On Little Wings by Regina Sirois

When I was first asked to review On Little Wings, I thought that the synopsis included in the email was very intriguing:

“This is the story of the countless ways we get love wrong. And why, despite every disappointment, we keep fighting to get it right.

Jennifer must do the impossible bring her mother home. When a family is torn
apart by death, two sisters take violently divergent paths and the story
of their family appears to end terribly and abruptly. Two decades later
Jennifer never dreams that the photo she finds stuck between the pages
of a neglected book will tear open a gaping wound to her mothers secret
past. Abandoning her comfortable life with her parents and best friend
in the wheat fields of Nebraska, Jennifer’s quest for a hidden aunt
leads her to the untamed coast of Maine where she struggles to
understand why her mother lied to her for sixteen years.

Across the grey, rocky cove she meets Nathan Moore, the young, reluctant
genius surrounded by women who need him to be brother, father, friend,
provider, protector and now, first love. The stories, varied, hilarious,
and heartbreaking, unfold to paint a striking mural of the shattered
past. As Jennifer seeks to piece together her mother’s story, she
inadvertently writes one for herself.”

Regina Serois “On Little Wings”

But once I began to read, it wasn’t the story that pulled me in so much as the writing. Regina Sirois is a gifted writer who knows how to find the beauty in the English language. These are my favorite types of authors, regardless of the genre, and I don’t come across them nearly as often as I would like. Sirois is a true gem.

Don’t get me wrong, the story itself was wonderful. Even though the big family mystery didn’t have as prominent a place as I thought it might, I loved the journey that Jennifer began as she traveled to Maine to discover the reasons her mother lied to her, and ends as she discovers herself instead.

I loved how the characters did “lines” every evening—sharing with each other a snippet of something they had read, whether a bit of poetry, a line from a novel or even a snippet off of a bag of flour. The discussions that they had while doing lines were the best parts of the book.

I also loved getting to know the Maine coast a little bit.  I’ve never been there, but it sounds absolutely wonderful, and reading On Little Wings made me want to hop on a plane and visit tomorrow.  (Well, okay, maybe not tomorrow, as I’m dealing with my own harsh winter!)

I highly recommend this book, and while it is billed as YA, I think you’ll all like it, too.  After all,  I did.

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