Girls of Flight City, A Novel of WWII, the RAF, and Texas

Heath (the Rogues in Texas series) offers a crackerjack story inspired by a woman pilot from Texas who helped train RAF cadets for WWII. Jessie Lovelace, 24, dreams of following in the footsteps of her twin brother Jack, who signed up to serve as a pilot with the RAF. When her family’s airfield becomes a training ground for RAF pilots, Jessie jumps at the chance to be an instructor but is initially turned down for in-flight training. Instead, she and her friend Rhonda Monroe help teach pilots in an on-ground simulator for night flying. Jessie is drawn to wing commander Royce Ballinger, but feels disloyal to her rancher boyfriend Luke. As the town embraces the arrival of the cadet pilot trainees, Jessie’s 16-year-old sister, Kitty, becomes enamored of the young men, and Jessie eventually secures a position as an in-flight instructor. But when the U.S. enters the war, the remote threat becomes much more real, and Jessie’s romance with Royce is complicated by the risk of heartbreak when he returns home to fight. Heath’s magnetic narrative pulls readers in with its depiction of Jessie’s complicated love life and determination to overcome the limitations placed on her gender. With this riveting story, Heath makes a successful pivot from romance to historical fiction. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Apr.)