Life is interesting, is it not? Many people make the same mistakes in relationships over and over again, never realizing they are sabotaging themselves until something happens to make them aware of what they are doing. Annie’s Wild Ride is a book that has this sort of realism. It is about two people who are very well suited and yet keep making the same mistakes until it is almost too late, and I for one found it to be a book chalk full of enough emotion and personality to keep me reading way into the night.

Captains Annie and Paul Gaasbeck, both pilots in the US Air Force, find themselves in front of the same judge a couple of times every year, hammering out the finer points of their custody dispute over their two Amelias – one 11-year-old daughter and one single-engine Cessna 152. The judge, finally tired of the whole display, orders them to begin working it out for themselves. They end the argument by Paul still insisting on having his daughter home for Christmas as he is supposed to, and Annie still insisting on taking the two Amelias on the planned ski trip, but just cutting it short. As Annie is flying Amelia home to her father, they encounter an ice storm that forces Annie into an emergency landing in the mountains, and as the two are waiting for rescue, Annie keeps her daughter awake with stories about how she and Paul met, and their life together.

Meanwhile, Paul learns about the accident and heads up to Colorado Springs during a snowstorm. The trip up, while filled with worry, is also filled with memories for him, as the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is where he met Annie. He manages to “borrow” a helicopter from the school, and flies up during the storm to rescue his family.

The rescue acts as a catalyst – from there on out they are able to air out old grievances a bit, and begin finally sharing their feelings honestly and discovering how irreplaceable each is to the other.

Much of the book is spent in the past: flashbacks from Paul as he is driving up, and from Annie, as she is talking about those memories with her daughter. The reader gets an opportunity to see what magic the couple makes together and what went so horribly wrong that they couldn’t fix it while they were still married. The jumping around in time is done so well that I was not confused for even a paragraph, and it all made sense – no abrupt cliff-hangers, no endless meandering for no purpose. Annie and Paul each make good, sympathetic characters, and I liked how the author first made the story more sympathetic to Annie, and then to Paul, so we see flaws and strengths in each in a very balanced way.

I have a few minor problems. First, I never understood why there is no emergency equipment on the Cessna, especially after reading how conscientious Paul is with everything. Also there are a few stunts Annie pulls while as a student and as a commissioned officer that are extremely illogical and against regulations, and yet she suffers no consequences for them. Minor complaints in a very well-rounded book.

In Annie’s Wild Ride, I learned a bit about airplanes, a bit about the accomplishments of women in the Air Force, and a bit about military life. I also got a good read that doesn’t have much of the dry humor implied in the intro, but has enough realism to make these two people real to me from cover-to-cover. I might not have laughed, but I certainly shed a sympathetic tear, especially near the end when Annie has her bandages removed. I also want to add that it might be one of the most accurately named romances I have ever read. If that is not enough, you might read it just for Amelia (the daughter), who might just be the most likable character in the book.