When Joan Goodwin leaves academia behind to try and become an astronaut, she expects that her life is going to change.  She had no idea to what degree, though, as she meets a fellow aspiring astronaut who she is drawn to, even if society, and NASA, are not ready to accept it.  Following her first trip into space, she takes over custody of her young niece and finally has everything she has ever wanted, but a shocking incident on the next shuttle flight puts everything at risk.

From April of 2022 through October of 2023, I devoured Taylor Jenkins Reid’s previous four novels.  She’s finally back with Atmosphere, which was released this summer.  This was a bit of a departure from her earlier works, which focused on famous people trying to work through life’s problems despite their social status.  In Atmosphere, while Joan Goodwin is certainly famous in certain circles as one of the first US women to go into space, her life is much more grounded.

Reid took a break following the publishing of Carrie Soto Is Back in 2022, so it may be a while before we hear from her again.  She does have four earlier works which I may try to dive into at some point, but those haven’t taken off like her later works.