thank you to netgalley and random house for my gifted copy of “in the quick” by kate hope day in exchange for an honest review!
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june, the niece of a beloved late engineer, attends the space training school named after her uncle who designed the failing fuel cells for a spacecraft lost and out of communication. after becoming one of the top students in her class, she is sent to be an engineer on a space station, but is continuously haunted by the mystery of the lost ship. she knows the crew is still alive, and is eventually forced to travel to the pink planet and work with her uncle’s former protégé, james, to fix the fuel cells. the two work together to solve the mystery of the ship and bring the crew home, despite the difficulties of their budding romance, even if it means risking everything.
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i went into this book thinking it would be one thing, and i got something very different. but that’s not a bad thing. without spoiling too much, this book wasn’t really about the romance between june and james, at least it wasn’t to me. it is more about the way june grows from the time she is 12-years-old to the time she is a space engineer trying to save lives. it’s a unique coming-of-age story that offers much more than romance, as the blurb states.
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the author beautifully builds multiple environments—the school, space station, pink planet—in a way that made me feel as though i was following june around in a space suit. the book’s comparison to “the martian” is pretty accurate, but with less technical jargon and more female empowerment.
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my problem with this book is that the end felt a bit rushed—more or less the entirety of part 4. i wish there was more time to explore where the relationship between june and james really came from, and I was left with some questions about that and other things that would spoil things.
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overall, i really enjoyed reading “in the quick.” it was an immersive exploration into a world that’s not often written about, and i loved watching june grow as an astronaut.

2.5 Stars Rounded Up

I was so excited to get an advanced copy of "In the Quick." The concept is fresh and as far as science fiction, I kind of ended up scratching my head a bit. Wait a minute. A 12 year old prodigy who then becomes an astronaut at 18 without going to college? Oh, and her crush on an 18 year old when she was 12 that later just doesn't sit right with me when it's time for the "romance" which isn't a romance at all but just sexual exploits. From my background working with sexual assault victims the whole thing felt like grooming. But wait, the other "astronauts" are all somewhere around 18 as well? That must be some top notch training program. The plot was mostly boring and the narrator was the most flat 12-18 year old I've ever met. In real life, children have emotions. If the narrator had started at age 16 or 17, the story would've made more sense. The whole story just wasn't very satisfying unfortunately. And I loved Kate Hope's Day first novel. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you @randomhouse and @netgalley for the review copy.
I want to preface this review by saying that I found In the Quick to be a unique and absorbing character driven novel. It should get a lot of traction with people looking for something other than what the blurb describes... The way the book is marketed might unfortunately result in some unnecessarily negative reviews.
The description claims a fiery love affair within the first sentence, which I think is terribly misleading. This novel felt like a quiet, introspective story where June’s relationships help showcase her coming of age, but do not take center stage. The romantic relationship, which is a stretch to call it as such, is barely a tenth of the book.
Readers picking this up thinking they are getting action packed sci-fi, might also cast it in an unfair light. To be sure, there are a number of well-timed scenes throughout that are very tense and rife with action.
But the beauty and the drama in this story is getting inside the mind a brilliant and flawed character. It reminded me of less fleshed out version of The Unseen World by Liz Moore, which I also recommend.👍

I enjoyed aspects of this book while also not really loving it. The writing felt bland in that you barely connected with June, but had vivid descriptions of her working through mechanical problems and space. This is a hard book to rate, but because I wasn't really passionate or blown away by it and at times was disappointed I am going with a 2/5 stars.

So my first issue is the summary of the book is misleading. I thought that this was going to be more romance because of hos it was described in the synopsis, I was very much wrong. The romance is a small part of the book and (SPOILER WARNING) is less romance and more obsessive, toxic mess. James is not a romantic lead- I felt like he needed a lot of mental health and had gone cuckoo up in space. Not to mention the fact that the pacing of the book was good it worked, but wasn't really what the summary told us. It does have aspects of scientific discovery that were the best part of the book, but narratively they were what drove the story not the romance.

