This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

Jane Start is thirty-three, broke, and recently single. Ten years prior, she had a hit song—written by world-famous superstar Jonesy—but Jane hasn’t had a breakout since. Now she's living out of four garbage bags at her parents’ house, reduced to performing to Karaoke tracks in Las Vegas. Rock bottom.

But when her longtime manager Pippa sends Jane to London to regroup, she’s seated next to an intriguing stranger on the flight—the other Tom Hardy, an elegantly handsome Oxford professor of literature. Jane is instantly smitten by Tom, and soon, truly inspired. But it’s not Jane’s past alone that haunts her second chance at stardom, and at love. Is Tom all that he seems? And can Jane emerge from the shadow of Jonesy's earlier hit, and into the light of her own?


In turns deeply sexy, riotously funny, and utterly joyful, This Bird Has Flown explores love, passion, and the ghosts of our past, and offers a glimpse inside the music business that could only come from beloved songwriter Susanna Hoffs.

Hmm. Honestly? I wanted a lot more from this one. I was expecting more oomph, and frankly more conflict, but instead, a lot of the book passed by in slice-of-life tidbits of Jane alternatively worrying and being funny in the Oxford apartment of the British professor she's bedded—and moved in with, within only a few weeks. Overall, the book itself was just a little odd because I couldn't figure out what it wanted to be.

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I did enjoy the sense of humor, and appreciated the voice at the beginning. But I also think a lot of the plot was underdeveloped, perhaps, with a pace that suffered for it. I didn't hate or even dislike the book—like I said, it's reasonably amusing and I'm a sucker for any creative trying to find their way—but overall just felt like it wasn't strong enough to stand on its own. A lot of the book is downright bizarre at times.

I decided in the end that a large reason for my confusion is that Jane is a vivid character with a lot to like about her, but I really had no idea what the shape of her life was. She jets off to London but lingers, and doesn't really pay much thought to the life waiting for her at home, if there is one—so we don't really get much of an opportunity to understand her or believe she's a real person.

Instead, the plot whittles down to the mysterious (handsome) stranger she meets on a flight and consequently moves in with. Although I believe she eventually loves him and adores him, there's not enough worldbuilding beyond that. The book does a fantastic job establishing her one-hit wonder nature and consequent downfall, but I just have no concept for what her life really looks like, which makes it hard for me to grasp any stakes or personhood.

Her quirky quips are charming. Her tunnel vision on Tom, her Oxford beau, is a little less so. I don't really know what I went in expecting.I guess the book overall just felt decidedly unstructured, to the extent that the plot was just us toddling along with what Jane decided to tell us but not ever getting answers to any questions or tensions she brought up. By the end, I had no idea really what the Jonesy conflict really was, and that felt majorly blown out of proportion for her reveal.

In that vein, it's easy to tell why her life is a little drifting, a little listless, because she doesn't really have the discipline or perspective to give us even a birds' eye view, beyond what she happens to be feeling in a singular moment. Which is solid at times, but not quite enough to buoy me past this sense of plotlessness. I guess I was expecting some big reveal or tie-together, but the book felt like a linked series of musings (which I normally enjoy in the right context!) which quickly lost its luster, because by the end, each thought or emotion wasn't really enough to carry through to the next.

This sounds like a really picky review, and I don't mean for it to be wholly negative because I liked my reading experience well enough. But I just think out of the slew of other similar titles, this one's maybe not the strongest of them.

Best for readers who enjoy: post-fame characters; Oxford settings; insights into the music industry. I could see it appealing to fans of The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan.