Star Dust by Emma Barry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A book set in the 1950s about a woman who has the audacity to divorce her husband … and her romance with the astronaut who lived next door.
I picked this up because someone mentioned it had decent representation of STEM characters in it. Which it does.
Kit is a pilot and a very good one. He works with an extremely grumpy engineer. I liked the fact that although he didn’t LIKE the guy, he respected his expertise.
Anne-Marie is prickly, but has good reason for being so (I’m not keen on heroines who are prickly for the sake of it – there has to be a reason, even if you don’t find it out until later in the book). She’s a woman making it on her own in a very patriarchal society. She is judged most harshly by the other women around her. On the other hand, she also gets support from the other astronauts’ wives.
I really like the fact that the story explored the push-pull between work and home life for the men as well as the expectations society placed on the women.
I found the characters and their struggles compelling and loved the period setting. This was an immensely enjoyable book. I’m intending to read the rest of the series.
Rhoda Baxter 