***** Exciting Young War Hero!
Review by Rox Burkey
Author Guy Worthey puts one tough girl in a plane, shooting down the enemies, and relying on her guile to get her through the challenges of war. Cecilia “Ace” Carroway is a 16-year-old who lied about her age and joined the Allies in World War I as a pilot. The excitement begins immediately with an unexpected end to an air battle. She ends up a POW when her plane is shot down. Ace’s story starts quickly with a thrilling air-battle, but she ends up a prisoner when her plane is shot down.
The writing is delightful with its face-paced delivery. It was impossible to stop reading before the end. The scene with Ace taking her plane down in enemy territory highlighted her spunk. It was here I became a fan.
“The engine seemed to purr for a while, then sputtered to a halt. “Dry as dust,” Ace groaned in the abrupt quiet.
“My fuel tank must have been holed.”
Ace looked around. The twin-engine Ottoman had dropped a lot of altitude. It swooped back toward the airship hangars and the accompanying airbase.
Without any push from the engine, her SPAD was a poor glider. The enemy landing strip was her only option. Ace banked toward it. Her Ottoman quarry banked unsteadily to and fro. Short of the landing strip, its gyrations ended in a dive. It plummeted straight into the ground, erupting in an inferno of burning gasoline.
Ace winced. “I must’ve nicked the pilot.”
She could already see trucks and soldiers fanning out below her.
As a point of pride, Ace made a perfect landing. As a matter of survival, she raised both hands high in the air as forty armed soldiers surrounded her.”
Author Worthey does a masterful job at detailing the 1920’s as he paints the story. There is a mixture of emotions as he takes us from chuckling to gasping as Ace becomes the leader of a motley group of men who hold her in the highest regard. Ace keeps many steps ahead of every situation in a believable manner. She is not perfect, but darn close
I recommend this story to young teens and women who love quick-witted adventure. I look forward to trying more of the stories in this series. A definite keeper.
About the Author:
Wyoming native Guy Worthey traded spurs and
lassos for telescopes and computers when he decided to pursue astrophysics.
Whenever he temporarily escapes the gravitational pull of stars and galaxies,
he writes fiction, now in the slightly less rectangular state of Washington.
He plays jazz bass and happily stretches genre
boundaries to find common musical ground with his classical violinist wife
Diane. A beacon of inclusivity in a fractured world, he likes both cats and
dogs. Creamed eggs on toast is the earthy name of his favorite food, but once in
a while he samples the celestial delights of chocolate.
He writes the Ace Carroway adventure series, a
steampunk-histfic-scifi romp that follows the action-packed perils of a female
pilot-doctor-musician and her five assistants.
Twitter https://twitter.com/GuyWorthey
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/guywortheyauthor/
Website https://guyworthey.net/
