My review: 4.25 ⭐
What an incredible, heartwarming story of adventure and friendship.
12 year old Jolene doesn’t have many friends and her mother developed a drug addiction after they were in a car accident. She is very lonely, until she starts watching Addie Earhart live stream her flights in an ultralight plane across the desert. They begin to chat online and slowly start to get to know each other.
During one viewing Addie crashes. Since Jolene is her only subscriber she knows she has to find help for her. Nobody is taking her seriously since she really doesn’t know where the accident actually happened and she’s a kid. Jolene goes above and beyond to save someone she’s never met in person and even meets a new friend along the way, Marty.
As a mother it was a little scary to read about all the choices this young girl made, so I hope children reading this don’t think it’s okay to do the same things Jolene did.
I am very happy with how everything turned out in the end.
Narration was perfect ~ Stacy Gonzalez did a great job showing emotion when needed.
*Thanks to Netgalley, RB Media and Dusti Bowling for the advance audiobook. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*
Book blurb: Audio release date ~ March 29, 2022
One girl sets out on a journey across the treacherous Arizona desert to rescue a young pilot stranded after a plane crash.
Twelve-year-old Jolene spends every day she can at the library watching her favorite livestream: The Desert Aviator, where twelve-year-old “Addie Earhart” shares her adventures flying an ultralight plane over the desert. While watching this daring girl fly through the sky, Jolene can dream of what it would be like to fly with her, far away from her own troubled home life where her mother struggles with a narcotic addiction. And Addie, who is grieving the loss of her father, finds solace in her online conversations with Jolene, her biggest—and only—fan.
Then, one day, it all goes wrong: Addie’s engine abruptly stops, and Jolene watches in helpless horror as the ultralight plummets to the ground and the video goes dark. Jolene knows that Addie won’t survive long in the extreme summer desert heat. With no one to turn to for help and armed with only a hand-drawn map and a stolen cell phone, it’s up to Jolene to find a way to save the Desert Aviator.
