We Never Asked For Wings

We Never Asked for Wings is Vanessa Diffenbaugh's newest novel. For as much as I loved The Language of Flowers (and I did love it), I loved, loved, loved We Never Asked for Wings.  I am suffering a total book hangover today and am not very sure where to go from here.

Letty leaves her children one day as she and her mother drive to Mexico to find her father.  While she is gone, fourteen year old Alex and six year old Luna survive, knowing she will return soon.

As expected the children have a few mishaps without any adults to assist them, but manage remarkably well.  Letty has returned without her parents, who have provided care and parenting to both Luna and Alex while Letty was expected to work and provide the lone income for all of them.

Alex is fourteen, a bright young man who is attending a less than quality high school. He's met a girl he loves, but wonders about his father, a man he has never met.

Letty has some secrets and many disappointments about her life which changed dramatically from the dreams she had for herself when she found out she was pregnant.

As her story unfolded I fell in love with Letty, wanting her to find happiness, and to grow into the woman I knew she could be. I wanted it for Letty, but I wanted that for Alex and Luna, too.

Diffenbaugh's novel holds so much hope, sorrow, and joy that I could barely put it down.  Now after I've turned the last page, I know that this is a novel I want to put in the hands of friends, my mother-in-law, and book club members.

This is sure to be one of my best reads of 2015; it's a book not to be missed.