Goldilocks

Earth is sliding deeper into environmental ruin, and no one can say how much time humanity has left. A group of women has decided to act anyway, even if that means taking a spaceship that was never meant for them. Women on Earth are losing freedoms at an accelerating pace, and the crew at the center of this story is about to bet everything on a future the world around them seems set on denying them.

Valerie Black has organized what will be the first mission led entirely by women, bound for a distant planet whose conditions are suited to human life. She has recruited the strongest people she could find: a skilled pilot who is among the very few astronauts to have ever reached Mars, a gifted engineer responsible for keeping the vessel running, and a seasoned physician charged with keeping everyone alive. Naomi Lovelace, Valerie's surrogate daughter, serves as the ship's botanist. For as long as she can remember, she has lived in Valerie's shadow, and she is eager to finally prove what she can do.

The women were never the official crew, even though Valerie designed the entire voyage. When the mission is taken from them, they take the ship headed for the new world instead. Once trouble begins aboard, Naomi starts to suspect that someone is hiding a dark secret, and she comes to fear that the time left for life on Earth may be running out faster than anyone realized.

A tense space thriller for readers who enjoyed The Martian or The Handmaid's Tale.