometown, discovering family secrets, and just maybe making good may sound like something you have read before, DeCarlo infuses it with new life and new humor. The Art of Crash Landing is a book I grew to love and I am looking forward to more stories from this debut author!


Want to find out what other readers thought of this book? Visit TLC Book Tours to find out!

The Art of Crash Landing
By Melissa DeCarlo
Harper Paperback September 2015
405 pages
Received for review from TLC Book Tours and the publisher


12 comments:

  1. Wow! Thank you SO much for the great review!!

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    1. Thanks for reading! I really enjoyed the book.

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  2. This sounds like something I've read before in a good way and the quirky characters sound fun, but I'm not sure about the main character. I really hate when characters make frustrating decisions!

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    1. When done right, there is something nice about a familiar plot and/or characters. I liked the quirky small town thing!

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  3. This is a book I might have passed over because of its too-familiar plot ... so it's nice to know that there's more to it; I would hate to miss out on one of the good ones. :)

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    1. It does seem familiar, but in a nice way. It never feels like you have already read this exact story.

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    1. It is funny. The characters are so quirky, but they are dealing with really tough issues.

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  5. We all crash sometimes. I guess it's how you pick yourself up. Although, continuing in the crash and never rising is usually the problem. Thanks for the review.

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    1. Good point Heidi! I think that's exactly what Mattie deals with in this book - at some point, she decided it was easier to stay down. But now she is thinking about getting back up for the first time.

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  6. Sometimes a character can be SO FRUSTRATING ... but I'm glad that the author made you really care for Mattie and see past her bad decisions.

    Thanks for being a part of the tour!

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