Stop what you are doing and check out Brodie Curtis' book, Angels and Bandits. This book really deserves a place on your bookcase. Scroll down to check out my thoughts.
Thank you to The Coffee Pot Book Club for your invite to take part in this tour.
Angels and Bandits
By Brodie Curtis
The Battle of Britain rages and two young RAF pilots from very different stations in life must somehow find common ground—and stay alive.
On the eve of World War II, working-class Eddy Beane is a flight instructor in London. He successfully completes dangerous espionage missions for Air Commodore Keith Park and takes on society-girl June Stephenson as a student. Her ex-fiancé, Dudley Thane, is also a flyer, but upper-class and Cambridge-educated. When the German Luftwaffe attacks England in 1940, Eddy and Dudley end up serving in the same Spitfire squadron. Aerial combat is intense, and both men show their skills and courage, but can they set aside jealousy and class differences to become fighting brothers for the defence of Britain?
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I have said it before, and I will say it again – sometimes you know you are going to love a book before you’ve read it. Sometimes, I will admit, I do get my hopes up a little too high for books, and I end up disappointed, but with this book, this was not the case. In fact, I don’t think I could’ve hyped this book up enough for it to disappoint me.
Eddy Beane goes from a tailor working for his aunt and uncle to a RAF pilot. This book is about the journey he takes, from being invited on a flight for the first time, and the subsequent urge to get back up in the air. Since the first time Eddy was lifted from the ground, he knew he belonged in a plane, and he works hard to get his licence and to succeed in what he loves.
Dudley Thane is the kind of character that you are not sure about. When we first meet him, he is not a character I liked. He is egotistical, stuck-up, and rude. And yet, he is also the kind of character who changes over the course of the book, until, somehow, you start to see his side of things, and learn who he really is.
I loved Eddy’s character a lot, but it is not just Eddy that makes this book worth reading. I have never flown a plane, surprise surprise (if any flight instructor saw how clumsy I can be just walking around the house, there’s no way they would ever let me near the plane, let alone to sit in the passenger seat), but reading this book, I started to feel the thrill of flying, even though I was just sat on my sofa, curled up under blankets. I don’t think I would ever be able to actually fly a plane, but the way everything has been described in this book makes me want to so much. Or maybe I just want to spend time with Eddy, and have him fly me around in a plane. I have problems talking to my husband about the books I’m reading, because I gush far too much about the male characters I am kind of in love with, and he’s not entirely sure whether he should be considering countless fictional characters as competition for my love and affection.
While World War Two fiction is some of my favourite, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that focuses solely on the RAF, and the pilots of the Spitfires. Come to think of it, I haven’t ever read a book about planes. This is either a mistake on my part, and a gap I need to fill in my bookshelf, or this author has just written an amazingly brilliant book, he managed to make me passionate about Spitfires, and want to fly planes. I think I’m probably leaning towards the latter.
So much happens in this book, it is difficult to sum it all up without talking about it all and spoiling things that happen halfway through. In a brief summery, I love Eddy, I want to fly planes, and I absolutely have to read more books by this author. In a slightly longer one, Eddy is a fabulous character, and I adore the fact that all of the characters change over the course of the book, they work towards what they want, and they stand up with courage. The way the aerial combat has been described is utterly amazing, I might as well have been watching a film it was so vivid in my mind. And I am starting to run out of adjectives and ways to describe how wonderful this book is, so I will end it with this – buy this book and read it. You absolutely have to.
I received my copy from The Coffee Pot Book Club but you can grab your copy from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books
Brodie Curtis
Raised in the Midwest, Brodie Curtis was educated as a lawyer and left the corporate world to embrace life in Colorado with his wife and two sons.
Curtis is the author of THE FOUR BELLS, a novel of The Great War, which is the product of extensive historical research, including long walks through the fields of Flanders, where much of the book's action is set. His second novel, ANGELS AND BANDITS, takes his protagonists into The Battle of Britain. Curtis is currently working on a novel set on a Mississippi Riverboat prior to the Civil War.
A lover of history, particularly American history and the World Wars, Curtis reviews historical fiction for the Historical Novels Review and more than 100 of his published reviews and short takes on historical novels can be found on his website: brodiecurtis.com.
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I am so glad you enjoyed Angels and Bandits. Thank you so much for hosting today's tour stop.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Mary Anne
The Coffee Pot Book Club