by Heather Kaczynski
ebook, 377 pages
Published October 10th 2017
by HarperTeen
ARC from Edelweiss
Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | TBD
THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: You must be gifted. You must be younger than twenty-five. You must be willing to accept the dangers that you will face if you win.
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Gupta’s entire life has been leading up to this—the opportunity to travel to space. But to secure a spot on this classified mission, she must first compete against the best and brightest people on the planet. People who are as determined as she to win a place on a journey to the farthest reaches of the universe.
Cassie is ready for the toll that the competition will take; the rigorous mental and physical tests designed to push her to the brink of her endurance. But nothing could have prepared her for the bonds she would form with the very people she hopes to beat. Or that with each passing day it would be more and more difficult to ignore the feeling that the true objective of the mission is being kept from her.
As the days until the launch tick down and the stakes rise higher than ever before, only one thing is clear to Cassie: she’ll never back down . . . even if it costs her everything.
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Gupta’s entire life has been leading up to this—the opportunity to travel to space. But to secure a spot on this classified mission, she must first compete against the best and brightest people on the planet. People who are as determined as she to win a place on a journey to the farthest reaches of the universe.
Cassie is ready for the toll that the competition will take; the rigorous mental and physical tests designed to push her to the brink of her endurance. But nothing could have prepared her for the bonds she would form with the very people she hopes to beat. Or that with each passing day it would be more and more difficult to ignore the feeling that the true objective of the mission is being kept from her.
As the days until the launch tick down and the stakes rise higher than ever before, only one thing is clear to Cassie: she’ll never back down . . . even if it costs her everything.
What would you do if you're given the chance to go to space? Are you willing to sacrifice everything for the opportunity to be an astronaut? Well, our main character Cassandra Gupta certainly is willing to put everything on the line for that. A genetically enhanced only child, Cass is gifted in sports, music and academics but socially awkward and has no friend in school.
When she was offered a place in an experimental program in Johnson Space Center as part of a very top secret space exploration, Cass wholeheartedly threw herself in the intense competition. From the initial 62, the candidates are quickly shortlisted to 25 in a day. And afterwards, tests after tests both physically and physiology were thrown at these youngsters to whittle out the best.
The interesting part is when Cass slowly open herself to others during the competition. The bubbly Emilio Esteban and the amazing Mitsuko Pinuelas became her allies. It was indeed an intense and exhilarating adventure although the ending caught me by surprise. I've always had a suspicion regarding Luka the son of the Georgian Ambassador who rather curiously maintained at the top of the rank in the space competition. But the twists involving him is rather unpredictable and begets more questions for the next book.
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