Celestial Lights was fabulous--one of my favorite recent reads. Cecile Pin's story of Oliver Ines, commander of the ship that goes to Jupiter's Moon Europa, is a thing of beauty, weaving together a past narrative of Oliver's coming of age seamlessly with the present as he tries to couple a stellar professional life with a rockier personal one. And at under 300 pages, Pin's prose is so clear and concise, yet it has the emotional impact as great as the universe she's writing about--this is a deeply human story. The science is solid too, at least to my complete layman's view. It's believable and realistic and Pin does a fabulous job portraying the initial excitement and eventual desolation of her momentous space journey.

Oliver and Philly are wonderful characters, and the secondary cast is well fleshed out as well. Once I started this story I just couldn't put it down. This is definitely one I'll be recommending to everyone.

A special thanks to Holt for granting me the opportunity to read a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.

Celestial Lights by Cecile Pin follows Ollie as he serves as commander on a ten-year space flight to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. The story chronicles his childhood and early career that lead him to this terrifying mission and the difficulties of maintaining relationships while pursing dreams. Ollie is forced to question if abandoning his wife and small child was worth becoming a scientific hero and forever changing space exploration.

I absolutely adored this book and found the characters to be very dynamic. I really like how Pin was able to weave together the past, present, and future in an interesting and comprehendible way. The stories flowed like a tapestry of Ollie’s life, slowly revealing more information the further he traveled into space. The story is beautifully written with clean pacing that left me on the edge of my seat, and I finished the book in one sitting!

Despite being a shorter novel, I felt connected to all of the characters and very invested in their lives and struggles. I was a little worried going into this book because I am not interested in STEM but I never struggled to understand technical terms and what was scientifically happening. This book actually made me more interested in the science world and I hope to read more books set in space in the future.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves beautiful prose, personal moral struggles, and a speculative look into what the future of space exploration may look like for our modern society.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for sending this arc in exchange for an honest review!*