Flying

In this nontraditional emotional romance, Hart (Dirty) writes more of sorrow than love. Stella Cooper uses her access to free airline tickets to roam airport bars, pursuing her private life of finding one-night stands free of identities, feelings, and repercussions. Stella is a remarkable character: a divorced mother struggling with the challenges of a teenaged son, a troublesome ex, and the pain that she carries from a past that brought her to a cold, isolated present. Hopeless and unwilling to ask for help, Stella attacks herself and everyone around her with an unforgiving attitude. Her escapist habit leads her to Chicago, where she meets Matthew, who can help heal her pain, but though there is the suggestion of hope in the resolution, little is done by Stella to earn such a prize. She receives far more understanding and forgiveness than she offers the world, and her story is wrenching but unsatisfying. (Apr.)