When Laurie Sassalyn returned to the small Maine town she grew up in, she just planned to clean out her great-aunt’s house and then move on. She would see her best friend from childhood and maybe her high school boyfriend who is now the town librarian. And she would clean out the house her 93-year-old great-aunt had lived in.
When Laurie was a kid, with four brothers in the house, she would have a hard time finding some peace and quiet. She would head down to Dot’s house, and Dot would immediately open the door and invite her in. Dot’s house had been Laurie’s sanctuary from the chaos of her home. Dot had never married, and she had no children, so Laurie had volunteered to clear out the house. As a freelance nature writer, she had a more flexible schedule than her brothers, and her parents had moved to Florida.
Dot had loved to travel and had packed her house with souvenirs as well as photos and books. Laurie found boxes and boxes of Polaroids in the third bedroom’s closet. The books had been stacked all over. The travel souvenirs had been displayed on shelves. But the duck had been wrapped in blankets and placed in a chest. All Dot’s other pieces had been out for everyone to see, but this one wood duck decoy had been hidden away. Laurie knows that there is a story there, but she doesn’t know what the story is.
When an antiques dealer comes over to help survey Dot’s belongings, he doesn’t think that the duck is worth much. Laurie agrees with him and ends up selling him the duck for fifty dollars. But when she does some more research on the duck, she finds that it might be worth something. In fact, it might be worth a lot of money. A little more research, and Laurie figures out that the antiques dealer may not be the nice guy he pretends to be.
As Laurie tries to figure out the story behind the duck, and behind the antiques dealer who may have conned her out of it, she also finds herself with warm feelings for her ex-boyfriend Nick. While she loves her home in Seattle and absolutely doesn’t want to move back to Maine, she can’t deny how happy she is around Nick. Laurie had already walked away from one engagement, and she was happy with that decision because she wanted a relationship she could believe in. One that she could be herself in. Is it possible to find her answers and find love in Maine, or will she end up heading back to Seattle alone and duck-less?
Flying Solo is the latest novel from NPR’s beloved Pop Culture Happy Hour host Linda Holmes. This novel is part coming home, part love story, with just a hint of Ocean’s Eleven, and it’s filled with sweetness and charm. Like all the sentimental treasures in Dot’s house, Flying Solo has lots of small moments and phrases that bring genuine smiles of surprise and delight. But the best part of this story is the characters, particularly Laurie, who is a bit of an odd duck and will appeal to others who don’t quite fit the mold themselves.
I thought that reading Flying Solo was a beautiful experience. It was like a respite in the chaos of daily life, a break from all the noise, to get to spend some time in Maine, in the library, or in Dot’s house, or plotting to con a con artist. I felt like this was inventive and inclusive, and I would recommend it to anyone who is searching for a book that will feel like a mini-vacation. Grab some wine or make yourself a cranberry mocktail and curl up with this novel on a quiet weekend and learn the true story of Dot’s duck.
Egalleys for Flying Solo were provided by Ballantine Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
