The Astronaut and the Star

By: Jen Comfort

Narrated by: Lucy Rivers, Oliver Clarke

An out-of-this-world romantic comedy featuring an astronaut tasked with training a Hollywood actor for a space flick.

Astronaut Regina “Reggie” Hayes wants to be the first woman on the moon - it’s all she’s ever dreamed of. But after a PR disaster, Reggie is off the list for a lunar mission. To rehabilitate her reputation with NASA, she agrees to a different kind of assignment: astronaut “training” with a Hollywood action hero.

Jon Leo is a charmer. With credits that include an underperforming sitcom and a campy action flick called Space Dude, his upcoming role in a prestigious movie could prove he’s a star. But Jon isn’t just big muscles and an otherworldly smile - he’s also a total space nerd. He’s pumped about his own personal space camp...until he meets ice-cold Reggie.

Although Reggie and Jon are polar opposites, their mutual attraction is undeniable, and it only takes a few weeks in close quarters for them to give in to its magnetic force. Jon is set on convincing Reggie this is a match made in the heavens, but her future is in space, and his is among stars of the Hollywood kind. The odds of successfully launching a real relationship outside the confines of the training base are anything but optimal.

Reggie, content with keeping things casual, is forced by a sudden turn of events to confront the possibility of losing Jon forever. Now, she’ll do whatever it takes to win both the man and the moon.

©2022 Jen Comfort (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Lucy Rivers and Oliver Clarke do a great job voicing these characters and make the book better with their clear narration.”—Library Journal

“An elegant balance of similarity and difference.”—The New York Times

“The fun, original premise of Comfort’s debut—which pairs a NASA scientist with an up-and-coming film star—will draw readers in…”—Publishers Weekly

Great story, narration was a bit distracting

I thought this was fun and sexy adult romance!

The repetitive cadence of the female narration was a bit distracting to me, but it may be appealing to others. To me it registers as if every sentence is being read as items on a list. The female lead is written as emotionally unavailable to herself and others, so maybe it was an artistic choice to read her chapters sort of robotically and this is actually brilliant performance? Idk, I would probably still try another audiobook by the narrator to see if it’s different.

To the male voicing narrator, thank you for making the female dialogue sound so…normal. Male sounding narrators I’ve listened to often not only do higher pitch on female dialogue, but they add this weird breathy thing that makes every female character sound incompetent regardless of the character’s characteristics in the story. You didn’t, and it was very much appreciated by this listener.

Boring

I found the reading to robotic and the story boring and predictable. Not my favorite.

Not recommended

Being older I did not like vulgar language. Don't know why author thinks that it waa better!

Enjoyable

I enjoyed the banter and the opposite attraction angle of the story. One can't help but root for this poor mixed up couple. Poor Reggie and her snobbish parents, no wonder she was a mess
My only criticism is that it seemed a little long and drawn out. Whoever I did like the scene with the Conspiracy theorist People.

meh

Falls flat on humor. Storyline was mediocre at best. Didn't really care much for the characters. I was a bit appalled at the sexual content of this book. I am by no means a prude, but I like to listen to the audio versions while I work. I am a mail carrier and I spend between 5 hours driving 6 days a week. I definitely would not want my customers to have overheard me listening to this.

OMG I flew through this book and now I’m so sad it’s over!!!

I loved every second of this book. Intensely romantic, funny, deep and hawt!!! Where can I get this Authors next book????!!!!!!!!!!!

Crass

I was excited about this book, but the sex scenes were pretty crass and took away from the book. I did not want to finish but I stuck with it. I don’t mind some steamy romance but it turned into porn and I’m not into reading that.

Much better than I hoped for

Maybe a bit too long but it was better than I expected. should have done the families earlier
the ADHD was handled well. realizing that his mom couldn't take him to test as a kid is very observant
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So hard to listen to

The narration on this book is terrible. I have to wonder if it’s an intentional direction or casting choice since both the male and female voice have the same mannerism, but the female voice is way, way more emphasized.

Almost every sentence has the last word drawn out and down talk. It’s maddening to listen to. It sounds like they are doing a evening news broadcast, not reading a novel - let alone a romance novel!

When I played my husband a clip and asked him what he thought, then told him what it was he said: “oh, I thought it was a robot”.

Definitely listen to a clip before you decide to buy the audio book. I can’t really speak to the book itself - I listened for 4 hours and it was fine, but had to stop because I couldn’t listen to this anymore.

Nice opposites attract story, watch language

I enjoyed listening to this story. The narrators were great. I liked that John and Reggie were so different, and learned a lot about astronauts and the space program. I really liked John's mother. The only thing that turned me off was the language. I would have given the book five stars, but the language of Reggie and John bothered me.