OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Beth Revis grew up in the Appalachian Mountains with a cemetery in her backyard, which is probably why she prefers her stories to be dark and full of twists. She’s the New York Times bestselling author of the Across the Universe trilogy, which has been translated into more than 20 languages. Beth lives in a house full of boys—her husband, son, and two massive dogs—and she forces them all to watch reruns of Firefly and Doctor Who. Visit her at bethrevis.com.

FORMAT/INFO: Full Speed to a Crash Landing was published by DAW Books on August 6th, 2024. It is 192 pages long and told in first person from Ada's POV. It is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: 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!

CONCLUSION: 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.