I struggled on how to rate this book. I did enjoy reading this book and think Caroline is a kickass jet girl, but the story itself was all over the place. I really didn't like the split timelines, because bouncing back and forth was disorientating.

Jet Girl by Caroline Johnson is a wonderful story of bravery and talent that is rarely witnessed.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Did not finish in time for NetGalley, but bought a copy to read. Sadly I had to DNF this one. I won't post a review to books that I canpt finish.

This was a wonderful read! I enjoyed getting a glimpse into a rarely seen side of military life. Caroline Johnson tells a wonderful tale about her life and her military life. Get ready for a glimpse into something we know little about, but will after this captivating read!

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. What an amazing woman Caroline Johnson is. I did not read this cover to cover but I enjoyed what I did read. This is a great book for those looking for a role model or even considering going into the service.

Loved this story of bravery and talent. It’s a raw story that shows emotion and strife yet hopeful and amazing at the same time.

I wanted to love this book. As an AF spouse, I have spent more time around planes and talking about planes than the average person. However, I found the writing so terrible and the story so dull that I couldn't manage more than a couple chapters before I had to put it down. I think this story might've made a better podcast than a book.

While I found certain anecdotes within the book interesting and engaging, overall the book was a miss for me. It could be because I don’t identify with the author at all, but I’ve thought critically about this and I think it’s more than that. The book is repetitive and she comes across as whiney about things that have little consequence and quickly glosses over things that she should whine about (ie sexual assault). Her explanations of things feel, at times, hokey.

That being said I really feel for what she went through in the Navy. They chewed up someone who had amazing promise and wanted to give back to our country. These issues are systemic across careers in America but are magnified in a chauvinist male dominated career like the armed forces, and specifically fighter jets. I’m glad she was able to give some specific advice to her superiors before she left... hopefully we get a new POTUS in charge who would actually listen and attend to those criticism.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Jet Girl was a captivating memoir!

I read this one in about a day or two - after maybe 30 pages, the author really pulled me into her story. It wasn't what I was expecting; Johnson shared the good, the bad, and the ugly of her time as a jet girl.

I wasn't necessarily surprised by anything I read, but I still appreciated all she shared. I was especially struck by just how important relationships and a solid support system were throughout.

I couldn't always follow the timeline, but that didn't bother me. I think it was mostly chronological, with some flashbacks? It felt like grabbing coffee with a friend and her mostly telling a story in a logical order but also sometimes deviating from that order. (Which was fine! If it bothered me I could have sat down and taken some notes.)

I'm grateful to Johnson for all she shared, and share her hopes of a more inclusive environment for future fighter jets.

I received an advance digital copy of this book from the author, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is, in short, an amazing book. Ms. Johnson's sharing her experiences in the U.S. Navy are smart, moving and eye opening. She broke ground for other female pilots and has the scars to prove it. A must read.

Thank you for your service, Ms. Johnson, and thank you for writing this book!

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the publisher, the author and to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book. My gratitude to the author for her selfless service to our country and for her dedication to America. This is the story of her own personal inspiring journey and a inside look at the life of a woman pilot .

I enjoyed reading the author's account of her training, dedication and skills . She is to be commended as a outstanding example for all women in the military.
She begins with her active duty aboard the USS George H.W. Bush and her indoctrination into various training facilities with the military. She is phenomenal in how she preserved through ongoing sexually harassment and abuse into a career as a pilot with first hand dedication to her country. This is brave of her to place the ongoing abuse of women in the military in the spotlight. Bravo to the author . Her strength and courage will pave the way hopefully to improve conditions for all women in our military.
Caroline Johnson was the first US women to fly jets & drop bombs on ISIS. She was driven to achieve this measure of success. She overcame extensive abuse to achieve her goals. This is to be respected as she rose to the top of her profession despite those who attempted to undermine her because she is a woman. I was very impressed with how she rises above abuse to continue her training and reach her goals. She is a strong driven woman and a good example for all young women in the military. She goes onto teach other pilots and that is a secondary measure of her success in how she is respected as a instructor. A very exciting read and a great patriot. Thank you for your dedication to. our great country.

This review is going to be split in two aspects. The first is on Caroline Johnson, the person. The second is on the story itself.

Caroline Johnson is an absolutely phenomenal woman. What she has achieved and accomplished in her life is nothing short of amazing. She has broken down walls, barriers and glass ceilings that women didn't think they would ever see the other side of. She is a hero to be admired. A woman to be respected. Someone that little girls everywhere should be proud to look up to as an example of what they can become, that literally the sky is the limit of who they can be. The evils she bravely stares down to protect this country should be honored. From that aspect, Caroline Johnson gets 10 plus stars!!!

Where this book falls short for me is the telling of her story. I didn't like the structure of the book, it was very jumbled going back and forth between timelines and choppy in the manner it was written. I wanted more feeling, more emotion and not just in the form of 'what color her nails were painted'. Caroline Johnson has an incredible story but that didn't translate right onto the pages. Too much of the book was overly technical or detail driven. At times I felt like I was reading a flight manual or a textbook from the Naval Academy versus someone's life story. The other aspect that didn't sit well with me was I felt she was trying to overly impress how much of a "girlie girl" she is given her job. I can appreciate that she is a minority on the ship and most definitely in her role with the Navy. I don't feel that makes her any less woman or female than a woman in a more traditional female oriented job.

Had the story been translated better and more cohesively, this would definitely be a book I would recommend. I would like to end by saying again that Caroline Johnson is an incredible woman and I am grateful for her service to this country.

My thanks to Caroline Johnson, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
I was excited to read this book about a woman flyer of jet aircraft in combat.
The book starts out reading like it was written for young adults. As it proceeded to talk about
combat and death, it felt more like it was written for adults. It was never very well written but
it was interesting enough that I finished it and did learn a lot about women in the military.

