Unfortunately I was unable to download this book before the archive date, so I'm not able to leave a review. I look forward to reading and reviewing books by this author in the future.

this was a great scifi novel, it was a lot of elements that I look for in this type of book. The characters were wonderfully done and I want more in this series.

This was ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5

Celestine follows the story of Cel, a teenager from the 80's who has traveled to space and back; except she comes back to a modern Earth, due to the speed of light traveling. Dealing with the grief of loss, unanswered questions, Covid, new technology, and old acquaintances that are now old enough to be her parents, Cel finds herself in quite the position. Fear of all the unknowns, naturally, proves to be the breaking point for her.

While this book is listed as a sci-fi novel, I would consider it more of a psychological thriller. There are some elements of science fiction introduced at the beginning; however, the book focuses more on the paranoia and depression of a confused teenager. The questions on how this scientific advances work are never quite explained, which makes these elements more like aiding secondary characters who never influence the primary plot.

I did enjoy the way the author portrayed depression and anxiety, as well as grief and PTSD; while it does not look the same for everyone, he did portray it very well.

As for the things I did not like,

- It seems the book could've used at least two more rounds of proofreading for grammar mistakes and typos on the second half of the book.
- The scenes with Jackson in the cabin seemed to drag a bit longer than needed. I found myself struggling to focus.
- The topic of Cel's discovery of her sexuality was nicely introduced, but it wasn't really explored; it would've been best to not add it to the story, as it didn't add anything other than new questions.
- The ending was rushed; in a matter of two chapters, all the issues were solved with the snap of fingers, making the characters lose some credibility.
- The Epilogue isn't actually an epilogue, but an Author's Note. It would serve a better purpose at the beginning of the book, prior to starting the narration.

Overall, it was an entertaining read that was easy to relate to, given the times we are living currently.

Very good read. Solid characters, interesting story and good amount of emotions. On big plus - easy to follow writing style, not a word too much.

Just completed Celestine by Kevin St. Jarre. This was ARC provided to me by NetGalley for an honest review. I rated this as 3 stars but this is closer to 3.5. I was excited to read this. It was about a teenager who in 1984 goes on a secret space mission with her parents. Two years into the mission there are complications due to crew members dying and the mission is aborted. Upon the return to earth we find that almost 40 years on earth has passed. The story is about an 80s girl coming to grips with the future. My thought was how fun will this be! I was a teenager in the 80s and loved that decade the best. I wondered how I would assimilate to the current wonders of this decade. There was some of that, but this went a LOT deeper. There was some of that but this kid lost her parents, came back to no friends, and had very limited family options. There was also the fact that she arrives back to earth after COVID and some people assume she will be the harbinger of another pandemic due to the ‘space virus.’ I liked this kid. She was brave. But this was a bit more grim than what I expected. I would recommend the book to others as it is definitely worth the read.

Just okay. The premise was interesting, but it didn't feel fully fleshed out. It was interesting that the author updated the book before publishing in order to include references to COVID, although at times they felt like they had been tacked on as an afterthought.

This coming-of-age novel is about a girl who left earth on a spaceship in the 1980s, returned to earth in the 2020s, and tries to fit back into normal life. The book really has nothing to do with space travel; the catalyst could have easily been time travel, coma, or a number of other scenarios. The book however does have everything to do with the age old problem of fitting in.

The writing is acceptable, but I found the story to be bland and generic. The story resembles a run-of-the-mill after school TV special and would appeal to that audience (young teens), but I don’t think it has enough depth to cross over to a more mature audience.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC to review.