Linda Holmes, NPR’s pop culture correspondent and the bestselling author of EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER, returns with FLYING SOLO, a whimsical and heartfelt testament to choosing the love story that fits you best and learning to live with yourself when love isn’t right next to you.

“Found a duck, might be important, guy ripped me off and stole it, I’m trying to get it back.” These are probably the last words that almost-40-year-old Laurie Sassalyn plans to utter when she takes on the enormous task of packing up her deceased great-aunt Dot’s home. A spirited adventurer who lived to the age of 93, Dot was many things: a safe haven for a young Laurie, living in a home dominated by brothers; an avid photographer of friends, family and world travels; a brave traveler who ventured out on her own well into her senior years...and, apparently, a decoy duck owner?

"Linda Holmes shines with her small-town setting, lovable characters and underdog heroine.... Perhaps what I loved most about FLYING SOLO was Holmes’ compassionate and tender exploration of legacy and inheritance."

While digging through Dot’s mementos and collections, Laurie and her best friend, June, discover a wooden duck deep in a chest of blankets. That Dot would own such a thing --- alongside letters from old lovers, pottery from far-off places and endless Polaroids --- is not shocking. But that she hid away something so beautifully constructed when the rest of her treasures were always on display definitely piques Laurie’s interest. Having recently broken off an engagement (three weeks before the wedding, no less), Laurie has both the time and the need for a distraction that allows her not only to agree to help the family pack up Dot’s home, but to fully immerse herself in the mystery of the duck.

Luckily for Laurie, her parents have already hired a young man named Matt to help her with the task. For a fee, he will appraise valuable items in the house for resale, give Laurie the space to collect more sentimental items, and take the rest to consignment shops and dumps as needed. Warm and intelligent, Matt appears to have a real interest in preserving Dot’s memory. So when he assures her that the duck, despite some unusual markings that could label it a valuable original, has close to no value, she agrees to sell it to him for $50. It is only after he has taken the duck that she realizes his appraisal form was fake and he may have taken off with a decoy duck worth a very real $80,000. So begins the heist of a century.

Teaming up with June and her high school boyfriend turned sexy librarian, Nick, Laurie tries to determine how Dot came into possession of the duck, what it meant to her, and why she kept it hidden. Their search not only introduces them to young girlfriends Daisy and Melody, but also reunites Laurie with her actor brother Ryan and, perhaps most important of all, forces her to consider her own love life. While Laurie is perfectly willing to dive into the mystery of a decoy duck, she is far less interested in looking inward at her own romantic life and choices…especially with Nick, the “one who got away” (or rather was pushed away), in such close proximity.

Just as she did in EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER (Evvie, by the way, makes a delightful appearance in FLYING SOLO), Linda Holmes shines with her small-town setting, lovable characters and underdog heroine. She has a natural cadence for dialogue, grasping the dynamics of different relationships --- sibling, best friend, lover --- and giving voice to every inside joke, playful squabble and, even better, the words that go unsaid between the banter. While the title is a clear play on the solo decoy duck, Holmes applies the idea of “flying solo” to Dot, who lived a beautiful and complete life on her own terms, and Laurie, who values her independence but struggles to embrace the ways that others might help her enjoy it. Laurie also must pin down what it means for her to “fly solo,” which includes unpacking the mistakes of her past and recognizing how she continues to prevent her own happy ending.

Perhaps what I loved most about FLYING SOLO was Holmes’ compassionate and tender exploration of legacy and inheritance. As a single woman herself, Laurie feels an obligation not only to handle Dot’s affairs, but to look at every Polaroid, touch every ceramic dish and carefully file every love letter. After all, why should Dot’s beloved collections be thrown nonchalantly into a landfill just because she never married or had children? Were her adventures worth less because she always came home alone? Who, Laurie wonders, will do these things for her when she dies, and does it even matter?

Describing the sense of responsibility she feels to preserve Dot’s memory and legacy, Laurie says, “I wanted to stick up for her life, for the way she was and the way she lived. I wanted to give her the same respect she would have gotten if she’d made different choices. I wanted her pictures and her precious things to be counted, even if they weren’t being fought over.” While FLYING SOLO features a beautiful, moving journey of self-acceptance, a tender second-chance romance and a hilarious heist, it is this passage that truly will stay with me as I continue to build my own collections…which undoubtedly will include a shelf dedicated to Linda Holmes’ books.