An engaging and sometimes emotional read. The characters of Joan and Vanessa were well done, while the side characters could have been developed more, I wanted to feel more when certain characters died. The ending was a bit abrupt, leaving Joan and Vanessa's careers and relationship open-ended. I think many readers will enjoy the setting of the 198os NASA space program. This is an enjoyable summer read for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The more of TJR’s work that I read, the more I enjoy her work. With each publication her characters and prose continue to get better and better. I love seeing her grow as an author and it makes me so excited for her future works. I really enjoyed this story! It felt so much larger than the rest of her stories but also still felt so familiar because of her writing style. I can’t wait to get my hands on the physical copy to annotate all of my thoughts. Do I know anything about astrophysics? Or engineering? Or space in general? Mostly no lol (I’m proficient in Project Hail Mary?) but this science felt very accessible!
4.25 stars overall!

Loved this book. Devoured it in a weekend!

Love relationships…family relationships…female empowerment…and space! Great combination.

Taylor Jenkins Reid delivers again with Atmosphere. It was a masterclass in storytelling that blends fascinating subject matter with Reid’s signature emotional depth.

Taylor. Jenkins. Reid. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?! I have read every book published by this powerful human. And Atmosphere?!?! WOW. I wasn't ready. This one is going to be stuck with me for the rest of my life. I cannot even convey the emotions that rose from this book. Each relationship between the characters was intricately woven, and the different storylines they represented were built into each other in such a way that I wasn't prepared for the depth of attachment I would acquire towards each character. TJR's stylistic means of writing nails it every time. This was no exception... Her dual (?) timelines are on point, but they are always so unique. I have a crush on her writing style. There. I said it. Every piece of this novel planted seeds and grew in my soul. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for gifting me the chance to read this novel.

Taylor. Jenkins. Reid. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?! I have read every book published by this powerful human. And Atmosphere?!?! WOW. I wasn't ready. This one is going to be stuck with me for the rest of my life. I cannot even convey the emotions that rose from this book. Each relationship between the characters was intricately woven, and the different storylines they represented were built into each other in such a way that I wasn't prepared for the depth of attachment I would acquire towards each character. TJR's stylistic means of writing nails it every time. This was no exception... Her dual (?) timelines are on point, but they are always so unique. I have a crush on her writing style. There. I said it. Every piece of this novel planted seeds and grew in my soul. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for gifting me the chance to read this novel.

4.5 stars, rounded up - my initial review said "I had to give this the full five stars simply for the fact that it is 2 AM, and I binged this book all night long until I landed here, in a puddle of tears with my heart cracked open under the moonlight, staring up at the stars. 😭🚀💫⭐"

Atmosphere immediate sucked me in, and by the time I was 1/4 of the way in, I was completely and totally invested in the characters and their outcomes. Almost every character read as a fully fleshed-out person with endearing quirks that made them lovable and relatable. I actually had the hardest time connecting with Vanessa, though, which is what knocked off half a star from the final rating for me. The wide cast of side characters, however, tugged at my heartstrings from the moment I met each of them, and they were truly what made this book so great and so engaging to me.

There were definitely some moments that felt very Evelyn Hugo-like in both style and nature, but I don't think that any new TJR book will ever dethrone The Seven Husbands as my most favorite read of hers. In hindsight, I probably should have rounded down my 4.5 star rating, simply because I feel like this was pretty on-par with Daisy Jones and the Six for me, and I rounded down on that one...but I rarely go back and change my initial ratings, so the 2 AM rounding up still stands! 😂

I definitely foresee this being one of the hottest books of summer '25!

I read this in barely over 24 hours and am sitting here devastated that it is over. I loved everything to do with this story. The action, the character, the drama, the love. If you’ve ever read a Taylor Jenkins Reid book before, you know what you are getting - beautifully drawn characters who you feel like you truly know by the end of the story. This is no exception.

*Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review!

TJR is one of my favorite authors, and this book did not disappoint.

While I highly recommend this book, I do not recommend starting it before bed. (My mistake.) The opening scene is full of action and drops you right into the tension. Then, the story jumps back in time to carefully unfold the characters and setting.

Joan Goodwin is an astronomy professor who has always dreamed of going to space. Set during the 1980s Space Shuttle program, Joan works her way through the NASA program. I really enjoyed this book and love how TJR nails the sense of time and place perfectly in her books (thinking of Mailibu Rising and Daisy Jones). It took a little while to figure out all the characters, but the story moves pretty quickly in an interesting time in American history. I especially loved Joan’s relationship with her niece and her fierce love for her.

Favorite quotes:
“She was trying to prove that she could be just like a man to all of them. To Jimmy. To Lydia. Because the world had decided that to be soft was to be weak, even though in Joan’s experience being soft and flexible was always more durable than being hard and brittle.”

“Bravery, Joan suspected, is almost always a lie. Courage is all we have.”

“When Joan looked back at the Earth, she was overwhelmed with her own life’s meaning-and the fact that the only meaning it could have was the meaning she gave it.”

Taylor does it again. I have loved all of her releases since The Seven Husbands. This one did not disappoint.

This is my favorite TJR book! The characters were so vivid & I loved the 1980s setting & learning about the space program. The best though was how she captured the struggle for queer people during that time. Highly recommend this fascinating, emotional read!

What a wild ride. Atmosphere starts like a thriller with barely enough time to buckle up before the action begins. Something goes wrong on the shuttle and our characters have to make some high pressure decisions. And then we put a pin in this setting while the story bounces back a couple of years to when these astronauts came to Houston and became a team, some of them becoming family. The tension remains strong as we flip between the two time settings, allowing the reader to catch their breath.

This is not hard science fiction, it's not science fiction at all. There's just enough technical information so you can understand the situation, but it's relayed in an approachable format and gives the reader a behind the scenes look at events we've only seen parts of.

Reader advisory- when you get towards the end, and you'll know when, give yourself some time and space to finish the book. It wrecked me and I couldn't deal with people.

Atmosphere is one of the best books I've read this year.

TJR can do no wrong! This one was a little cheesier than my overall preference (lots of space metaphors) but it was a page-turner with a show stopping ending that made it a winner. Readers won’t be disappointed if they are looking for an exciting story with a ton of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing the ARC.

This book was a doozy for me. I am already an emotionally fraught person, and this book put me through the ringer. There was a lot of anxiety, and a lot of tears were shed in a lot of different ways. Happy, sad, hopeful? Honestly, I probably ran through most of the spectrum of human emotion with this book.

It is masterfully crafted. Jenkins' prose has always been well-developed and meaningful, but I love the backdrop of this story, and I love how she is able to weave in the science aspect of her main character without the story becoming overburdened by it. For someone who may not want to read about the science of space travel and Joan's experiences in the astronaut training program, I could see where they might find this story a bit of a drag in parts. But overall, I thought the inclusion of it in the story was very well done and it didn't overpower the characters or the story that was being told.

Joan is such an interesting character to me. I love how in Jenkins' books, her characters always feel real to me. It's the authenticity of her voice that really seals the deal for me. Joan is flawed and that makes her more human. The rest of the cast is equally as complex and compelling, and the reader can easily find people to root for or dislike because of their mannerisms. There is real skill in what Jenkins does in her books that make it seem like this story could happen to someone you know, and that the characters can embody the people around you, providing just another layer of making it feel real.

This book is amazing and honestly, I feel wrung out from reading it. But I wouldn't change my experience for the world.

I love TJR and this did not disappoint. It was different than some of her previous works, but in a good way. There was clearly a ton of research that went into this book on space, NASA and how the astronaut training program worked, in particular in the early 1980s. The book focuses on Joan, who becomes part of the astronaut training program. She has to learn to find herself and figure out who she is and what she wants. She also is dealing with her sister, who often dumps her daughter off on Joan as well.

There are two timelines and they do merge together at the end. At first, it was hard to keep the different characters straight (a bunch of names are introduced at the beginning) but as the book goes on, it does make more sense. I actually finished the book and then went back to read the first few chapters again and I loved it even more.

