What seems like a long time ago, I read a Young Adult Sci-Fi Across the Universe Trilogy that utterly captivated me. The author created a world, characters, and plot that drew me in and had me in a fever to know what came next at the end of each installment. Here I am again having a similar experience with her new heist-fueled Space Opera.

From the first desperate moments as Ada’s breathing equipment is about to give out, I was hooked. This was a novella-length so Full Speed to a Crash Landing lived up to its title name and rushed forward at a furious pace. It is obvious from the get-go that Ada isn’t exactly what she claims, but the amusing part is that the government ship that comes to her rescue aren’t sold by her explanations. This cat and mouse game goes both ways and there is a fun and flirty tone as Rian and Ada dance around each other.

As the reader, I was complacently certain there is a lot of larceny in Ada and that Rian is a straight arrow type. I was watching for it and still got a fun shocker there before the story abruptly ends at a good spot.

Full Speed to a Crash Landing is not a complete story. It is the first part of a story with the job of introducing Beth Revis’ futuristic sci-fi world, her characters, and a bit about the plot. There is an exciting conflict in the form of the race to get to what’s on the ship before the unstable volcanic eruptions on the planet swallow up the crashed ship and they lose their chance.

The story ends abruptly at a good spot leading to the next segment. That said, the reader doesn’t want to close the book too soon. There are addendums afterward that can’t be missed. The novella is told from Ada’s point of view, but the addendum info is Rian’s side. Oh, and those footnotes throughout? Those lead to little extras worth a glance.

In summary, this did the job of hooking me in and getting me excited for what comes next. Those who love a sassy heroine, a sweet and flirty hero, a twisty heist-adventure in a sci-fi setting, and some intrigue on the side should really give this one a go.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn’t influence my review.
Tropes: space heist
I actually liked this book (plot-wise), but there was ZERO chemistry with MMC, and I thought it was going to be fun with him suspecting her, but that didn’t live up in my opinion. Loved the plot twist though!

Ada Lamarr is minutes away from dying a lonely death in space when a government ship arrives in the nick of time to rescue her. While Ada's grateful for the assist, her rescuers also pose a problem. She's a salvager, and Agent Rian and the rest of his crew are there to lock down the very wreck she was there to loot. It will take all of her cunning and charm to convince Rian to let her assist with the salvage - especially because Ada needs to find one box in particular before anyone else.

FULL SPEED TO A CRASH LANDING is a fun and flirty space adventure, full of banter and secret agendas. We enter the story in media res, with Ada's ship venting atmosphere and a rescue that barely gets to her in time. But it's soon clear from little asides in Ada's first person narration that Ada is not telling us everything that's going on. Part of the fun is reading between the lines of Ada's running commentary, unpacking what she's really up to as she verbally spars with government agent Rian.

But the banter is the real star here. Sure, there's some dangerous stunts in space and on a volcanic planet that keep the action interesting, but I was here to watch Ada and Rian go toe-to-toe as they each try to dig information out of the other. Ada's energy is chaos incarnate, constantly changing topics and tactics, but she's also CLEVER. She's always got a reason for doing something, even if it seems completely bizarre. Rian, meanwhile, is the immoveable, unflappable force in the face of her unstoppable energy, doing what he can to contain her while also trying to figure out her endgame. The two have great chemistry together, and I was absolutely here for it. (And if you don't like spice, good news: no spice!)

The only downside here is that the story ends a bit abruptly, but this is very intentionally a part one of a three part story. There will be three novellas in total, with the second coming out later in 2024 (heist at a charity gala!) and the third in 2025. Now I had an absolutely delightful time with FULL SPEED on its own, but there's a part of me that wishes I could read all three of these back to back, as I have a sneaking suspicion they'll be more satisfying that way. As it is, I IMMEDIATELY requested an ARC for HOW TO STEAL A GALAXY as soon as I read the last page of FULL SPEED, so this definitely had me wanting more!

If you're looking for a quick and easy sci-fi adventure with a charming chaos rogue, FULL SPEED TO A CRASH LANDING is the way to go.

Full Speed To A Crash Landing is a classic space story in many ways. Earth is close to being destroyed so humans have moved into space. They now live on planets throughout the universe. Humans have taken there problems and fights into space. This is a story about secrets, lies and space drama. The author also introduces some interpersonal relationships that are very interesting.