I'm not usually one to read memoirs, I'm more the murder mystery sort of reader. However, I was absolutely captivated by Caroline Johnson's Jet Girl; what an extraordinary life.! I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this amazing memoir! I give Jet Girl my highest recommendation.

Thank you so very much to NetGalley, Caroline Johnson, and the publisher for the opportunity to read Jet Girl, by Caroline Johnson, in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.

Wow, Jet Girl was easily one of the most addictive memoirs I have ever had the experience of reading. I have greatly enjoyed reading military books, including Lone Survivor, American Sniper, and even American Wife by Taya Kyle. Interestingly, most of the military books I’ve read, including this one, have centered around the Navy. I find it fascinating to learn about life in the military and in war from first-person accounts, without the filter of the news making stories safer for our sensitive civilian ears. Jet Girl did that and eons more. I found this to be an extremely important and educational read!

There were so many fascinating elements to this memoir — simply being able to learn a bit what military pilots and weapons system officers do was incredibly enlightening. The amount of education required and the level of intelligence these people possess amazed me! This career path is not for the faint of heart and it makes me thankful a few special folks have the ability to withstand the mental and physical taxing it takes to sit in the cockpits of these jets.

One of the things I always find interesting about military books is just how much red tape our military has to cut through just to do their jobs. They can be over 8,000 miles away from Washington, but people behind their safe desks still are somehow in the backseat. Thinking about how much cruelty our military witnessed at the hands of ISIS, including mass-drownings, beheadings, and killings of children, but were powerless to stop it because someone in Washington didn’t authorize it astounds me.

My only real complaint about this book was the constant switching between the past and present. I think it would have benefitted the storytelling to have been in chronological order. There were also a few times of technical talk or military-speak that wasn’t exactly explained, which was confusing.

One reviewer mentioned this book wouldn’t do much for the treatment of women in the military, but I vehemently disagree. I think Caroline Johnson’s (and the rest of the Jet Girls) whole career was a pioneering endeavor that produced changes in the thoughts and actions of many men in the military. A few scenes reflected such injustice, that I was fuming right along with Caroline. I imagine toeing the line between being respectful, as the military demands, and fighting for change was extremely difficult in many cases throughout her career. The final scene in the epilogue showed that some are determined to make the military a place that is truly equal for women, however. Unfortunately, there were a few instances, still, that came across as slightly over-the-top in negativity or even whiny about her treatment. I haven’t lived in her shoes, though, so I can imagine even the smallest amounts of unfairness would eventually build into something much more difficult to tackle daily.

Overall, I found Jet Girl to be completely thought-provoking, interesting, and informational. I read the majority of this book in one sitting, which is quite uncommon for me when diving into Nonfiction. I think civilians should consider reading this book or others like it to understand and develop a real appreciation for what our service members do for our country and our freedom.

The book was enjoyable, the author explaining some of what she went through as a woman and being one of the few in the part of the armed forces she was in. In this book, she was a vulnerable as she was allowed to be in a man's world.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All Thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a great memoir. I was very wrapped up in the story and found it very entertaining. I never found the subject matter boring and even though there was a lot of aviation info it never felt over my head either.

I thought Caroline did a great job of telling her story, struggles and celebrations.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. :-)

I really enjoyed this peek behind the curtain. The author did a great job of writing in an accessible way and humanizing the military. It was a bit odd to jump back and forth but it sort of made sense in how things circled back around. The story was so intriguing I found myself wanting more. It was heartbreaking to see how our country's finest are treated by the military, even worse for females. Overall it was an empowering and insinghtful read into a rarely seen part of our armed forces

Alternating between her time in the Naval Academy and later flight school to her deployment, Caroline Johnson gives readers a glimpse at the rigorous mental and physical training that all pilots undergo with special emphasis on those that fly jets.

I thoroughly enjoyed Caroline’s story telling and watching hearing about her growth into an accomplished service member in spite of adversity. As a military spouse with girlfriends in the military, I have heard a number of stories that confirm the continued existence of the good ole boys club. I will say that as a spouse, I was horrified by the wives of her squadron mates behavior and by the end, Caroline was far more forgiving than I was but that is a soapbox for another day.

The only thing that kept this from being a five-star read was the heavy use of jargon. Admittedly, I don’t see how Caroline and Hof could have avoided it but it still made parts of the story difficult to follow. Regardless, Caroline is a natural storyteller and she had me laughing and crying as she took us on a tour of her time with the U.S. Navy.

Overall, this is a necessary start to a long-overdue conversation with the next generation of service members regarding equal treatment and opportunities for minorities in the U.S. military, with an emphasis on women. While Caroline’s story is limited to her time within the Navy, the issues discussed are hardly limited to this branch of the military and even extends into the civilian world as well. Bullying some random soldier, sailor, or what have you, into serving as an EO Rep isn’t fixing the pervasive issues within our ranks. I hope Caroline continues to advocate for changes in leadership as she continues on her journey in the private sector. Maybe one day we will all serve or work under exceptional leaders like Admiral Bullet.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
*Review posted to Amazon (pending approval), B&N, Bookbub, Goodreads
*Long review will be posted to Dream Come Review 6 NOV

This book was fascinating to me. Reading about a female Navy jet pilot’s experieces (good and bad) was so eye opening to military life and the behind the scenes of the systems that keep this country safe. As someone was pretty in the dark about the training jet pilots receive, I am even more thankful for their service now.

I felt that this book was very honest and vunerable. Johnson leans into the hard times she experiences at the end of the book and I appreciated how she owned her mistakes and her feelings. If you are into learning more about bad-a women, I would recommend this one.