Second, the writing of this book was different. The fact that it is written in first person makes it immersive. The way it is written makes me think that June might be on the spectrum. This is not a bad thing- in fact the focus on how her brain works and her struggle with communicating her ideas and thoughts was really well done. June works better with machines than people, she shows very little people skills. I will say that the lack of indication of dialogue lines was frustrating. I didn't enjoy reading dialogue because it was messy and wasn't always clear who was speaking. On the other hand, none of the characters really had much of a personality or were fleshed out, so they all blended together anyways.

I enjoyed aspects of this book while also not really loving it. The writing felt bland in that you barely connected with June, but had vivid descriptions of her working through mechanical problems and space. This is a hard book to rate, but because I wasn't really passionate or blown away by it and at times was disappointed I am going with a 2/5 stars.

This wasn’t at all what I expected but wow! In the Quick is a smart, feminist novel that also has some of the most intense outer space sequences I've read. It's got emotional depth as well, and I got completely engrossed in June's story. Very different and very, very good. Katie Hope Day is proving to be one of the best up and coming novelists around, and I hope In the Quick gets the attention it deserves. Highly recommended.

June is a brilliant but difficult girl with a gift for mechanical invention, who leaves home to begin a grueling astronaut training program. Six years later, she has gained a coveted post as an engineer on a space station, but is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle's fuel cells. The spacecraft went missing when June was twelve years old, and while the rest of the world has forgotten them, June alone has evidence that makes her believe the crew is still alive.⁣
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What I Loved:⁣
+ Kate's writing is so propulsive. I absolutely devoured this book - I never read books in one sitting, but I did with this one! She could describe the most everyday task, and I would be absorbed. Her writing reminds me of Emily St. John Mandel, so if you enjoy her books, definitely pick up this one. ⁣
+ IN THE QUICK features a woman in science! Who's as smart as it gets! And leads groundbreaking explorations in space! And doesn't let other people trample over her! June is a character you ache for and root for. ⁣
+ I loved following June's growth from wary child to confident adult. With each jump in perspective, the reader gains more knowledge of June and is able to piece together her story. I love non-linear timelines in novels and piecing together the puzzle that is their life.⁣
+ Give me all the books that you can describe as atmospheric. IN THE QUICK did just that. It was permeated with a sense of urgency and longing that I'm still thinking about. I found this novel to be more so an exploration of self, longing, and the desire to do right by one's family. ⁣
+ The author's growth. I read Kate Hope Day's debut novel, IF, THEN, and really enjoyed it. I loved reading her second novel and seeing how much she's grown as a writer, in my opinion. While both are great, I noticed right away how fluid and lyrical her writing is in IN THE QUICK.

Quick summary: June is a precocious little girl who is misunderstood by her caretakers after the death of her beloved mentor uncle (who designs fuel cells for rocket ships), and is sent to a school program that matches her intellect. She has trouble forming relationships, but excels academically. Eventually, June herself ends up in outer space- attempting to solve the mystery of a team that went missing during a space mission. The craft they were on used June's uncle's fuel cells, which could possibly be the reason the team went missing.

I had a lot of fun reading this book! I loved how the characters were drawn, and I loved that Kate Hope Day was not shy in including a lot of science talk- it was right up my alley! I enjoyed the structure of the novel and how it jumped forward through different times in June's life. The ending was a little abrupt, but I thought it ended in a good place and was still satisfying.

I did note a few typos, but I'm sure these were corrected before the final version.

A few things I thought were odd:
When June arrived on the Pink Planet she had a lot of questions for James that I feel like she should have \ known before arriving on the planet- such as how long her helmet could safely be off or how to operate one of the Rovers. I could be wrong, I'm not an astronaut, but they stuck out to me.

Also, the fact that June went off to the agriculture building and just stayed there alone for a few months- she let people know where she was, but if she was sent to the planet for a specific mission, is it realistic that her superiors (who I can only assume are paying her) would just allow someone to go off alone and do whatever she wants for however long she decides?

Other than those few minor quibbles, this was a fun and quick read, and I absolutely look forward to what comes next from Kate Hope Day!

I really enjoyed this story. I choose it for its cover and was not disappointed in the writing. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from this author.

In The Quick by Kate Hope Day is about the life of female astronaut from 12 to adulthood. There's a missing crew which seems important and is the driving force until the end when it is about life choice more so. The character work on June is really interesting I actually liked the scenes with her at the astronaut school then her actually being an astronaut in space. The first 50% is all about astronaut school and the other 50% has her in space and going to missions. I loved 75% of this book but man is the last 25% bad. You have a super smart independent female lead, that is ready to throw the mission which has been the reason for her becoming an astronaut, for a borderline abusive relationship. The ending is such a cheat it focuses on the relationship and not on saving people. I was invested in the this mission of saving people, and for it to end before they're saved is horrible. I was liking this book so much, to throw it all away makes me mad. I would like to think Netgalley and Random House for the ARC. In The Quick by Kate Hope Day is published on March 2nd 2021.

The Plot: June grows up being raised by her aunt and uncle after her parents death at a young age. June's Uncle is her hero he developed the fuel cells for space shuttles one space shuttle the Inquiry is going on a 6 year manned mission the longest of its kind. half way through the mission the fuel cells have stopped working. June's uncle and team start working on it but her uncle passes unexpectedly. June doesn't want to give up. Her aunt put her in NSP an astronaut school, where June is an outcast with big ideas put no one gives her the time of day. She joins a group developing a metal hand, which know one understands her ideas that are two advance she works on her ideas in secret and changes them on the presentation day. The group is blown away since they could not get it to work, June's ideas are acknowledged, and years later she get a space mission. she has never given up hope that the crew of the Inquiry is still alive, and on the space mission she risk all for a theory.

What I Liked: The character of June really smart and thanks outside of the box makes smart and sound choices, and takes risk. The charter let me down at the end but I enjoyed getting to know her. I like the way we got to see Junes mind work with how she developed the superior mechanical hand. I liked her determination and how she didn't give up on the crew still being alive of the Inquiry after 6 years. I really liked the pool training scenes both Junes and the Inquiry crews run. I did think the pick moon was cool. I love the cover art to this book a lot.

What I Disliked: The ending, so bad. This book is being compare to the Martian, here's what this book did, say Jessica Chastain's character believes Matt Damon's character is still alive, she spends six years trying to prove this, in the fifth year she meets a guy has an affair. The prove Matt Damon's alive, The people having the affair work on the fuel cell that the guy destroyed in a jealous rage. You finally get the mission to save Matt Damon but all you can thank of is the guy you had the affair with. You're on you way to save Matt Damon and the book is over! What the heck.

Recommendations: I want to recommend this book again because of some truly fantastic character work, but I can not. I don't want anybody getting as upset as I did over this book. I got the arc to this early and was super excited but left feeling disappointed. I rated In The Quick by Kate Hope Day 3 out of 5 stars. More 2.5 but I did enjoy the first 50 percent so much.

In the Quick: A Novel by Kate Hope Day | 02 Mar 2021|Randomhouse

June is a young girl with a gift for seeing how things work, except, of course, when it comes to people. Orphaned, she lives with her Aunt Regina and Uncle Peter, who is the principal designer for a power system for deep space exploration, and he and June share a deep bond. But when Peter dies and June can’t fit into the family anymore, she’s sent to live at the institute that bears his name, the place where astronauts are trained. She’s only twelve.

When the fuel cells on the mission that she’s followed all her life fail, June knows she can fix them, but she’s going to have to wait until she graduates before anyone will listen to her. When she finally does, she takes a posting in space so that she can follow one of her uncle’s students, the one who may hold the other half of the solution. And maybe, just maybe, they can still save the crew of the stranded ship.

Rich on character and detail, this feels a bit like The Queen’s Gambit crossed with The Lady Astronaut. The story could have been fit into the framework of the actual space program, but Kate Hope Day has cut herself away from that with a few tweaks, a National Space Program, and the existence of the Pink Planet, somewhere in the solar system, freeing herself to take the story where she wants. Despite that, her space tech is well researched and she holds herself to a high standard for accuracy. Highly recommended.

For me, at first, this book was all about the cover. That gorgeous pink color with an astronaut on it. I was all in as soon as I saw it.

