Review: The Note by Angela Hunt

I read Angela Hunt's The Note last week for my C3BC book club. C3BC was started last year at my church and I've read some great books with those ladies. Plus met some really cool ladies of all ages! But I digress...

The Note is the first book I've read from author Angela Hunt. Here's the summary:

When the unthinkable happens . . .

En route from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Tampa International, Flight 848 bursts into flames and crashes into Tampa Bay. All 261 passengers and crew are killed. For one week, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder and her fellow reporters cover one of the nation's worst air disasters in years with overwhelming and numbed emotions.

Then a woman Peyton's never met gives her a plastic bag that has washed up behind her house. The bag contains a note, almost certainly from the doomed flight, with a simple yet wrenching message: T- I love you. All is forgiven. -Dad

Combing through the passenger list to find the victims whose children's names begin with T, Peyton is determined to deliver the note to its proper owner. A quest which will prove as important to Peyton's own life as to the mysterious T.

I read The Note on my Kindle. It was a quick, enjoyable read. I enjoying watching Peyton's discovery of the purpose of journalism. Her discovery of what really is important in her life. And the power of forgiveness.

The early portion of the book was on the crash itself and Peyton's draw to it. It felt a little underdeveloped at the time I was reading it. But it was mostly a background for the rest of the book and now I'm not sure it would have been better to flesh it out more.

I enjoyed the search for the correct owner of the note. I especially enjoyed talking with the C3BC ladies about each of these potential owners - how they reacted to the note itself, whether they needed the note to be theirs, and the difference in their public versus private reactions.

Some of the situations and especially the ending felt a little contrived but not enough that it ruined the story. I was still teary-eyed at the end!

I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys lighter women's fiction or Christian fiction. It would also be good for any women's book club to read as there are good themes for discussion.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars