Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon


Could anyone have secrets on the Hindenburg with its size and carefully patrolled space?

It appeared that everyone had a personal secret, but one of the public secrets was the worry about a bomb threat.

The passengers had heard of a bomb threat, but it was down played.

Emilie, Max, Werner, Edward, and Leonhard and Getrude Adelt are the main storytellers.  Emilie was the only female crew member on board, Max was the navigator, Werner was the cabin boy, Edward was an American, and the Adelts are journalists. 

FLIGHT OF DREAMS tells of the three-day flight of the Hindenburg and its fire on the third day as it neared its landing spot of Lakehurst, New Jersey.

We follow the days and nights of the passengers as the Hindenburg makes it way across the ocean at 600 feet and as it drops to 200 feet to make a mail drop in Cologne before heading out to the ocean.

Ms. Lawhon takes us into the private as well as public lives of the passengers and makes the three-day trip across the Atlantic both technical and personal.  The skillful way Ms. Lawhon wove the personal stories of the characters with the technical aspect of the Hindenburg made FLIGHT OF DREAMS a captivating, intriguing, mysterious read.

Ms. Lawhon did marvelous research for her book​, and the passengers were an interesting group.

I enjoyed Emilie and Max's connection and their love story.

Werner was my favorite simply because he was so young, so happy to be a crew member, and such a hard worker.

Edward, the American, seemed to be causing the most grief and seemed to be a bit evil. 

The Adelts were an interesting couple simply because of their curiosity and wanting to find out facts like every good journalist does.

It was fascinating to me how the Hindenburg actually stayed in flight. It is a piece of history I had ​known of but never knew much about.  I learned quite a bit about the Hindenburg from Ms. Lawhon's marvelous book and wanted to learn more.  I found plenty of information about the Hindenburg itself, the flight, the crew, its passengers, and the crash.

Could one of the passengers purposely have caused the crash or was it a mechanical malfunction?  Did historians really know what happened? 

FLIGHT OF DREAMS is a well-researched and cleverly carried out book about the Hindenburg that will hold your interest.

What a wonderful way to learn more about this historical event. 5/5​

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.



30 comments:

  1. Great review Elizabeth, I think many of the readers will fall for Werner. I liked too finding out about a piece of history I was very vague about.

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    1. Thank you, Kathryn. I am glad you enjoyed my review.

      It was wonderful learning more about this piece of history, and the lives of the actual passengers.

      Werner was very successful and if I remember from my reading about the passengers in a website, he lived into his early 90's.

      Thanks for stopping, Kathryn.

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  2. I love when authors can take an event in history and spin a great tale about it.

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    1. It was very well done.

      Thanks for stopping, Laura.

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  3. Great review Elizabeth. I enjoyed this novel too. Lawton has a great imagination interspersed with the facts.

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    1. Thanks, Pat.

      Excellent job on the author's part.

      Thanks for stopping, Pat.

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  4. Very interesting and detailed review, thanks so much for sharing. :)

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    1. You are welcome, Myra.

      Thank you for the comment about my review and for stopping.

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  5. I want to read this one. It's kind of fascinating a bit scary to think about travelling across the Atlantic like this.

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    1. Oh....I would NEVER have gotten on The Hindenburg. :)

      Thanks for stopping, Kay.

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  6. I have been seeing this around and definitely want to read it at some point. Glad you liked it, too!

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    1. It was a very good read.

      Thanks for stopping, Kailana.

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  7. I know so little about the Hindenburg or any other zeppelin so I'm anxious to read this.

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    1. I learned a lot, Kathy.

      I enjoyed looking up the passengers and seeing how their lives turned out.

      Thanks for stopping.

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  8. One of your best reviews Elizabeth! Thank you.

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    1. Wow...thank you.

      I am glad you like my review.

      Thanks for stopping, Judy.

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  9. This sounds really good! I really enjoyed her previous book about an old missing person case so I'm intrigued to see what she does with the Hindenberg. I know very little about it so your review really has me excited to read this one.

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    1. I learned a lot about The Hindenburg.

      Ms. Lawhon's other book was fantastic....loved it.

      This book is done very well.

      Thanks for stopping, Katherine.

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  10. I'd love to read this to gather a better idea of the history of the Hindenburg. Nice review! :)
    @dino0726 from 
    FictionZeal - Impartial, Straightforward Fiction Book Reviews

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    1. Thanks, Diane.

      I have been getting a lot of positive comments on my review. Very nice to see that.

      I learned a lot, but I would not have gotten on The Hindenburg, though. :)

      Thanks for stopping, Diane.

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  11. Great review, Elizabeth! I'm so looking forward to reading this! Nice to see a 5 star rating!

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    1. Thank you for stopping, Suzanne.

      It was good and very educational.

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  12. So glad you liked this. It sounded really good. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. You are welcome, Martha.

      Yes...a good read.

      Thanks for stopping.

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  13. I really don't know much about the Hindenburg. Sounds like good historical fiction.

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    1. I didn't know much either. It was a great history lesson.

      The "lesson" was very well done.

      Thanks for stopping, Mary.

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  14. Oh wow. This looks really good. I always love a well researched historical, and I know so little about the Hinderberg. I will have to check this out.

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    1. It was very good, Heidi.

      Very well done.

      Thanks for stopping, Heidi.

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  15. I hadn't heard of this book but now I'm definitely interested. What an interesting subject to write about and to turn into fiction! I think I'll look out for this one. Thanks for your review!

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    1. It was well written, and I learned a lot.

      Thanks for stopping, Kay.

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