PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir

I enjoyed Project Hail Mary even more than The Martian. Instead of one man trying to survive on a foreign planet, this story is about one man trying to figure out how to save Earth from a micro-organism from another galaxy. He is light-years away to solve the problem when he meets Rocky, an alien that looks like a five-legged giant spider made of rocks. The two of them are in the Tau Ceti system for the same reason, and work together to save both their planets. But they must learn each others language and culture to do so. When they do find a solution, it causes even more problems.

This is a wonderful story that combines multiple scientific fields, including social sciences to explain what is happening and why the characters do what they do, but it never feels like too much. There is a lot of suspense in the story, right up into the last chapter that kept the pages turning. I also found the scenes that go back in time, and shown as Ryland Grace retrieving a past memory, easy to follow and relevant to what was happening in the current time.

I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary and I look forward to watching the movie version soon!

PENDERGAST: THE BEGINNING by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 

I've read several of the Pendergast novels by Preston & Child, so when I learned that an origin story was releasing, I wanted to read it. Especially after rereading Relic last year. In this novel, Pendergast joins the New Orleans Field Office as a probationary FBI agent under Special Agent Chambers. When the two of them are suspended for not doing an investigation by the rules, Pendergast looks deeper into similar cases that could be related. But where Chambers wants to find a simple explanation, Pendergast believes nothing is that simple and once again goes against the rules to entertain his hunch. In the end, the case is not so simple and even more gruesome than Pendergast believed.

I really enjoyed this insight into Pendergast's beginnings as an FBI agent. It reveals how his mind works—very different from the average mind iykyk—while also giving us other details of his life, some of which have been revealed in other books in the series. And the epilogue is from Relic, so it's a smooth transition for those who haven't read it.

I do wonder if there will be a book written from an even earlier time in Pendergast's life, specifically his and Proctor's time with Ghost Company.

COLD ETERNITY by S.A. Barnes 

I think this might be my favourite of the three space horrors I read by S.A. Barnes. Halley is searching for a place to hide out and ends up on a space barge containing cryogenically frozen beings hoping to circumvent death. 

But there are things happening on the barge that make Halley question her own sanity, from finger bones and strange noises to glitchy AI holograms and missing bodies.

As Halley tries to solve the mysteries of the barge, she learns the truth is much more frightening than she expected. And she is highly unlikely to ever leave. If she survives another day.

This book is quite the thrill ride from beginning to end, and the truth was much more gruesome and messed up than what I expected. Halley's back story was well-developed and the other characters were creepy, even those I liked. 

I definitely look forward to more by S.A. Barnes! 

GAME CHANGER by Rachel Reid

I grew up in a hockey town and went to school with a lot of hockey players, some of whom went further than playing for the local Jr. B team. Because of that, I was never interested in reading a hockey romance. Then the TV show, Heated Rivalry came along, and I loved it! And as an author, I wanted to read the source material, so I bought the first six books in the series.

While Scott and Kip's story isn't exactly the same in the book as it is on screen, I thoroughly enjoyed reading how their relationship developed, while witnessing the passion between them and the struggles they faced. Even though both are super sweet characters with some amazing friends and family members, the beginning of their relationship is quite a roller coaster ride. It all felt very real as though it played out in real life. I truly enjoyed Game Changer and look forward to Heated Rivalry next!

HEATED RIVALRY by Rachel Reid

As with Game Changer, I read Heated Rivalry after watching the show on Crave. A great book! I'm so glad Rachel Reid wrote it and that Jacob Tierney enjoyed it and decided to turn it into a series that closely followed the book. It was interesting to note the slight changes in how Shane and Ilya's story started between the two, and to catch further glimpses into their relationship that we didn't see in the show. I definitely look forward to more of Shane and Ilya's story in The Long Game and Unrivaled, as well as other books in the Game Changers series.

AURORA BLAZING by Jessie Mihalik

Aurora Blazing is a fast-paced space adventure with a slow burn romance that could almost be considered a second-chance romance. It is engaging with wonderful characters and a happily for now ending that suits both characters well.

Bianca is a one of the House von Hasenberg daughters and she is still recovering from the sudden death of her husband and the experiments he performed on her. When her brother is abducted with no hints as to who took him, she uses her connections and her other new abilities to search along with her siblings for any clues to his whereabouts. But the information she seeks requires a personal touch, which is hard to get when she's constantly under surveillance. She sneaks past the house security and flees to find her brother. But Ian, the House's director of security is after her to bring her back home. It's bad enough that Ian won't give her a chance to help, but he is also the man who broke her heart before her arranged marriage.

Aurora Blazing is Bianca's race to escape Ian, find her brother, and then ignore her increasing attraction to Ian when he does manage to catch up to her.

While a complete romance story, Aurora Blazing is part of an overall series arc that started with Polaris Rising.

MASK OF THE DEER WOMAN by Laurie L. Dove

This is a story about a woman named Carrie Starr who is struggling to deal with the passing of her daughter, as well as her actions before and after. She is also learning about her own Indigenous identity and past as she takes a job as a BIA officer in the fictional Saliquaw Nation. A place where the community is often overlooked and many from the nearby town are looking forward to an oil company coming in to profit off the land. Starr's first case is about a young Indigenous woman who is missing and her mother is frustrated with no one wanting to help. Starr must work through her own prejudices and grief to figure out what's going on and hope she's not too late. While I quite enjoyed this story after going through a bunch of books I wasn't in the mood for, it is important to note that the main character is messy with plenty of drug and alcohol use and doesn't experience a lot growth by the end of the book. There is a happy ending for some characters, but not really for the MC.