Ada is a metal scavenger who has found a crashed ship that no other scavenger has found. Her ship suffers a catastrophe and she must call for help. When she is finally picked up by the crew of the Halifax she realizes that they are up to something. Who is in charge? The captain or Rian? What is the secret the crew is keeping? When Ada is drawn into their search for something hidden in the crashed ship she is put in danger. There are twists and turns. There are secrets and lies. The are friendships forming and potential love relationships.

This book has a major cliffhanger. I recommend being prepared for surprises and frustrations if you read this because the author clearly has a long plan. I will definitely read more from this author in the future.

Overall, this was a fun little sci-fi novella, but it left me wanting. I don't mind being dropped directly into a story, especially one that promises excitement and romantic tension. Unfortunately, I really wasn't getting as much of those vibes as I wanted. The first third of the book reads quickly, but nothing really happens. I get that we've got to get a feel for the universe and story, but this is a novella. I don't want to spend such a big chunk of the book waiting for something to happen. Sadly, it didn't work for me.

Oh man, this was a great read! Kept me guessing, and the final twists left me grinning through the whole final section. Humor, intrigue, romance--this book has it all.

This was an excellent, fun, quick read, full of banter and scheming and backstabbery!

Ada makes for a hilariously snarky MC, who has opinions about everything (especially food) and I enjoyed her banter with the LI and the rest of the crew a lot. I was engaged by the narrative and pacing, and the desire to figure out of what's really happening (and who is playing who) pulled me along. Before I knew it, the book was over.

Will defo be reading the next one!

Thank you to the author, DAW, and NetGalley for the copy!

Thank you to NetGalley, DAW, and Ms. Revis for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. Honest review requested but not required.

In all honesty I did feel as though I was missing the initial chapter or two to this book, and then on top of that as though there were a chapter or two missing from the end. Was it just me? Did anyone else feel like they got dropped through a portal into a story that had already begun? Did anyone else feel like the end was just left dangling? I realize this book comprises one third of a longer story arc but rarely (in my opinion) do books end so abruptly with such a complete lack of answers. I also would have liked a little more world building and little bit more substance to the "relationship" between Ada and Rian (I didn't really feel their chemistry).

The writing was terrific otherwise, with a fast-moving plot and a very honestly unreliable narrator who was lots of fun to watch sweet-talking and fast-moving her way through space. Ada's self-professed propensity to be won over by food was hilarious and her descriptions of space comestibles were very entertaining. Personally I felt the science-y bits seemed well described although I couldn't tell you if they were accurate if my life depended on it. I'm not SURE what happened but I do know I had fun doing it and would look forward to continuing the story arc (if only to find out answers to all the questions I was left with after book #1).

3 1/2 stars

This is a story about treasure hunting… in space!

I absolutely loved this one. A space heist with witty dialogue? Sign me up! The characters are charming, the pacing is on point and the story was engaging. My only complaint is that it was very short & my preference is always for full length novels.

Thanks so much netgalley & DAW for the eArc!

I can count with one hand how many sci fi books I have read. I am interested in the genre, but I am always scared of picking sci-fi books because I have this preconception that they are difficult to understand and I end up feeling lost in the world and the plot.

If you are like me, haven't read much sci-fi, want to get into the genre, or you already enjoy sci-fi but need something lighter, I would recommend Full Speed to a Crash Landing. It is sci-fi but since it is a novella it starts right off and it wastes no time, so something is always happening, setting a good pace and making the reader hooked.

We are immediately introduced to Ada, who is sending a distress signal after her ship has been through a wreck. She will be rescued by the crew of the Halifax and there we will see her try to appeal to the members of the ship and take part in their space heist. It was nice seeing Ada interact with the members of the crew, and her warming up to the ship as well as the members to her. Apart from the obvious elements, it also has some romance and mystery, and I really appreciated the latter. The book truly focuses on that mission, which makes scenes flow one right after the other, leaving you no time to rest, which is great in a book in this genre.

The plot seems basic at first, because it is, which is nice because it is easy to get into and you understand the setting well, but throughout the chapters you can see the plot unravel, discovering the Halifax's mission and little snippets of Ada and Rian, our leads. I really liked Nandina, Magnusson and Saraswati and I hope to see them more in the second and third installments. For it being a novella, they were in it quite a bit, but I want more interactions and to get to know them better.

Having listened to the audiobook was a good touch, because it felt like a mission report, especially when they were actually carrying it out and at the end, when we have some actual reports presented to us.

