We Never Asked for Wings – Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The tagline ‘everybody makes mistakes’ really sums up the journey this book takes you on. Letty is a young single mum who feels inadequate to look after her children. But after her parents leave, she if left to fend her herself with a young daughter and a teenage son. ‘We Never Asked for Wings’ is a book of self-discovery at all ages, and how the past is just that. It affects us but it is how we move on from it that matters.

The obvious mistake that Letty makes is that she has children. But more than that, the initial neglect and detachment of this responsibility. Her son Alex, as a young boy learns, sometimes the hard way, that it is not always best to do what is ‘right’. In this way it appears that these characters’ mirror each other although their stories are different. Even though the characters all makes mistakes, it makes them more human and relatable and I really feel in love with them.

Five-star book, which I read in one sitting! It was a beautifully written and mesmerising book. It was such a simple concept of family dynamic, but more than that it was a story of discovery, hope and ultimately forgiveness that will stay with me for a while to come.

We Never Asked for Wings - Vanessa Diffenbaugh