I requested this book with the cover as my motivation. In addition to this being LGBTQIA+ and Sci Fi/Fantasy tagged!

The humor of this story I found to be funny. There were a few points that everything went over my head, but I still enjoyed the story overall. Sierra kicks butt, for example when she kicks a character in the abdomen. All while she is welcoming and loyal when it comes to her friends or business partners (the fellow crew members of "Who Wants To Know"). I love reading about them fighting and working as a team to protect the cat they stumbled across. Also, Sierra and Tovi's friendship dynamic is an enjoyable part of this read. Not to mention how Sierra meets conflict with her love life while the members of "Who Wants To Know" are working on their team goal. To me, Tovi also has a conflict with his love because he used to be attracted to another side character. With that my reaction was "Oooh do I see two queer romances within this story?!"

I did enjoy the ending and the mix-up of emotions that it caused within me.

One word to describe this book: fun. It was filled with intriguing characters that kept you rooting for them throughout the story. Sierra and Tovi create a rag-tag team that develops into a found family trope naturally. I loved the deep love the characters have for one another and the bonds they make along the way. If you are looking for a book that you can kick back and read for fun, this is the book for you.
I’m not usually huge into sci-fi, but the worldbuilding tossed me right into the environment. Great for a sci-fi novice who wants to dive deeper into the genre. Be warned romance lovers, while there isn’t romance it is still worth your time!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

DNF. I couldn't even make it to through the bulk of the story. The writing is incredibly bland with fancier big words sprinkled in for no reason that makes it read like the author heavily used a thesaurus, but for what purpose? Write what you know. It's okay! Disappointing to say the least.

This space opera has fun, Firefly vibes, with a found-family crew, a couple of silly space pirates, and cute AI animal companions. I love the concept, but unfortunately, this one didn’t quite land with me.

The story follows a spaceship crew across a series of jobs, with two main character POVs and several flashback chapters. I found the flashbacks to be some of the more enjoyable parts of the book, though they didn’t ultimately feel essential to the main plot. The book drops you right into the action with little exposition, which might work for some readers, but I struggled to connect with the characters early on and found the pacing a bit disjointed. I found myself skimming frequently and ultimately had to push myself to finish.

There are some fun moments, the main female character is chaotic, and the male is a sweetheart. They are dealing with their conniving exes, which adds some interesting conflict. This isn’t a romance but more of a buddy dynamic between the leads. There are several LGBTQ characters and relationships, but no romance.

I never got invested or fully immersed in the story, but that could be my taste. There was quite a bit of action and ups and downs. However, the writing style, especially the use of modern pop culture references, pulled me out of the futuristic setting.

This may be the start of a series, if so I could see future installments benefiting from deeper world-building and a prequel that fleshes out the crew and their backstories.

Spice: 1/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Writing: 3.5/5
My Enjoyment: 3/5

What a fun read!! What first caught my eye was the description: Firefly meets A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. As a big fan of Firefly, I couldn’t resist. The story absolutely captures that found family theme and does it very well. It’s charming, funny, heartfelt, and full of adventure.

This is a warm yet action-packed journey through the stars, following a chaotic but lovable crew. Sierra and her team make their living scavenging derelict ships, but their latest haul throws them into unexpected danger. They uncover an AI cat that holds secrets others are desperate to get their hands on, desperate enough to kill for. Sierra and her crew then are forced to work alongside pirates, and their leader just happens to be Sierra's ex.

The worldbuilding is well done, and we learn about different characters through flashbacks, which were also well done. The relationships between the characters, especially among the crew, were what I enjoyed the most about this story. This is where those Firefly vibes come in which I really enjoyed.