In the acknowledgements, the author says she sneaked some references and links to Across the Universe, her first and probably most popular work, which I think is so cool and will make so many fans happy. I have not read that trilogy, nor I think it spoils anything out of it, but now that I have seen Beth Revis's style, Across the Universe is back into my radar and I think this was a good introduction to her books.

Ada Lamarr has found herself in a bit of a bind. What should have been a simple looting mission has turned code red when her ship sustained damage and she's running precariously close to losing oxygen. Luckily, she's saved in the nick of time by the crew of the Halifax. Once aboard, it appears that both Ada and the crew of the Halifax - most notably mission leader Rian White - are on the same, albeit mysterious, mission: Salvaging the USG Roundabout after it crashed into a terran-based planet.

Ada and Rian don't necessarily trust each other's motivations, but they acknowledge that in order to complete the mission, they'll have to play nice.

I absolutely loved this short space romp. Beth Revis knows what she's doing 100% with this story. Every detail has its place and purpose nothing is filler and it is all a good time.

Beth Revis definitely drops us in the middle of the story with Ada as our guide out of and around what's happening in the galaxy. She's quite the narrator as well if I do say so myself. A little chaotic, a little all over the place but also endearing and clearly knows what she's doing as she cleverly leads Rian to the same conclusions she's already made.

Speaking of, I liked Rian and Ada's opposition yet still shared interest in the Roundabout. This makes for some great tension between the two which I know will be something explored in the next book.

Really, this story worked so well to get me out of a reading slump. It's a shorter story, I'd say closer to a novella which makes it this perfect morsel to devour in a couple hours. This also makes everything that happens within all the more impressive because it is all so precise. I interested to see what the consequences will be for events that transpired within this story and how it carries over into the next which I can say without a doubt I'm looking forward to reading. Highly recommended if you're looking for a fun, quick sci-fi read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
This was a fun, fast-paced romantic space adventure, and it packed a lot into its short length. The world building is intriguing, especially as it builds out in the mystery of the wreck and exploration of the planet’s conditions. The heist/rescue plot lends itself to a lot of action that kept me turning pages. And the characters were great; I liked Ada (the tributes in her name to two badass historical figures is a nice touch), and her romance with Rian, while not the main plot driver, was cute.

I’ve had a bit of a mixed reading experience with this author’s books. I read her YA science fiction novel, “Across the Universe,” years ago and really struggled with it. But then, more recently, I absolutely loved “Night of the Witch,” which Revis wrote collaboratively with another author. Given the strength of my more recent experience, I’d been eying this upcoming novella for a bit before the publisher reached out about potential coverage, and I was decided!

And I’m happy to report that the positive trajectory continues, and I very much enjoyed this short, science fiction romp of a ride! The story is told in the first person which places a lot of pressure on the strength of the narrator to carry the story. And Ada was well up to the task! At first, she had the potentially of falling into the trap of “snark machine” without much substance to back it up. But as the story continued, it became clear that Ada was not a super reliable narrator, leaving the reader to the enjoyable task of attempting to piece together what was really going on as the story progressed. I also enjoyed the presentation of the other crew members, as seen through Ada’s eyes. Again, the use of first person was very successful in presenting these characters through a limited character’s view point, with Ada’s first impressions needing adjustment as she comes to better understand those around her.

I also really enjoyed the plot and action of the story. This is a novella, so there’s a lot to crunch into a fairly small page count. Not only do you have the romantic elements (more on that later), but there was entire adventure to get through, with numerous high stakes scenes. The book starts off in the middle of one of these tense moments, with Ada stranded in her broken down ship with only minutes-worth of air left. And from there, the story quickly bounces into even higher stakes as the salvage crew gets to work. With such high stakes and so much fact-paced plotting, it was sometimes easy to miss the more detailed world-building that went into the story. But whenever I came up for air, I would look back a realize just how fully fleshed out this universe, and the life of a salvager like Ada, felt.

I also, overall, liked the beginnings of the romance, though I will say that this was perhaps one of the weaker elements of the story. While Revis does show much restraint in only marginally moving this “relationship” forward (this is all that would make any sense given the fact that the entire book takes place over a few days’ time), it still felt like a bit too much at times, too close to insta-lust. But I was so well-satisfied with the fact that the envelope wasn’t pushed too far on this point, and the fact that the next book is coming out in a few months’ time, to complain too much.

