Summary (from the publisher):

On her 7th birthday, Annie’s con artist father Jack told her two things: he was giving her an airplane, and he was leaving her behind. Then he raced out of her life.

Years later, Annie, now a top Navy jet pilot, returns home on her twenty-sixth birthday to visit with her aunt and uncle, who raised her as their own. But she arrives to the most unexpected: a call from her father to say he is dying and needs her to fly to St. Louis to bring him the airplane he gave her the day he left.

Is Jack really dying, or is it another one of his elaborate cons? Why would she help the man who abandoned her? And is he telling the truth that if she brings him the plane, he will give her the one thing she always wanted: the name of her mother? The answer will set Annie on a quest filled with hilarious characters, strange encounters, and the most unexpected of all: the mystery of falling in love.

I have to say while I enjoyed this book, I probably wanted to like it more than I actually did like it.

I loved the characters in this book and their dedication to each other. It truly showed that families are what you make them. Annie was the heroine and after having been abandoned by her father at the age of 7, she began her life with her Aunt Sam (Samantha) and Uncle Clark. What a pair. Sam is a lesbian with a failed relationship she has had difficulty getting over, and Clark is a twice married (and divorced) peditrician and long time friend of the family who lives with Sam in the ancestral home. Together they provided the roots for the life that Annie's father gave her wings for. This book would have been a great character novel...or a great mystery as Annie races to help her (presumed) dying father. Somehow it fails at both. I would have like to have picked the book apart and put it back together in a chronological manner that would make more sense. I wanted more of both generes and as a consequence had a difficult time keeping myself interested in the novel. I did finish it. I can't say I loved the ending. I think for the amount of development in the novel it was almost likesomeone said enough, this is the end. I am sorry for that because the book had so much promise.