While this started out fun, it quickly devolved into a rushed plot with little to no character development. For people looking for a quick read in the genre, I think this will be fun but I wanted more from Ada as an MC, Rian as a love interest, and the plot. So many overly described planetary geographic features and yet I'm not sure what Rian really looks like. Or Ada for that matter.

I will not be continuing with the trilogy.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I have no idea how to rate this book. It's a fun, fast space romp with a clever, witty protagonist, and I had a fabulous time while reading it. But on a craft/quality level, not everything worked for me. I found myself wishing that the writing had been tightened up, and that some of the plot and pacing had been developed a little more. There were some elements towards the end that felt tacked on; I liked those elements a lot, but wonder if the book would have been stronger if they had been brought in earlier in the narrative. And the romance didn't totally convince me. All of that said, though, I devoured this book, loved the lead character, and I can't wait to read the next one in the series.

It feels a bit like this book was written in a flash of inspiration and then maybe not developed as fully as it could have been. I'm very excited to see if the author raises her game in the next book - with a little more finessing, this could have been a truly great book, far beyond the sum of its parts. I'm very hopeful for the rest of the series. Maybe some of the things that didn't work as well in this book will be explained or improved on in the next one. But even if not, I had a great time with this.

My enjoyment rating is 4 stars and my craft/quality rating is 2 stars, so I'm going with 3 stars overall - but I enjoyed this book far more than a 3 star rating would suggest.

Thanks to Beth Revis, DAW, and NetGalley for generously providing me with an ARC for review!

I raced through reading this and enjoyed every twist and turn along the way! Ada has an upfront attitude and hidden depths, and she’s not the only one who may not be fully what they seem. As layers are pulled back, I was constantly reevaluating what had come before—it really made me think. I kept putting it down to ponder and then immediately picking it back up because I had to know what would happen next. The ending was both satisfying and left me wanting more: I look forward to reading the next in the series.

There are spoilery things I want to discuss about this book, so I will be pushing people I know to read it, so that I can have a frank talk about it!

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book for review!

I find that it can be really hard as a reader when you’re thrown into the middle of things with little explanation, especially in a sci-fi or fantasy setting. Often, I find this frustrating and confusing because there’s so much that you don’t understand, not just about what’s going on, but also about the world itself. When this happens, I usually DNF the book. This book, however, did this really well. Instead of being frustrated, I wanted to keep reading to find out more.

The thing that threw me off the most about this book was the romance. Based on the synopsis, it seemed like romance was going to be a main part of the plot, but I was just underwhelmed by it. I didn’t necessarily feel the chemistry between Ada and Rian and often found myself looking for more to happen on that front to make the emphasis on romance in the synopsis make sense. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a good romance, but this one actually had me thinking that it just wasn’t needed.

Overall thoughts: The unclear character motivations kept me guessing throughout, the romance didn’t add anything to the plot, and even though this isn’t a new favorite, I am very curious to continue in the series to find out more about what’s going on!

4.5 stars

Headlines:
Gimme the next now
Cunning FMC
Wrecks, lava & salvage

This short read/novella packs a fun sci-fi punch with a fast-paced rescue and salvage mission. Ada
needed an urgent rescue and found herself needing refuge but she had something to offer this crew that were wary to trust and full of secrets. Add in an interesting but smalll set of side characters a smattering of chemistry between Ada and Rian, and this read had my full attention.

Ada was a strong FMC and it took a while for the pennies to drop regarding what she was really up to. She was ten steps ahead in her plans, wily and clever; she was full of spark, wit and half-truths. I liked crewmates Rian and Nandina especially and the battle of wits between Ada and Rian was fun to observe.

The mystery of the wreck, the conditions on the planet and the salvage made for an engaging plot. Where Revis left us was one part cruel and one part clever because I'd like the next installment of this trilogy of novellas yesterday. This is the ideal evening or one-day read for sci-fi fans.

Thank you to DAW for the eARC.

4 Stars!

What can I say? I obviously really enjoyed this sci-fi novella!

As per the blurb, Ada is a lone scavenger, mostly scouring space or planets for random ghost ships or wreckage to loot anything that might be valuable for resale. While trying to work a crash site before others find it, an accident renders her helpless, and it’s divine luck that another ship is nearby to rescue her or is it?

When Ada’s reluctantly taken in by the Halifax, she somehow charms her way through the governmental crew, especially Rian, the man in charge who’s desperate to find an important piece of intel from the very ruined spacecraft Ada has found. The interactions between these two were spot on, and though they each hold their cards close to the vest for reasons, how fortuitous is it that Ada just so happens to have the skill and equipment to make Rian’s endeavor achievable.

