BOOK REVIEW: A Wing and a Prayer by Julie Lessman

A Wing and a Prayer by Julie Lessman
Series: The Cousins O'Connor #1
Published by Julie Lessman LLC on September 8, 2026
Genres: Fiction / Christian / Historical, Fiction / Christian / Women, Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War II
Pages: 562
Format: eBook
Amazon|Barnes&Noble|Goodreads

"She's dead-set on giving everything to the war overseas ...Even if it means losing everything in a war of the heart. A street orphan abused and abandoned by an alcoholic father at age five, Gabriella (Gabe) O'Connor has never let a man stand in her way yet. So when a handsome flight officer thwarts her plans to become a WASP -- Women Air Force Service Pilot -- she's determined to join the war effort anyway she can. Her chance comes when she "borrows" foreign correspondent credentials from the Boston Herald--where her father is the editor--to stow away on a medical ship to the front. Lieutenant Alex Kincaid pegs Gabe O'Connor as trouble the moment she steps foot on Avenger Field as a WASP cadet. As the eldest brother of a boy whose jaw Gabe broke in grade school, Alex is familiar with her reputation as both a charismatic ringleader and a headstrong hooligan who's challenged every male and nun from grade school to college. As her WASP flight instructor, Alex eventually expels Gabe when she pulls a dangerous stunt. But when he is an evacuation pilot in France eight months later, their lives intertwine once again, exposing them to a danger as perilous as the German tanks roaming the Reichswald Forest: a love that neither expects"--Amazon.com.

Ya’ll I really struggled with this book. It took me over a week to read, which is highly unusual. I knew I was stepping into the romance arena, and I was mentally prepared for that. And honestly, while I felt some things about the romance part, that’s not even where I really struggled. The book I thought, hoped, I was going to read wasn’t exactly the book I read. There were great parts. The history, the amount of research that went into this book stands out. The execution just left me feeling not really engaged. I felt more told than shown, and I really never felt anything that they were telling me about, even the big things.

There’s so many things I can talk about, but I want to focus on Gabe. I think the issues I have with Gabe are just branches of all the other things. Gabe was set up to be a big personality. An underdog of epic personality. Big emotions, big personality, small stature. She was a spitfire for sure. But . . . in trying to convey that to me, the reader, she came across more as a one-dimensional caricature. By the time she started to maybe have a layer or two, I was checked out of caring. Add to that, the situations she finds herself in don’t feel believable. Even the ones based on real, actual facts that happened just didn’t click for me. Maybe because I was being told about it, like facts, and I never really felt it. I didn’t get any depth or layers just here you go. I need onions ya’ll, layers and layers of onions.

There’s more I can delve into like saltwater instead of tears and Pop always (always) calling everyone darlin’ in a way that felt patronizing. But outside my frustrations, the story has good bones. A different take on the experiences of WW2. Characters that had the potential to go beyond interesting. The romance had a lot of layers and the expected red-bow happy ending. In the right hands, I think it will be a beloved book. I am not the right hands. I can appreciate the story that wanted to be told while also lamenting that it didn’t quite reach out to me. Love a spitfire female main character set into a romance during WW2 with some unconventional settings? This could be the book for you.

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Posted By: Fizzy Pop · In: A Wing and a Prayer, book review, Julie Lessman, The Cousins O'Connor