The Flight - Julie Clark ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Thanks to @Netgalley & @hodderbooks for the chance to read this gripping book with an interesting premise.

The pace of this book does not stop from start to finish. A cleverly crafted tale of suspense.

" Two passengers. Two tickets. One chance to escape."

Claire has what seems to be the perfect life from the outside. Successful husband, the house & no money worries. However, it is easy to mask the truth. A chance encounter at the airport brings her to meet Eva also looking for an escape. Two very different women both looking for the same thing. Told from both Claire & Eva's perspective I was absolutely rooting for both the female characters in this book. You become so drawn in.

If you love a fast paced and intense read then this one is for you 📚

A really enjoyable book. Claire is trapped in an abusive marriage and Eve is caught up in drugs making. Both want out and swap their identities without knowing each others problems. Although this is an unlikely premise the story does give more credence to the coincidence. It does move between each characters story and their past, but it is clearly written and not confusing. The story moves at a brisk pace. I will certainly look out for more titles from this author.

Really interesting premise in which two women wishing to escape their lives decide to switch tickets at an airport; one to Puerto Rico and one to Oakland. We follow both characters points of view in both the past and present which made for an engaging read.

I did feel like some of the parts of the story were a little far fetched but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely gripping! Claire has what seems a perfect life from the outside, married to a very successful man. However, all is not as it seems, and she plans to make an escape.

At the airport she approached by Eva, also wanting to escape from the problems in her life. They agree to exchange tickets, and then live off the grid with their new identities.

The story is told from Claire and Eva's perspective, following their stories to learn how they reached this impasse and what happens when they try to move on with their lives. I could not put it down, wanting to know what happened and why.

Well written, entertaining, pacy, a cracking good tale and a real page-turner.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I read this in less than 24 hours (with a full day in work added in!). It absolutely had me gripped from start to finish. It tackled some serious issues, domestic abuse, children in care, drug abuse and selling, and tackled them really well. I was rooting for Claire from the beginning and loved the Eva/Liz friendship. My first five star review in a while!

So, we take two completely different women, both with tricky lives, throw in a chance meeting in a bar at an airport and we end up with them swapping tickets and lives. Sounds a bit strange on the face of it but the rest of the story that the author weaves around this key moment turns out to be nothing but amazing. Especially when one of the planes crashes...
"Oh what a tangled we we weave" sprung to mind as I was reading this book. And it did all turn out to be just that when all the threads came together at the end. I'd love to expand on some of the more delicious moment in this book but spoilers prevent me from doing so but I will say that this book does get a bit dark in places - for both the main characters - but never so the whole thing got too heavy.
I was drawn into the lives of both the main characters right from the start of the book and they sucked me in, powerless to step away, as their stories unraveled. Not without emotion either as there are some hard truths in this book and not all is easy to read. All handled with care I hasten to add.
It's fast paced and, on occasion, it felt like the narrative was threatening to run away with itself but the author kept a tight rein on both story and characters and maintained the balance of pace admirably.
I keep saying this, but in this case it's important. I firmly believe that less is more going into this book. There is so much to discover along the way and it's best to do this as the author intended.
All in all, a cracking book that hit the ground running for me and which left me wholly satisfied at its conclusion. A new author for me but one that is now on my watchlist.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book

Wow. This book had me totally gripped from the start, right up to the very last page.

I felt tense throughout the entire story and couldn't wait to find out what the author had in store for us and how things were going to be explained.

Told in alternate chapters and different timelines, Claire and Eva are very different people but both desperately want to escape and get away from their lives so when they meet by chance they swap flights.

Although dangerous, they are desperate. Claire is wanting to escape her seemingly perfect life and husband, a senator in waiting from an influential American family. Things aren't what they seem despite the perfect appearance they give. Eva is a bit more guarded and we learn more about her life throughout the book and why she is wanting to escape...

Julie Clark has written a very clever book and I was fully invested in the characters she has written along with the tense atmosphere she ramps up in each chapter. I can really see this book being a bestseller.

Highly recommended.

A psychological thriller about female strength, independence and escaping from your past


Claire Cook seems to have a perfect life – married to the famous Rory Cook of the Cook political dynasty and living in a luxurious apartment with staff catering to her every whim. Behind closed doors; however, Rory has a fiery temper and is physically abusive, with his staff planning every second of Claire’s day and watching her every move. Claire feels totally and utterly trapped - until completely by chance, she meets Eva at an airport while on the way to a charity fundraiser in Puerto Rico. Eva is a young woman with secrets of her own, and the two make a spur of the moment decision to switch flights, hoping to start new lives in their alternate destinations. But when Eva’s plane goes down, Claire finds herself stuck in Oakland, and with news of her ‘death’ on every media outlet, must assume Eva’s persona, along with the dangers that go with it.