I kept wanting to read more and I thought the ending was done perfectly. I love strong female characters and this definitely had them. It was also an interesting look at how hard it was for women to enter male-dominated fields just 40 years ago.

However - unless I missed something - I did not see any Easter eggs or ties to any of TJR's previous books in this one.

Wow, this book is amazing and powerful. I loved everything about it. This is one of those books that you will always have stuck in your head. The way you start to see Joan (the main character) accept her sexuality, understand herself more as a person and the love she has for her niece is beautiful. I went through every emotion while reading this.


5 stars all day. Thank you for this arc and for this beautiful book. Everyone needs to read this. This book is the closest thing to perfection.

This is, without exaggeration, one of the most exquisitely written novels I’ve ever read. I suspected it would resonate deeply with me, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional gravity of this story. I was in tears by the end. Taylor Jenkins Reid continues to demonstrate an extraordinary emotional intelligence and narrative mastery. I feel incredibly fortunate to have received an advance copy, and I’ll be advocating passionately for this book—it deserves nothing less.

I’m a huge TJR fan but this one did not work for me. The beginning was promising but then I just lost interest. The dual timeline ruined the pace of the story for me.
I gave it my best efforts, but I just couldn’t get into it. Very Martian-ish, but with a self discovery slant to it.

Still a huge fan, so looking forward to the next one. Have it 3 stars since the beginning was quite engaging.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 blastoff stars

Taylor Jenkins Reid has really grown on me. She picks unique backdrops for her books and really brings them to life. This time, she has tackled women in the space industry.

We begin in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with Joan Goodwin as our strong female main character in this one. She’s an astronomy professor at Rice University. She’s picked that school so that she can be close to her niece Frances, who’s been a big part of her life since she was born. I really enjoyed this relationship in the book.

Joan starts to hear rumors that NASA wants to get women into the space program. It takes a few tries, but she’s finally accepted and wants more than anything to go to space. She trains in Houston with fellow candidates and sees the divide early – between nerds and soldiers. The pilots all have military backgrounds.

Joan has a calm, steady demeanor and really enjoys her time in Mission Control. As she continues to train, she’s finally tapped to go up on a mission. While a romance blossoms for her, life with her sister and Frances struggles. She builds strong relationships with her fellow astronauts, but there is also some friction and secrets.

The book is masterfully structured with alternating scenes of Joan leading the team in Mission Control while a disaster unfolds in space. Then, the next section goes back in time and details how Joan made it through the program.

I’m not a big science person, so I wondered if I would enjoy this one. There are not tons of detailed scientific explanations, so I wasn’t bogged down with that. This one does have the space program as a backdrop, but it is much more about human interactions, relationships, and the complexities of women entering spaces that were originally populated only by men. I applaud the tenacity of these characters!

And my rule is that if a book makes me cry, it must receive 5 stars. If I follow that rule, this book would have to get 10 stars because I ugly cried!

TJR is amazing, once again, developing deeply emotional, relatable, and loveable characters. She has a way of making readers capable of feeling so attached and invested in these character's life stories. This book was way more powerful than I anticipated it being, powerful in a thought provoking, inspirational, want to go out and kick ass now kind of way.

I love a plot around women fighting for their place in their hard earned careers - this one specifically with NASA. I began the book with little knowledge about space (honestly freaks me TF out) and ended the book very intrigued about ALL of the facets, not just the people that go into space, but the ones behind the scenes too, and she captured (what I feel were believable) emotions of that career path so well.

This is also only the third book I've cried in 0: happy tears? Sad tears? Both? I will leave that stone unturned for future readers!
It is hard not to compare TJR's books...I am a diehard DJ&T6 and T7HoEH fan forever, but this one I would give 5 stars for character development, and overall 3.5 stars because it did take until about halfway in for me to not be able to "put it down" compared to her others. It was a bit of a slow start and I wanted just a little bit more action throughout the story itself. Above all, the character development was amazing and all throughout reading, I wanted to see how their stories played out - I think that is what had a hold on me the entire book, not necessarily the storyline itself.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I'm always excited to read anything TJR!!