Know that this has some interesting world building. Earth is basically a dying planet, and humanity has colonized a few new places, but as with most science fiction with this scenario, there’s always the admirable goal to restore Earth to its former glory. Touching on overpopulation and its repercussions, government bureaucracy, corporate greed, and the fringe factions that have their own agendas, I was impressed that this small package contained so much. The seriousness of these topics contrasted nicely with the suspenseful mission and entertaining crew dynamics making this a propulsive quick read.

Ending on a bit of a cliffhanger, overall, this was a fun space romp with action, drama, and a touch of romance in the making! I definitely want to see how these pesky political and personal motives will either keep our two engaging protagonists at odds with each other or bring them together. My obvious bet is on the latter, and I’ll be over here waiting impatiently for the next installment to drop later this year!

Thank you to the author and DAW via NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review posted to Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6603176664?book_show_action=false

As a fan of Revis' Across the Universe series, I had high hopes for this novella. Even though it's a fast read and I was interested in the characters and the world they exist in, it's hard to get excited about a book when you know exactly what's going to happen.

How do you know what's going to happen? The main character, Ada, tells you over and over and over and over. She's meant to be presented as an unreliable narrator, I think, but her narration is very reliable. She wink-winks her way into spelling out her plans as clearly as she can without actually saying them out loud. As a character however? Ada is a completely selfish, unreliable person, which makes me less interested in her; I don't like people who use people.

I really liked the crew of the Halifax and was much more interested in and sympathetic toward all of them than I was Ada. And of course, we're meant to like Rian, and I did -I would have liked to hear more of his story, frankly. This novella is the first in a series and feels incomplete. I don't know how quickly Revis will release the next one*, but I wonder if I will still remember any of this story when she does. As always, I would rather a book tell a complete story than string me along for years and years. Full Speed to a Crash Landing is long enough to start a story, but I'm not sure it was long enough to get me invested enough in that beginning to read the next one.

*I just saw the next in this series will be released in December! If the series continues to come out every few months, I admit that my interest in it is already higher because I would have kept reading had the novella not ended, so I look forward to seeing where the story goes.

Full Speed to a Crash Landing is scheduled to publish 8/6/2024. Thanks to DAW, NetGalley and Beth Revis for the advance reader copy.

This was quick and fun - if you’ve been looking for something in the vein of Illuminae Files but for adults, pick this up now! This is fun like YA sci-fi but just a little more mature - a great first step into the adult sci-fi space for crossover readers.

Wow, this was so much fun!!

The story is fast paced and a perfect blend of action, world building and dialogue. Although some of the characters only had a few lines, I still managed to connect to them. I do wish the book was longer but the shortness of it makes it a perfect cure for slumps. Ada is a fun character with a complex background and I loved being inside of her head. I can't wait to learn more about her! There are also a few twists in the story that I thoroughly enjoyed. The writing reminded me of Ali Hazelwood's style — witty, quick and meant to devour in one sitting.

I would have loved to learn more about Rian, as well as get more impactful scenes between him and Ada. And was it really sexy, though? Only slightly. However, I can see that changing in the future books!

I would definitely recommend this! Already can't wait to read the next two books in this novella trilogy!

I’ll keep this review short because I don’t want to spoil anything. I’ll just say that this was a fun novella, and I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

Ada, our main character, is snarky and fun to follow. I smiled and laughed throughout the story. I enjoyed her banter with the crew that rescued her, especially Rian.

This story is mostly told in first person from Ada’s perspective. The last section though is told in government documents with some fun footnotes. I enjoyed both sections.

SCREAM. I absolutely ate this one up, folks. There’s really nothing like a short and exciting book to pull you out of a reading slump, and this one is exactly that. I could have easily devoured this one in one sitting, and a big part of me wanted to do that while another part wanted me to savor every page. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book.

Ada Lamarr spends her days scavenging space wrecks, and this book opens with her awaiting a rescue as she sends a desperate distress signal. As she is picked up by a space crew seeking a valuable item from a wreck, she works her way into the mission…with her own motives, of course!

Ada is a delight of a character. I loved watching her weave her way into the crew of the Halifax and how she analyzed each crew member, but especially Rian. It is so great to see two characters dancing around each other in this way, and I loved the delicious little moments of banter. It’s all made even better by the reports and notes that make up the end of the book, and I loved the way that these elements were included!

This book is so interesting to me, because I could see exactly where it was going, but that did not take away from the story at all. The predictability of some of the plot points makes it that enjoyable, and I loved watching how it all unfolded and the way the realizations slowly hit the characters. I would truly read 100 books about these two characters dancing around each other through space for an eternity.

