Wings

Cassie O'Malley is the daughter of a First World War flier who runs a small airfield near Chicago. Her father wants his son to be the pilot, not his red-haired daughter, but Cassie is the one drawn to the planes standing in the moonlight, and she learns to fly in secret with the help of her father's partner, Nick Galvin.

When the California entrepreneur Desmond Williams recognises what she can do, Cassie is taken west to fly for his company and to chase aviation records, and finds that fame carries its own price: the flights are as much publicity as they are aviation, and the life that comes with them is not the one she imagined.

Set on the eve of the Second World War, Wings is a story about ambition and sacrifice — a young woman fighting for a place in a world that had no intention of giving her one, and learning which of the things she wants she is willing to give up.