"Full Flight" was a sweet YA read. I loved Weston and Anna. Told from alternating perspectives, the relationship which grew between them captured the excitement and intensity of first love in an authentic manner. The fact that Anna and Weston were in a marching band was interesting and I loved all the musical references.

I didn't read the synopsis before reading this novel so I was shocked at the events that occurred. Overall, "Full Flight" was a lovely story that brought tears to my eyes. ( )

Marching band ✅
A love story ✅
A heartbreak that cannot be taken away ✅

Ashely Shumacher has done it again. She warmed this former band geek’s heart and shattered it at the same time. Anna and Weston are two halves of a whole, brought together by music…and homework. We watch as they come together, first love, first everything, only to have the unimaginable happen. Just as she did with her first novel Amelia Unabridged, she takes the reader on a journey of self discovery, acceptance and a love that survives across the heavens. ( )

Ashley Schumacher has a gift with words. Her writing is the type of writing that makes me want to keep a notepad beside me as I read, so I can jot down various quotes and philosophies that she shares in the character’s dialogue and are good for me to remember when I am in a similarly low place. Schumacher‘s writing, above anything, is what kept me hooked in Full Flight.

This novel explores the identities of two very different high school students and their individual journeys to discovering the things that they want, love, and need. This is an example of a YA contemporary novel that digs deep into the lives of the protagonists and puts to shame anybody who would dare say that YA books are vapid and shallow. Schumacher‘s exploration of the teenage experience in Full Flight is not the stereotypical, small town romance that we have seen so frequently in the genre. Anna and Weston’s stories are shaded with uncertainty, fear, hope, and grief. Of all these, Schumacher has proven through Full Flight and Amelia Unabridged that she can write grief so evocatively as to make it impossible to read one of her books and not get teary-eyed.

At first, I didn’t like Full Flight at all. I kept trying to compare the book to Amelia Unabridged and in doing so, I robbed myself of the experience that this new book had to offer until I was about halfway through the novel. These characters are flawed, but they are made of passion and need. Their sorrow drives them and the relationship they build opens the story from its confining cocoon into a full butterfly.

This book made me sad in all the right ways. Full Flight may not be that novel that you obsessively read over and over again, but it is the type of novel that will stay with you because of the way it digs at your heart. Schumacher has once again proven that she is capable of writing a heartbreaking story with characters who leap from the page and haunt the reader. I really couldn’t ask for anything more. ( )

The writing in this book is beautiful, and the plot twist definitely caught me off guard. I’m not the target audience for this book, so take my review with a grain of salt. The middle of the story seemed drawn out, and I was really just reading to finish the book at that point, because I was so far in. It just felt slow and too much. I also don’t know much about marching band so had a hard time connecting to that. Overall, I think this book is great for the right reader; that reader just isn’t me.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.* ( )

A stunningly soulful novel that takes the reader inside the poetic minds of two lonely band nerds.

Weston feels like his parents' divorce burned down everything good in his life, tainting his childhood memories and condemning him to the outskirts of life in his gossipy, holier-than-thou small town. He identifies with a bird he did a report on that was the last of his kind, singing his part of a duet and waiting for a mate to fill the blank spaces.

Anna has a great friends group and a loving family, but still struggles with what she calls the shadows when she feels like she may not measure up to everyone's expectations. When she's struggling with a duet in band, she convinces Weston, against all his instincts, to help her with it. The two find themselves drawn to each other, filling in the missing spaces in the duet of each other's lives.

I adore this author's work so much! This book captures your heart with lyrical writing, then takes you on an emotional roller coaster. I wasn't expecting to end this book crying, but I did. Prepare to have your heart shredded and put back together by the end of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advance review copy of this book. ( )