Goldilocks

The Earth is in environmental collapse. The future of humanity hangs in the balance. But a team of women are preparing to save it. Even if they’ll need to steal a spaceship to do it.

Despite increasing restrictions on the freedoms of women on Earth, Valerie Black is spearheading the first all-female mission to a planet in the Goldilocks Zone, where conditions are just right for human habitation.

The team is humanity’s last hope for survival, and Valerie has gathered the best women for the mission: an ace pilot who is one of the only astronauts ever to have gone to Mars; a brilliant engineer tasked with keeping the ship fully operational; and an experienced doctor to keep the crew alive. And then there’s Naomi Lovelace, Valerie’s surrogate daughter and the ship’s botanist, who has been waiting her whole life for an opportunity to step out of Valerie’s shadow and make a difference.

The problem is that they’re not the authorized crew, even if Valerie was the one to fully plan the voyage. When their mission is stolen from them, they steal the ship bound for the new planet.

But when things start going wrong on board, Naomi begins to suspect that someone is concealing a terrible secret — and realizes time for life on Earth may be running out faster than they feared . . .

I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages so I am so happy that it finally got a time to shine. This book did indeed shine! I gave this book five stars and I was so sad that there is no 6/5 rating or a wee gold star I can add because five stars felt inadequate.

I have been saying for so long that I want to read more sci-fi. Sci-fi and fantasy are my favourite genres (along with Murder mysteries) but for whatever reason, I haven’t found myself reaching for a sci-fi book for a long time. I know the reason, I read a bad one and I got scared of reading another unfulfilling space romp. This book was the perfect reintroduction to sci-fi. This was more a sci-fi thriller than pure sci-fi, which I wasn’t expecting but it was a pleasant surprise.

I felt instantly drawn into the action. From the first chapter I was hooked and felt invested in the mission. This was a very fast paced story and it felt like no words were wasted, everything felt relevant.

I loved the characters. Of the characters on the ship; there were five of them and they were all strong, smart, and capable women. If there’s one thing I want in my novels, it’s a strong female character. These women were the best in their fields but because of the way the world was, they lost out due purely to being female. We got a look into the characters’ backstories and I really felt like I got to know them all and care about them.

Straight away there was an element of doubt. I wasn’t sure if there was someone being sneaky or whether it was the whole space ship thing that made me suspicious. I loved not being sure!

The stakes in this plot were high. As a human, what could be higher than the fate of the earth and humanity itself? The world didn’t feel too unrealistic a version of our own. This book really gave a picture of what could happen to the world if we don’t start treating her better. This book also came out around about the time of the current pandemic so it was really interesting having a book that referenced it. This may be the first novel I’ve read that mentioned it.

I was so excited reading about the theft of the spaceship and about space travel. This was more of a realistic space travel story than I’m used to so it was really interesting to learn some things along the way.

The attitude of the world towards women made me so angry! That women were to just make one baby and not have any career just infuriated me. If this is your choice then I wholeheartedly support that but it was the fact that choice had been removed, that is what annoyed me. This book actually had some foreshadowing to events happening right now. Maybe I read a psychic book?

The chapters flitted between times and locations but this didn’t feel disorienting. While one chapter could be in space and the next in Scotland, they tied in really well or provided an explanation. This aided to the fast pace of the novel.

I absolutely loved this book and it’s reignited my love of sci-fi! I also have heard that this author has written some fantasy which I will be looking up. I’m so happy to have found this book. It was so scary to think that this could happen!