I so so so highly recommend this one and I definitely plan to check out the author’s other work and will be keeping an eye out for other projects for sure!! Absolutely 5⭐️ for me!!

This was such a fast and fun ride of a story. This is part one in a trilogy of novellas following Ada Lamarr, a very charming looter of crashed spaceships and Rian White, the handsome government agent who thinks she is up to something. I loved the characters and the banter between Ada and Rian, as well as the way Ada was able to slowly get the crew that rescued her to warm up to her.

I feel like “Don’t be suspicious…” was playing through Ada’s head often during this book as she did things and said that at times could have given her away (if everyone had all of the pieces) but never did. And while this was a fast read, the build between Ada and Rian really does take the full story and its well executed to the point that I was not even sure if there was going to be a con in the end.

I loved how simple the world - or rather - galaxy building was, with explanations of the different Earths and what happened on the original Earth, Earth-Sol, that led to humans exploring and growing in the galaxy. It’s a fun and simple sci-fi read and entry into the Spacemance genre. I cannot wait for How to Steal a Galaxy, book 2 in the series, which releases later this year also!

FIVE STARS

Thank you so much to DAW Books and NetGalley for my #gifted physical and eARC copies. All thoughts are my own.

This was fun, fun, fun. Loved Ada & Rian & the whole Halifax crew. And the plot kept me guessing all the way through. (Don’t skip those footnotes! That last one sent me, Revis.) Awesome first installment in a fast paced sci-fi series I’ll definitely be following.

Our fmc Ada is stranded in space and is rescued by the crew of the Halifax. Once on board she meets Rian and the others, who are there to scavenge the same crashed vessel that she is. But what's really going on, and can they trust each other? It's a novella so it's a quick read. Be aware that it's the start of a series and there is a cliffhanger ending.

So, I have some mixed feelings about this one. Yay for a snarky and smart heroine! There's some zing here and a puzzle to solve, but the story didn't move fast enough for me to engage fully. Which is surprising since it's a novella, and especially surprising since we're thrust right into a life-or-death scene as soon as the story begins. I will say that it picks up towards the end. We only get Ada's POV for the vast majority of the story, which works here because despite the other characters and events it feels more like it's Ada's story than anything else. The romantic angle is a bit dry. and describing it as a romance seems to be a bit of disservice to the book. Maybe that will be a bigger focus in the coming books. I thought the writing was fine and Ada was a refreshing character, but the story didn't fully grab my attention and I don't think this book was for me.

I loved this book! Its short and a fast read, but for a novella, it had so much characterization, plot and action. I really liked Ada as a main character. The side characters were also well developed and felt like real people. And its a space heist. Who can resist a space heist book? Its not even published yet, but I'm already dying for the sequel! I've already recommend it to several people.

This was such a great novella. Ada honestly had me going there for a sec. I feel like I could read about her in a full length novel but alas that's the point of novellas a feel. So gripping and fun in such a short span. Did feel heavy with life euphemisms which I really liked as well. Beth Revis is one of those authors ill have to read the back logs of.

SPACEMANCE LIVES!!!!!!!!

Okay, on a serious note - I LOVED this! I loved the banter, I loved the pieces coming together, I loved Ada!!!!! I cannot wait for the sequel, oh my goodness… I need to know what happens next!

This seems to be the month for 1-2 sitting books, and I'm fully on board for that.

Full Speed to a Crash Landing had me hooked from the dedication and epigraph pages, and even though I KNEW what was going to happen (Ada told us over and over again) I still had a blast getting there. Do not want to wait for How to Steal a Galaxy, but at least December isn't too far away.

I will forever and always be a Beth Revis fan! She is one of my all time autobuy authors. Throughout this entire book I kept telling myself “Trust no one.” But I still found myself rooting for Ada and Rian. There were so many times that I had to stop and ask myself “Why is Ada being so weird?” Or “That’s an odd thing to say.” All in all this book kept me on my toes until the very last page (literally, I kept trying to refresh the page on my kindle, hoping for more). I would recommend this book to my friends and family if they are looking for a slow burn, YA, sci-fi, mystery with a hint of romance.

A fun sexy space adventure short story for grownups by one of my favorite YA authors! I love Beth Revis' work, ever since Across the Universe, and this hearkens back to that one--only a little spicier for adults (and mature teens). I love the main character, she's savvy, funny, and strong. "Oceans 11 in Space" would also be a good tagline for this story about a thief in space. Can't wait to read part two!

I read a digital advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for my review.