As for the inside, it was... different. June is a brilliant, eccentric mechanical genius. For most of her life, since the age of 12, she tries to solve the puzzle of why the fuel cells her uncle invented have failed and stranded a soaceship in deep space and probably killed the crew.

The synopsis describes this book as a romance, but I didn’t really see a romance as much as a kind of obsession. And the “romance” is not even a part of the story until the last part of the book.

The parts of this book that I loved were the ones that take place in space, or on the pink planet (a moon) which did well at describing the realism of being in space or on a harsh world. And there was also some pretty good science. Just give me space and science and I’m a happy camper.

I also enjoyed the first part of the story when June is 12 and in school learning how to live and work in space.

But... June as a character wasn’t really that likable. She was single minded and it seemed like she kept causing everyone to have serious accidents just to get what she wanted.

This book is written without quotation marks so there are times when you’re not sure who’s speaking. It pulled me out of the story several times as I had to reread those parts a few times to figure out who was speaking. It wasn’t a deal breaker for me however as I got used to this style of writing pretty quickly.

All in all, I did enjoy the story, mostly due to the space and science, and I seriously couldn’t get enough of that wonderful cover!

*Thank you so much to Random House and NetGalley for the advance copy!*

This is an interesting, if somewhat uneven, novel of a young girl with a fascination for space and a need to prove that her uncle's design for fuel cells was a good one. June's beloved uncle Peter worked for the National Space Program. When he dies and there are problems with the cells, she's determined to find out what went wrong and to fix it. She's also convinced that the crew of a missing space station is still alive. She manages to convince her uncle's protoge James to work the same problem but they fall in love. You might expect this to be a good thing but is it? June's a challenging character, hard to relate to; James has issues as well. The best parts of this for me were those dealing with space. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the Quick by Kate Hope Day follows June, a smart young girl following in the footsteps of her uncle, a famous aerospace engineer. She struggles after his death and later tries to solve an unexpected error in a ship that her uncle and his students designed. Day made some interesting formatting choices for the dialogue, and while not my favorite, it didn't impede my reading. I think this book really shined with the character work. June was a fully fleshed out character, and I understood her motivations and rooted for her.

Like other reviewers, I think the summary for this book is a bit misleading. The relationship didn't really read as "electric," and throughout the story, I was much more invested in June's character and her place in solving the mystery. I didn't get stuck on any of the sciency bits, but the relationship felt a bit rushed, as did the conflict with another character toward the end.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I've read this author's previous book, If, Then, and I will keep an eye out for her later works.

This was a super fun read that really makes the science fiction genre approachable for those who may be afraid to try it. I would even go as far as to call this "science fiction for beginners." Bonus: it has a touch of romance! But honestly, it's probably not steamy enough for the typical romance fan.

"In the Quick" tells the story of June, a child genius of sorts who grew up around her astronaut/engineer Uncle. When most 12-year-olds are dabbling with make-up and swooning over celebrities/pre-pubescent boys, June is building robots and reading about fuel cells. The book is told in a few different parts; we start with snippets from her childhood that lead to her eventual attendance at what I assume is pre-astronaut school. We then follow her into early adulthood where she journeys to the "Pink Planet" and gets to use her wealth of knowledge gleaned from her uncle to solve nearly every problem she encounters.

Of course this book has its flaws. Some will complain about the dialogue not having quotation marks or the sentence structure being too simple. However, the biggest issue for me is the lack of any real, scientific detail. Though the author notes that she read two books about space and attended Space Camp (ok, jealous), I still felt like this book could have been written from simply watching all of Battlestar Galactica. Even then, I'd expect a bit more than what is offered here.

Inevitably, someone will call this the female version of "The Martian," but it is far from it. Don't pick this up expecting a lot of accuracy. However, *do* read this because it is an easy-to-digest, space story that will keep you hooked until the end! (And who doesn't love a lady astronaut?)

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the advanced digital copy.

I was given the opportunity to read and review this book through Net Galley and I am so glad. This book was beautifully written and I can't wait to read more by this author!!!

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for a copy of In the Quick in exchange for my honest review.