The only thing that really stood out was the manner in which the book wrapped up. After the primary action is concluded, and Ada is off on her next adventure, the book concludes with several pages’ worth of epistolary material, mostly Rian’s reports on the events of the book and various messages he sends piecing together more information on Ada itself. While all of this information was interesting and crucial to enlightening Rian (and the reader) to some of the details of Ada’s life and plan, it did read as rather clunky and tacked on.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read! I blew through it in a single sit-down and am anxious to get to the next book! Readers of adventure science fiction (and those patiently waiting for more romantic science fiction to come out and catch up to the romantasy boom!) should definitely check this one out.

Rating 8: Jam-packed with adventure and intrigue, with a healthy dose of romance sprinkled on top, I can’t wait to jet off on Ada’s next high stakes adventure!

Link will go live on The Library Ladies on August 30.

A big thanks to NetGalley and DAW for providing both an eARC and an advance audio book in exchange for an honest review.

Beth Revis is one of THE best writers of Sci-fy.

Full Speed to a Crash Landing is a science fiction novella with plenty of hijinks and space heists. 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…

I loved Revis' previous books of Across the Universe and A World Without You, and I'm glad she's back to writing science fiction. Even though it is a little shorter than I would have liked. Though I already have approval for book 2, and have it loaded on my Kindle. If you need me. I'll totally not be in bed reading it until 3 am.

What a great deal of fun! I like my stories character driven and as this is a novella it focuses on the main character and how she’s experiencing events. It’s a page turner and I finished it in a single sitting. I look forward to the next book. There’s not much I can say without it venturing into spoilers but I didn’t quite seee everything coming as I read it.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A short, fast-paced sci-fi read with a mystery to solve, thrilling action, and fun character dynamics. I loved puzzling out what was really going on, how did the Roundabout end up crashed on a volcanic planet and what if anything are these characters hiding from each other? Watching them slowly drop clues and reading between the lines was so entertaining. I read this in just two quick sittings and I cannot wait for the next book!!

This was an okay read but it was a bit short to actually connect with the characters and I also wasn’t too interested in the story itself.

This short book was absolutely packed with humor and excitement. It was a great, fun read that remained interesting throughout. The length was good for the story and I loved all the characters. Be sure to read the footnotes too when you get to them, they’re just as good as everything else.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun story! I read it in two afternoons -- the perfect length. I loved the main characters and would read 100 stories about them. Beth Revis's best in years.

Make sure you read the footnotes at the end…

It feels a bit odd to be saying “make sure you read the footnotes” when talking about a space opera, since I, at least, tend to think of footnotes as dull comments, usually in print that is too small to read, found at the end of textbooks or technical papers. But Full Speed to a Crash Landing is anything but dull, and neither are its footnotes. (At the same time, though, DON’T skip to the end to read the footnotes first – you probably won’t understand them, and if you do, they’ll be very spoilery…)

I mostly review mysteries, but I do read some science-fiction and fantasy as well. So when a review copy of Full Speed, by Beth Revis, showed up in my recommendation feed, it looked like fun, and I grabbed it. And I’m very glad I did. Like all good space operas, it starts off with a bang. Quite literally, since protagonist Ada Lamarr’s spaceship has had a huge hole blown in its side while she’s salvaging a nearby wreck, and she’s quickly running out of air. After ignoring her emergency call for far too long, a government-operated ship that’s in the area, the Halifax, finally picks her up in the nick of time, but something is off.

More accurately, several somethings are off. The Halifax’s crew clearly doesn’t want her there, and the government agent on board, Rian White, appears to have a lot more authority than he should. At the same time, those same crew-members are taking a lot of risk to retrieve a mysterious package from the wreck, more than seems either warranted or wise. The wreck itself seems odd: how and why did it really crash? And, if we’re truly honest with ourselves, even our heroine, Ada, is hiding a few things too, while doing a masterful – and very funny - job of distraction to cover up.

Eighteen quick and (mostly) laugh-out-loud chapters follow. However, although the ending does wrap up the immediate storyline, it is also quite obviously a big hook for the second book in the series, How to Steal a Galaxy, due out this December. Luckily, there are still some nuggets to chew over in the intervening months. Because THIS is the point at which you don’t want to miss reading Rian’s reports on the whole incident, included at the very end, after the last chapter – and of course, those aforementioned footnotes.

I, for one, will be waiting impatiently for a chance to read the next book. And then, since the author’s website mentions that this is a planned trilogy, I have a feeling I’ll end up waiting equally impatiently for the third book too. And if you follow my recommendation to read Full Speed to a Crash Landing, I suspect you’ll be waiting impatiently right along with me!

And finally, my thanks to the publisher, DAW, and to NetGalley for the review copy.