I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Ravis Series: Chaotic Orbits #1
Published by DAW on 2024 August 06
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction
Pages: 192
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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A high octane sexy space heist from New York Times-bestselling author Beth Revis, the first in a novella trilogy.
Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they reluctantly rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission.
But Ada doesn’t care—all that matters to her is enjoying their fine food and sweet, sweet oxygen—until Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off. But as quick as Ada is, Rian might be quicker—and she may not be entirely sure who’s manipulating who until it’s too late…
A phenomenally fun novella that kicks off a trilogy of sexy space heists and romantic tension, Full Speed to a Crash Landing is packed with great characters and full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end.
Full Speed to a Crash Landing is one of those books that proved that you don’t need to write a gazillion of pages to make a story interesting. When I requested this book from Netgalley, I kept my expectations just a notch lower than high. Yes, I’ve heard of Beth Ravis and I’ve seen her books raking in excellent reviews for her other books but I have not read any of her books until this one. I’m glad that I picked the right book because I really enjoyed it. It’s short but action packed, straightforward, and hit all the nice things I like about sci-fi books.
What’s more amazing is that the war being referred to in Full Speed to a Crash Landing was environment-related. Being an environmentalist myself, I can definitely relate to this book because I fucking believe in climate change, environmental pollution, yada, yada. I always have this subconscious fear that the world might give up on us one day, just like what happened to this book. Full Speed to a Crash Landing had me anticipating at what will happen to the whole Universe in the next novella or the full book series (if there is one). I can’t wait to see more of how Beth Ravis will explore the world she has created in this novella.
But the environmental problem being tackled in this book is just a background menace as the story really focuses on Ada Lamarr, the protagonist, who made a living by scavenging/looting things from ruined spaceship wrecks, etc. She’s actually your go to girl if you want something done illegally. Heh. As a short book, it made me happy that Ada and Rian’s characterization were not compromised and that they had me rooting for them at around page 10. All that crazy banter, outsmarting, and lusting over each other were fun and made the whole read so easy.
All in all, I’m excited to read the next book. Please give this a try and it won’t disappoint. 😀