If you like Firefly, Star Wars discovery, even if you like romantasy I think this would be a great fun read
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Ｅｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ
🌟🌟.5
"Scavengers and Stray" by Rae Ryan is my first book by this author. The cover art is gorgeous; I could look at it forever. The bright colors are so eye-catching. Unfortunately, the storyline wasn't for me and didn't really keep my attention. I finished the book just to finish it, but I honestly couldn't tell you what was going on. The writing style was confusing. If this is available as an audiobook, I would definitely try it again.
𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬:
•Cozy Space Opera
•Found Family
•2nd Chance Romance

Thank you, NetGalley, and Rae Ryan for the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this book about 20% in.
Although I cannot give a rating of the entire book, I thought I would provide my reasons why I decided not to continue. First, I found the writing confusing at times. Although the book is written in third person, it was difficult to figure out whose perspective we were in at the beginning of each chapter. It also felt at times that the author spent more time explaining the characters instead of revealing who they are. The book had a lot of stage direction, but I wish there was more focus on the character’s internal feelings or thoughts so I could have related to the characters better.
In terms of the plot, I felt that not much happened by the time I decided to stop reading. Considering the length of the novel, I expected to know where the plot was going relatively early in the book.
I gave the book three stars because I think there are still some positives about this book. The concept is interesting, and I hope the right audience finds this book! Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.

Context: I am a hard sci-fi lover. The more science details in the book, the happier I am. Unfortunately this means my brain naturally will be very taken out of a book if the science does not add up. I am not the reader for this book, but if you are a fan of funny space operas, this might be for you. Please know I am super picky when it comes to sci fi. I do not like the marketing idea of “fantasy in space”, I am one of those picky readers. It hinders my enjoyment of the genre, and I would rather read fantasy at that point. That being said, I made it to about 65% in this book before I put it down because I am not the reader for it.

The reasons I ended up DNFing this book at 65% are:
-A weird sui*c*de joke that was not funny (it is a chapter title and just did not hit, it is insensitive and weird, i would rather any other joke)
-I unfortunately still have not laughed, so the humor is just not my sense of humor. Others may find much of the book quite funny. I just personally did not.
-There is a lack of grounding in science, like I do not understand why the characters are able to do xyz in space, for example, going to a liquor store to get wine for a night in. This takes me out of the sci fi aspect so much, as it feels like it could simply take place on earth. I have DNF’d sci fi books in the past purely because the main character was a bartender and it made no sense. Please know there is some genuine world building in this one, but this detail really took me out of it.
-It felt like there was a lot of telling versus showing. This character did this, this happened next. It pulled me out of it.
-Writing style was not my favorite. I was struggling to keep up with what was happening, hindering my comprehension and enjoyment.
-I am not feeling invested enough to pick it back up?


Reasons I made it t 65%:
-I liked the representation
-It was formatted properly
-There are some cute moments
-I enjoyed the first 16% and it kept me going for a bit


This review is not intended to be nit picky or overly critical, but to help other readers who might be interested understand a bit more context. While I would not recommend this book currently due to the odd su*c*de joke I may recommend it a few years down the line to someone wanting a fun queer space opera. I struggled with this review quite heavily as I truly wanted to enjoy this book and it seemed like a book I would find interest in, but I am just not the reader. I didn’t want to rate this under 3 stars as I did enjoy the beginning part and I don’t actively dislike this book, I just don’t think it’s for me.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this eARC! I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.

I have to admit that science fiction is not my usual terrain. I'm more into the romance genre, but the cover just magically attracted me. And what can I say? I really, really enjoyed this book. The writing was really good with lots of wit and sarcasm, so I read the book within 24 hours.

Sierra and her partners live on the edge of existence. They collect metals and machines from crashed spaceships to pay off their huge debts. By chance, they find a little cat, Lulu. An AI cat that contains valuable information/secrets that some would kill for. Sierra and her crew are forced to work with pirates to find a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, the head of the pirates, a very attractive woman, is Sierra's old flame. Can they find a solution together without handing Lulu over to the enemy? And might there be some love in it?

The universe in which the colorful crew of Sierra and Tovi live seemed very complex to me at first and I thought I would never understand it. However, after a few chapters I realized that I was totally wrong. Thanks to the flashbacks to the past, I was able to make sense of everything quite quickly and was then on fire for the story. The characters, especially Sierra and Tovi, have a nice depth and I really liked the flashbacks to understand how they ended up in the current situation. But I also really liked the side characters - Lulu, the little AI cat or the snake Rupert (she wormed her way into my heart). The whole crew of the spaceship “Who wants to know” (isn't that a great name??) was so lovely and sweet. A found family and I was so touched by the way they stood up for each other. The suspense was also good and picked up especially in the last part of the book. Along with a bit of queer romance, I really enjoyed it.

And now I'm wondering.... will there be a part 2???? I really hope so!!! I would love to follow Sierra and her friends again.