REVIEW: Flying Home

Rachel Ann Nunes takes readers down the dramatic, romantic and mysterious road of Liana Winn's life in the novel "Flying Home."Clarissa and Travis Winn adopted Liana from India when she was 4 years old, just after the death of Liana's parents, Clarissa's sister and brother-in-law. Although the Winns brought Liana up in a kind, nurturing home, Liana never connected with her adoptive mother and struggles to let anyone come close to her for fear that she will lose them like she lost her birth parents and be forced to deal with the pain of another broken heart. The only person she was ever able to become close with was her adoptive brother, Christian.But when Liana meets successful businessman Austin Walker, her heart is torn as to whether she should open herself up to him or push him away. Opening herself up, after all, would mean bringing up the painful and tragic memories of her past. Allowing herself to love would only bring the risk of heartache, and she has had enough heartache for one life.Austin, unlike her past relationships, won't give up. He opens up to Liana about his own dark past and challenges her to face her unanswered questions about her parents' deaths and her nightmares of two crying women and a screaming baby.Upon meeting Austin's family and surprisingly connecting with his sister, Mercedes, Liana starts to wonder if it might not be so bad to open up to others. She feels her courage grow and decides to travel to India to find out the truth about her parents, and, hopefully, answers to her confusing dreams and flashbacks. Liana's rising courage and confidence suddenly disappear in India, however, as she makes a shocking discovery in the cemetery where her parents are buried. She now is more confused and depressed than ever and returns to the United States only to find an even greater tragedy awaiting her at home. The book poses questions such as: Will Liana ever be able to feel a part of a family, and will she ever be able to love again, even after all the misery and loneliness love has brought her in the past? Nunes answers these questions and reveals shocking insights in an organized mixture of Liana's present life, her flashbacks and segments of the journal of Karyn Olsen, Liana's birth mother. Nunes is known for romantic tales without the graphic scenes. She said in a 2006 interview that aired on KSL Radio that romance is more than the physical aspects. "You talk about romance, and you have a lot of the national romance and they're all, oh, beating hearts... and I don't write that way," she said. "I mean, you've got to have the romance, the romance is wonderful, it's in almost everything, you know, from 'Star Wars' to you name it, it's in there. But I also think you need to have a really good plot, something that's going to be meaty and give the readers something to read and something to muse over, to think about long after the book's over... " Nunes is known for her "Ariana" series; picture book "Daughter of a King," which was voted best children's book of the year in 2003 by the Association of Independent LDS Booksellers; and "The Secret of the King," which was chosen by the Governor's Commission on Literacy to be awarded to all Utah grade schools as part of the "Read with a Child for 20 Minutes per Day" program.