by Taylor Jenkins Reid
4.6 · 5 reviewsJoan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember.
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
5 reviews
The framing device is very Reid and you can see the shape of it coming. Doesn't matter much — the emotional payload lands anyway.
Loved that Joan's competence is never in question — the obstacles are all social. That's a much more interesting book than the one where she has to prove she can do the math.
Took me about a hundred pages to settle in. Once training begins it's unputdownable. The last section had me reading with my hand over my mouth.
I say that as someone who has read all of them. The 1980s NASA setting gives the romance real weight because of everything Joan stands to lose by being known. Frances is a great addition too.
Joan Goodwin is such a departure from the Reid heroines I expected — quiet, careful, obsessed with the sky. The shuttle program detail is clearly researched and the love story sneaks up on you. I sobbed.