Nadya's War by C.S. Taylor

Summary:

     Nadezdah “Little Boar” Buzina, a young pilot with the Red Army’s 586th all-female fighter regiment, dreams of becoming an ace. Those dreams shatter when a dogfight leaves her severely burned and the sole survivor from her flight.

For the latter half of 1942, she struggles against crack Luftwaffe pilots, a vengeful political commissar, and a new addiction to morphine, all the while questioning her worth and purpose in a world beyond her control. It’s not until the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad that she finds her unlikely answers, and they only come after she’s saved her mortal enemy’s life and fallen in love with the one who nearly kills her.

My Thoughts:

     Nadya's War was a bit of a slow start for me but I was curious to where this story would take us and to see if Nadya would get her revenge she was so hellbent on getting.  Some of the plane and flying scenes got rather technical and were occasionally hard to follow for someone who knows nothing about planes.  I may have skimmed a bit but the dogfight scenes were vivid and had my attention. The author seems well versed on planes and this type of warfare which is probably why it was so detailed.
     I appreciate Nadya's passion for flying, her religion, and her country and wanting to fight but her actions were sometimes rather childish.  She was only twenty but in the 1940's that was entirely different than twenty now and she was in the midst of war.  There is a bit of a love story element here that is nice but not overwhelming to the rest of the book.  I do feel the ending was rather abrupt but also a total surprise.
     This is an interesting historical fiction story about an element of WWII that is never really talked about; women involved in the actual fighting and not at home waiting.  I think this is an aspect that we need to see more of but I feel like Nadya's story was a bit too detailed in technical info and a bit choppy at times.  2.5/5

 

Author's site: http://cs-taylor.com/