Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Last Flight by Julie Clark. Wow - what a read! Two women - both have secrets - both want to change their lives - and both are prepared to take a risk that will forever change the course of the future.
This book is written in two voices - Clare and Eva. Clare is in an abusive marriage and Eva lives the live of a drug dealer. They both need to escape and have carefully set the stage to do so by catching a plane to sights unknown - but last minute changes to Clare's flight plan put her in a panic. She meets a young woman at an airport bar who proposes an idea - switch the tickets, give each other a gift of a new beginning. So they do, but the plane crashes with Eva on it and now Clare must live her life. She has no idea what she's getting into and she is scared to death. This new life is not what she had hoped for...
The storyline goes back and forth and gives the reader an insight to both women - their lives and struggles. I was captivated - Clark weaves a tale that will keep you reading into the night.
Very good - 4.5 stars.

TEN STARS to this author! I LOVED this book. I can't say enough good things about it--excellent writing, fabulous plot, believable and realistically c characters--what else can do say except you will devour this book just as I did. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!

An exciting read!

Claire is married to Rory - who is about to announce his run for the Senate This, to follow in his late mother's footsteps. Married for 10 years, Claire realizes that Rory is not his mother. He is abusive and a liar. He tricked Claire to believe his story about how his former fiancé, Maggie, died.

With the help of two old schoolmates, (who have more than questionable ties), Claire is able to obtain the documentation she needs to 'run away from Rory. Yet, due to a very last minute change of plane reservations by her husband, Claire's intricate plans are foiled. Also, documentation that would have been waiting for Claire in Detroit is now in the hands of her husband...

Instead of a trip to Detroit from JFK, Claire is now to be sent to Puerto Rico. In the airport bar, Claire meets Eva who is running away, too. They exchange information - and Claire is off to Oakland. The plane to Puerto Rico crashes. Everyone thinks that Claire is among the casualties . Claire ends up at Eva's house and finds out that everything Eva told her about her "dead husband" is a lie. Why was Eva running away? Claire had rigged Rory's computer to see the secret internet mail between Bruce (Rory's closest assistant) and Rory.

Especially puzzling is when Claire sees a woman who she thinks is Eva on a New York TV news clip...

An explosive read that promises to delight! Highly Recommend!

Many Thanks to SourceBooks Landmark and NetGalley for a twisty ride!

I received an early copy of this book on Netgalley and I'm so glad I did. I read a lot of psychological suspense and Julie's Clark's first book is this genre is up there with the best of them.

The story hinges around a plane crash over the Atlantic. Claire was supposed to be on the flight, but at the last minute she trades tickets with a woman in the airport, desperate to do anything to escape her abusive husband. The characters: Claire, the wife of a prominent philanthropist who is considering a senate run, and Eva, a college drop out who's now manufacturing and selling drugs, are both real, flawed and compelling. The structure of the book which alternates between Claire's story after the plane crash and Eva's story in the months leading up to the crash, amps up the drama and makes this book a real page turner. I tore though it in less than a day, anxious to figure out what really happened on the day of the crash and why. Clark' exploration of the emotional tolls of abuse is nuanced and important, but doesn't bog down the story. A perfect one day read.

Beautifully written with relatable characters, underscored by a compelling set of mysteries and a thoroughly satisfying ending.

What an incredibly well-written, timely book! The courage of the two main characters, Eva and Claire, was just astounding. Although they were in situations that could be dangerous -even deadly- they found the inner strength to get themselves out of trouble.... unfortunately, they were willing to risk life and limb to do so. I feel this is such an IMPORTANT book, especially in the #MeToo era. For every woma that comes forward with allegations of abuse, there are hundreds who suffer in silence, sadly. It was incredibly refreshing to read a thriller centered on brave, courageous heroines, as opposed to the more common damsel in distress themed novels. I had an incredibly hard time putting this one down; it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat, and had me rooting for both women, even if some of their decisions wer selfish or irrational.... the end justified the means, in this case Definitely a must read!

