The Launch

Stardust Beach Book One

By: Stephanie Taylor

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Florida’s Space Coast—1963. People flock south to make the Sunshine State their winter playground, moving to the brand new beach towns and neighborhoods to live their lives in the sun. But the families moving to Stardust Beach near Cape Kennedy aren’t there for canasta and cocktails; the men aren’t going to spend their days on the golf courses, and the women aren’t there for fashion shows and shuffleboard. These couples are young, driven, and there to make history. These are the First Families of NASA’s new space program, and they’re ready to aim for the moon…

Josephine Booker, wife to Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Bill Booker, is hesitant to jump into the spotlight. She doesn’t relish the idea of leaving wholesome Minnesota for flashy Florida, and she doesn’t love the thought that her family will be used as a public prop for NASA as Bill goes through astronaut training. But she loves her husband, and she believes wholeheartedly that he deserves a shot at space, so Jo is going to trade in canning peaches, camping in the woods, and waiting for the snow to fall in favor of pool parties, sunshine, and life at the beach.

In Stardust Beach, Jo meets Frankie, Barbie, Carrie, and Jude, the wives of the other new NASA recruits. The women become fast friends, and almost immediately, they learn that leaning on one another is the only way they’re going to survive on Earth if their husbands leave to explore space.

As the world changes around them, the astronaut wives band together to confront the tumultuous times as a united front. Because when the president is shot, when war breaks out, and when personal tragedies crop up amongst them, they realize that sometimes all you need is a little help from your friends.

The women of Stardust Beach are strong and resilient, and they all want the same things: happiness, friendship, and love. As they support their husbands and raise their families in the shadow of Cape Kennedy, they share their love of sisterhood, they support one another through thick and thin, and they honor each other’s unique stories and personalities.

The Stardust Beach series will be eight books long and will have intertwining stories and characters, both sad and hopeful moments, beautiful friendships, romance, and plenty of laughter.

The series launches in August of 2024, and all books will be available in both digital and paperback formats.

Book One: The Launch—releases August 31, 2024

Book Two: Supernova—releases October 26, 2024

Book Three: The Space Between—releases December 21, 2024

Book Four: Starlight & Dark Nights—releases February 22, 2025

Book Five: Across the Universe—releases April 26, 2025

Book Six: The Light Year—releases June 21, 2025

Book Seven: A Galaxy of Comets—releases August 23, 2025

Book Eight: The Landing—releases October 25, 2025

The narration was terrible!

The narration was awful! It did not help that the language used by the characters was too formal and verbose. My third criticism is the introduction of the social justice theme of downtrodden women, desperately looking for fulfillment. I will not be continuing the series.

AI Narration is unbearable.

The AI narration is unbearable. I moved to Cocoa, FL when I was 6 years old, because of the influx of construction. My father was a builder. I have photos of myself under rockets at Cape Kennedy and remember the space race design on buildings all over the Cape and surrounding areas. I really wanted to listen to this book. However, the AI narration is unbearable. There is no emotion and inflection is on the wrong part of words and sentences. I won’t be listening to any books narrated by AI.

Horrible AI Narration.

The AI narration is terrible. There’s some sort of feedback and there’s a lot of squeaking and the narrator is a monotone and it’s just horrible. The book itself really has no plot. I kept waiting for something to happen, but it never did. I don’t recommend this book.