The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a retelling of Jane Eyre. Unfortunately Gemma had nothing on Jane. I'm not sure if it was the moving of the time period to the 1950's that didn't work or if there just wasn't as much at stake for the characters of this story. 
 Being set in a later time period, it seems like Gemma would have had more options than Jane did and therefore her plight wasn't quite as dire. In fact, at times, Gemma came off somewhat ungrateful. After leaving school, she was surrounded by good homes and people that treated her as family and still she wasn't satisfied. 
 The characters and overall story were not unlikeable, I just found myself wanting a bit more from them, so I could really invest in their journey.