Full Speed to a Crash Landing

Chaotic Orbits, Book 1

By: Beth Revis

Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, David Bendena

A high octane sexy space heist from New York Times-bestselling author Beth Revis, the first in a novella trilogy.

Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they reluctantly rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission.

But Ada doesn’t care—all that matters to her is enjoying their fine food and sweet, sweet oxygen—until Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off. But as quick as Ada is, Rian might be quicker—and she may not be entirely sure who’s manipulating who until it’s too late…

A phenomenally fun novella that kicks off a trilogy of sexy space heists and romantic tension, Full Speed to a Crash Landing is packed with great characters and full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end.

©2024 Beth Revis (P)2024 Dreamscape Lore

Critic reviews

"Readers looking for a wild romp of a sci-fi caper story, complete with long games, big plans, wild heists, and epically flirtatious banter, are going to fall in love with Ada Lamarr every bit as much as Agent Rian White does in this first of a projected trilogy . . . Perfect for fans of Valerie Valdes and Constance Fay." (Marlene Harris, An Amazon Editors' Pick (August 2024))

Written by a teen?

Too much sexual cheesy content. I guess some people like this. But it’s so fake and unrealistic and a waste of time. The main character also isn’t very likable, whiny, and somehow entitled sounding.

The art of the con

“How can you not be sure about cheese?”
The good: Fast moving caper with a spitfire speaking fluent sarcasm.

The bad: The ratio of interstellar politics to setting, supporting characters, or the chemistry between
Ada and Rian is way off. Rather than lighten up on the politics (which was an important piece),
I wanted fleshed out alien worlds or fascinating crew members or cool new technologies and gizmos.

The random thoughts: Given the fade to black treatment (so vague I’m not 100% sure they got together), this should have been a cozy … except there are a smattering of F bombs. I suppose the caper concluded, but at this novella length, I feel like these three “books” should have been offered together … charging a full credit for each nugget is highway robbery.

Fun, fast, and smart

A great start to a new series with a twist you won’t see coming, and the narration is top notch! Can’t wait to listen to the next book in the series.

Full Speed

This novella is so fun. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had reading/listening to a book in so long. So much so that I listened to the first two in one sitting. Though I can easily interchange audio with physical books this was one that I would recommend as an audio. The narrator does such a fantastic job with the dialogue which is saying a lot because the dialogue is 90% sarcasm and witty banter. I loved it. This book also gave me Firefly vibes, I am not sure why, maybe the banter or dialogue, it was just the same smart interactions even when being devious. So, this book follows Ada who is a looter, someone who goes out and loots abandoned or wrecked spacecraft that the government hasn’t claimed, her ship gets damaged and she gets picked up on a government ship. Here is where she meets Rian, an attractive person on this ship that she is attracted to, but she is on a mission and so is he. Though there is romantic tension this isn’t a romance. It’s a space heist book and I am here for it.

I Am Really Hoping This Is The Start Of A Great New SciFi Series!!

This SciFi story definitely kept my interest and surprised me. I enjoyed it, but this must be the start of a series or I’m totally unsatisfied. I have so many questions.

I really like Ada, the main character and the narrator was perfection in portraying her. I really like Ryan too, but have so many questions about WHY!! I’d say more, but spoilers.

If you enjoy a SciFi story with lots of wit and a bit of romance, you will definitely enjoy this!!

Cool Twist

I actually bought Book 2 at B&N recently and realized I would be missing crucial information, so I decided to buy this audiobook first. Now I'm really looking forward to the sequels! Good performance, balance of humor and world building, well-rounded characters.