hello and welcome to Beyond books where I read review and unbox books from the book of the month club and Beyond I'm Renee I'm your host let's get started with a review today so this book that I'm going to review uh is wasn't one of my book club selections book of the month selections this book is actually from Beyond uh I purchased this book in a bargain store I purchased it in allies uh which if you're not familiar with that uh it is a closeout store uh it's a chain you may or may not have one in your hometown um but I got this particular book for $1.99 uh which was a real bargain uh on Amazon presently uh it still sells for 9.89 and the Kindle version is $199 so this book is good morning midnight and the author is Lily Brooks Dalton this book uh was first published in 2016 and came out in paperback so this paperback version came out in 2017 somehow I missed this on my radar and just got caught up with it now but that's what bargain bookstores are for it uh this is the first novel uh by this author Lily Brooks Dalton um one uh book she published previously is actually a memoir uh and interestingly I think this title is great it's called Uh motorcycles I've loved d uh since the the publishing of this book good morning midnight uh she has now put out a second novel it's called the light parade uh and that came out in December of 2022 uh and I already have this on that one on order uh from Amazon should be coming in later in this week so I'm going to attempt to do a review uh without any spoilers at all I'm going to try my best to do all my reviews like that and if I think that I have uh spilled the beans even a little bit I will make sure that I put that in the description just so that you can make a decision as to whether or not um you know you want to look at that particular review if you haven't uh read the book so here it goes uh this book is about actually two scientists uh one is an older man he's in his late 70s I believe uh he's an astrophysicist his name is Augustine he goes by Auggie uh and he is on a uh research assignment in the Arctic uh the other person that the book is about and it's also in her voice as well so these are the two characters where you know you'll get their feelings and more of the background situation on them even though there are some other characters in the story although actually quite few uh so the other main character is a female she's uh younger than Austine she's kind of more uh towards maybe uh middle age uh and she is a astronaut a mission specialist who is on on a uh return trip to Earth from Jupiter uh her name is Sullivan her last name of course being an astronaut they a lot of times call each other by their last names uh but in the book she's referred to as Sully and now uh the basic situation when the book starts out is that uh something catastrophic we know has happened on Earth although we don't know what that is uh neither do either one of those characters nor anybody else that is with either one of them throughout this whole story uh they don't know all they know is that they have lost contact with uh their um you know Mission controllers uh anyone who can rescue them that's not a possibility at this point uh it is what it is uh in the case of Augustine the uh last plane uh to rescue any of the researchers has already come and gone he decided to stay behind because he is very dedicated to his work uh and he did not want to do the last return home opportunity that he had in the case of Sully uh she does have a crew there of course with her on this uh particular mission to Jupiter uh but but of course they are just as devastated as she is maybe even more so in some cases with losing contact uh with Earth and with anyone who can help them they're really not sure if they can get themselves back get themselves safely uh back safely and when they do uh what would be left of Earth so they're both in very very isolated situations uh very very isolated landscapes and they're questioning their uh life life choices uh both of them have been very dedicated scientists uh but they have allowed their work uh to take precedent over their uh families and relationships and so uh there's a lot of kind of uh questioning those choices for for the both of them uh and looking back over uh things that have happened in their lives uh and so it is a very very uh introspective book um if you're waiting for something truly exciting to happen in the book or if you're thinking that it's a post-apocalyptic book uh or a book focused on survival um it really isn't either one of those things uh there are some events of course that happen um but most of the conflict happens internally with both of these characters I found the writing to be very very good in my opinion uh it was very uh descriptive and I felt extremely immersed in both of these environments uh even though their environments that I've have never been in um I had the writer's description my own imagination and what I've seen on television and in movies uh to rely on as far as you know what these environments might look like uh probably neither one of these characters would describe themselves as emotional they're scientists um but we always know how they're feeling um with Sully it's kind of more reflected in the other crew members and what they go through uh and with Augustine uh it really is internal and uh just some other kind of dreamlike situations that he goes through so this book received 4.3 stars on Amazon uh the range that I saw was really as you would expect between three and five stars um I would take that up a little bit of a notch and I would give this book a four and a half Stars uh excellent in my opinion uh and I highly recommend it besides the four and a half Stars I would also give it something that I call the wow factor uh and that is when you turn the last page and you read the last sentence and you shut it and you say wow uh because you would love to know more about what has gone on with uh the characters this could have a sequel as far as I'm concerned and I would happily read it uh her uh subsequent novel that I have on order is not a sequel the light pirate is not a sequel to this story so uh that's my review and uh I hope you enjoyed it and if you have not read this book um again I'd highly recommend you picking it up and if you had have please leave a comment below uh also uh if you would care to like uh subscribe and ring the notification Bell for my channel I would really appreciate it uh and always remember your story is the most important story so craft it well and take yourself Beyond thank you very much thanks for watching have a great day