This is a fabulous story! I could not put this book down, I ended up staying up till 3:00 A.M. to finish this story, I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting a great book that you can get into. I also am going to recommend this to our book club when it is released. I can't wait to see what else Julie Clark writes! Great, Great Book!!!

I received in advance for you just copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow – this book was a very slow burn but about halfway in the drama eat up and that last half is a crazy crash until it finally goes off the rails. These men are scary, and not in the horror movie sense of the word. This will definitely have you sleeping with one eye with your beloved in the room

I’ll be honest, kind of wary of these female driven suspense thrillers lately. There are just too many of them out there right now, trying to out convolute each other. Often too preoccupied with stunning the readers with the prerequisite plots twists to do the actual work of writing instead. Which is all to say that the best thing about this book, the thing that makes it stand out in the sea of same and similar, is precisely that, the author did the work and created two female characters (some things like split perspectives are unavoidable) so engaging and likeable that their respective journeys up to and post the fated last flight are actually compelling enough to sustain the plot entirely. I’m almost surprised at how much I liked this book because it has several elements I might normally stay away from…it’s very much a #MeToo timed story and it’s more or less women’s fiction in a way. All of the main character, actually all of the good characters are women, women support each other, help each other out and defy the men who all seem determine to abuse, oppress, use, control, manipulate, terrify and/or flat out kill them. It’s pretty black and white that way, not a lot of grey territory and that’s sad in a way, because strict moral rigidity tends to take away from good complex storytelling. And yet…Claire and Eva manage to do it, survive their personal tragic stories and rise above (and no, that isn’t a tasteless pun on the premise). So ok, let’s address the premise…it’s fairly straight forward in that strangers on a train sort of way, two women desperately trying to get out of the frying pans their lives have become just into the potential fire of exchanging lives and ways out. Claire, getting out of her abusive marriage to a wealthy political scion, gets on a plane to California and Eva, fleeing her past as a dealer, gets to go off the mainland. And then the plane Claire was supposed to be on, the one Eva got on instead, does a Boeing Max 737. And suddenly all the plans go right out of the window. Ok, sorry, the terrible puns are here to stay, it seems. So anyway, the novel comprises dual perspectives, so that you get to know Claire in the after and Eva in the before. It’s all fairly standard suspense thriller business with every chance of being tedious and yet…Claire and Eva manage to come alive, in all their flawed beauty. They are smart, tough, self sufficient, they don’t whine, they make efforts and plans, they strive to improve their lot, they avoid becoming clichés. They are both victimized by men in their lives, but they don’t come across as victims, which is a pretty important distinction. These ladies are decidedly not chick lit material. There are no cheesy romances, no gay best friends, no bffs to get drunk with while doing each others’ nails. It’s women’s fiction at its best. And there’s also a great deal of suspense throughout, the pages are taut with it, the author did a really great job of dramatizing that edge of your seat quality you don’t often find well done in a thriller. There isn’t much mystery as such and what is of it is fairly easy to figure out, so don’t read it for that alone. It’s much more of a character driven suspense thriller. So yeah, Last Flight is just too good of a book to get weighed down by its heavy handed message. Go figure. I enjoyed this one, very entertaining and plenty well written. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

To the outside world, Claire Cook leads a fairy tale life, married to a political hotshot with a glamorous home and a staff of servants waiting to do her bidding. But her famous husband is really a controlling monster who pays his staff to track every move Claire makes. Desperate to escape, Claire makes a daring plan with a woman who wants out of her life just as badly as Claire wants out of hers. At an airport, they switch tickets. Claire will take Eva’s flight to Oakland and Eve will take Claire’s to Puerto Rico. It was only meant to provide a little breathing room for both women, but when the plane to Puerto Rica goes down, Claire realizes she has a second chance in another life. After all, Eva’s life can’t be any worse than the one Claire left behind, could it? Original and captivating, I’d like to see this story on the big screen