Having quite a significant fear of flying, I was a bit wary when I first saw that this book involved a plane crash. Luckily, The Last Flight is a story about much more than that. It tells the story of two women who through wildly different but equally unfortunate circumstances find themselves trapped at the mercy of dangerous men, and how they use their wits and courage to escape from their perilous situations. As a woman, it is sad to think that, despite how far we’ve come in terms of equal rights, there are still women out there who are stuck in similar situations to the two protagonists and suffer at the hands of abusive and controlling men. However, this story raises this issue in a way that is positive and hopeful and both Claire and Eva were well-developed and likeable characters, which I felt empathy for and rooted for throughout. The story was well-written with a fast pace, plenty of twists and an unexpected ending.


Some elements of this story did feel a bit unrealistic, and there were a few moments when things seemed to happen that were very convenient to move the plot along. I also found the ending of the story a bit sad, which wasn’t a negative in itself but did feel a bit disappointing considering how much I’d grown to like the two central characters.


In conclusion, this was a suspenseful and twisty thriller with great characters that kept me turning pages. I would definitely recommend this book and will keep an eye out for more stories by this author.


Daenerys


Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of this book to review.

An interesting premise - could you really just disappear if you wanted to? An engaging and entertaining thriller with a dual narrative that kept me hooked right up to the end. Enough twists and turns to keep me guessing and a narrative unlike any I'd read before.

A solid four star read. Great premise. Well written. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me enthralled. Would definitely read her next novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

Wow, what an incredible read! I loved it from the beginning to the end and struggled to put it down.

"Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meantime the world goes on"

This is a story about two women. Its a story about courage and standing up for yourself and doing the right thing. Abuse can take on many forms and in this story, we meet Claire and Eva who are both trying to get away from a difficult situation. Claire is married to an abusive man who is in the public eye. Eva is involved in the manufacturing and selling of drugs with no way of getting out. All that both of them want to do is just disappear but even the most carefully worked out plans can go wrong. Will a meeting at an airport make these wishes come true and how difficult is it really to disappear? How easy is it to shed your skin and become a new person? AND......was Eva on the plane or not?!

A brilliant mystery thriller/domestic noir. I will definitely look out for more books from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder &/Stoughton for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

FANTASTIC READ! I've seen this book advertised as a psychological thriller which is what I expected going into it, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's more of suspense meets women's fiction. Can you imagine being so desperately trapped in a dangerous situation that you're willing to risk everything to change your identity and leave your life behind? That is the predicament that Claire, trying to escape her abusive husband, and Eva, trying to escape her dicey career, find themselves when their paths cross in an airport bar and they decide to exchange boarding passes. But will this split-second decision lead them to the safety they both doggedly pursue or will danger continue to follow them? Told from two different perspectives on two different timelines, The Flight is an addictive read with two vulnerable yet strong female leads that will keep you on the edge of your seat, rushing to discover how it all plays out.

I liked the concept of this book but I felt at some points the story was a bit flat.
I kept on reading as I wanted to know what happened to both Women.
I enjoyed the ending and how it all came together.

Thank you for letting me read this book.

This was exactly the sort of thriller I needed in my life 🙌🏻
It had everything you could want with an abundance of drama, twists and turns. I was hooked and I loved it.
Also, it was nice to have some likeable characters for once! Despite their flaws, I found myself really rooting for them.

The Flight by Julie Clark ✈️...
I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars 🌟...
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Two passengers. Two tickets. One chance to escape.
Claire and Eva lead very different lives, but they have one thing in common – they are both in huge danger and need to disappear.
A chance encounter at the airport presents the two women with a simple but crazy solution: switch places then drop off the grid when they land.
But one woman will never reach her destination.
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.
This would be a great holiday read and I enjoyed the concept of it - swapping identities to disappear. I just was a bit disappointed with the ending as I felt like I was missing more of an explanation as to a main event that happened in the story. Told through both women’s eyes, one from the months leading up to the flight and one in the present, it was great to learn about both of their lives. And they sure did have some secrets. The writing style is also addictive and easy to read.

I really enjoyed this book with two strong lead characters who I came to really care about. The story of women who have to escape powerful men is sadly not a new one, but this page turning thriller manages to tell it with a different slant, and the inevitable question of how would I cope in the situation?
Thank you to netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an advance copy of this book

This was an easy to read thriller that kept my attention all the way through! Lots of twists and surprises I didn't see coming. Very good, would recommend

This book follows two strong, female lead characters and is written using a dual time-line, which set the book up perfectly.
I really liked the fact that the two woman had completely different stories but were bound together by their desires to escape from the lives they were trapped in.
There’s lots of secrets and twists in this book that kept me hooked, with an ending I didn’t really expect.

One Flight, One Chance....
Two very different women; A desperate need to escape; One flight; One Chance. When Claire and Eva meet at an airport, both with an agenda, an idea forms that may solve their dilemmas. Fast moving, fully entertaining suspense with well drawn characters and a engaging plot. Ideal escapism.

This was a great premise for a thriller. Two women swap flights in order to escape from their very different lives. I found it a bit difficult to believe anyone could actually do this so easily, but having done so the story rocketed on, largely told in flashback. It's hard to review at length without leaving spoilers. there are a great many twists and turns and occasional shocks. A good holiday read, well written and engaging.