I had high hopes for In the Quick and sadly it didn't meet my expectations. The first half of the book was interesting but the second half started to fall apart. I think part of it for me was the style of writing. The writing felt very disjoined and was hard for me to full invest in the story.
The synopsis also didn't do the story any justice. I knew this going into it so the best thing to do is to go in 100% blind if you'd like to read it. Just know this story deals with space exploration, for some of the story. If that sounds like something you might be interested in give it a shot. I hope you enjoy this novel more than I did.

I'm not sure what I was expecting in this book and I'm not sure whether I got it. June is a brilliant, but a troubled young woman who is sent away to astronaut training after a bout of difficulties with her mother. This story focuses so much on loss and grief, even when amazing space travel and exploration is going on. The characters were well developed and you really felt growth throughout the novel but I felt like I was missing connection, a world, something more solid to grasp onto.

3/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House, for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In The Quick is about a young girl named June who is gifted with great understanding of mechanical science. Her uncle is an aerospace engineer and the inventor of a piece of technology used on a spaceship that eventually has issues. June is very interested in what her uncle has invented and the well being of the astronauts on this craft. She soon goes into a space training school at a very young ager with other talented people who are working towards becoming astronauts or working in the related field. We learn that June is more talented, visionary and dedicated than most the other students and eventually, she gets to pursue her dream of trying to save the spaceship and fix her uncle's device.

One of my favorite parts of the book and of June herself is that she never gives up and is always looking at everything from her own perspective, even though it almost always differs from everyone else's. June is a strong female in a field that is mostly dominated by men, but In The Quick centers on several of the women in the space, which is a refreshing take.

I also enjoyed the slower pacing of the book that makes you feel like you are more involved in the everyday tasks of the training as well as the days spent on the ship and on the pink planet.

I feel the description of the novel having a 'fiery love affair' isn't really accurate. There are a few moments in the end of the novel that I supposed are more geared towards a love interest, but it is a very on the side and not a central part of the story. The book is much more about June herself and her journey.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel and I would recommend to anyone who likes slower paced sci-fi novels, especially ones with strong female leads.

I feel terrible that I didn’t love this one. I really enjoyed the author’s debut novel, If, Then, and thought it was very cool and different from other things I’d read. I enjoy sci-fi thrillers as a whole, and space books, but did NOT like The Martian so I was a little worried- however I figured a new take on something similar might be what I needed to love it.

I did like this better than The Martian, but that’s about where my praise ends. The romance promised is barely any romance at all, and I’m VERY confused at her reactions to him after some key scenes. There was also my absolute least favorite kind of body horror, teeth. Not the first time I’ve seen a character have to attempt dental work alone in space, but I flipped right past those couple pages, because I just could not. I don’t ever see anyone else trigger warning that type of scene, so I want to mention it, in case anyone else has the same phobias.

This is shelved as queer multiple times on good reads, so I was kind of expecting James to be a girl, but there was not an explicitly queer characters that I noticed, especially not the main romance, so my bad going in with the wrong idea, I guess?

The ending was abrupt and a little confusing to me, and I don’t know what I actually think about it. If someone wants to GR message me what they think happened here, I would appreciate it 😂

hat was.... average. There were some good things and there were some bad things.

First the good: I happen to be a reader that really enjoys books set in space or about space (which is really ironic considering my crippling fear of outer space). So this was really up my alley and if you happen to enjoy that sort of content then I say check it out. I don't know how best to articulate this but there was just something about the writing or the character's thought process that felt so simple and clean. It was very easy to read and that made it so enjoyable. It felt kind of analytical and that's how I view the world a lot of times so it was like reading myself in this situation.

The bad: There is almost no world-building. Sometimes books can get away with that and be fine but this could have benefitted from a little bit of backstory about this Pink Planet that is so crucial to their solar system and space travel. Also, a lot of the "conflict" presented felt forced and like it was just included to further the plot. I also, at one point, was reading a conflict scene and really thought to myself, "How did we get here?" I truly had no idea how we were led to this scene and that could just be me but it's still concerning.

For readers of this book, I would say that you should go into it with low expectations. Not saying its bad but don't read the synopsis and think that is exactly what you're getting