GIRL ON THE MOON - Jack McDonald Burnett

It's not too far into the future and humans have decided it's time to get back to the moon. There is an ulterior motive, of course ... this is where the alien race wants to meet. Man has not been to the moon since 1972 (Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt), and there has never been a woman on the moon.

Conn Garrow has dreamed of going to the moon since she was a child, but her dreams were dashed when NASA disqualified her for the astronaut program when she was diagnosed as bipolar. She then switched her focus to engineering hoping she could at the very least make it possible for others.

When the aliens invite humans to meet near the Apollo 15 lunar lander, the Chinese ready a craft and crew quickly. Not wanting to be outdone, NASA readies their own team. NASA is stretched thin due to a mission already underway (a four year, manned trip to Saturn), and Conn, knowing the engineering of the craft better than anyone, is selected to be a part of the team. Not bad for a 20 year old.

Contact is made and Conn because a spokesperson/translator for the aliens and all of earth. The aliens have quite a story to tell, and quite a request - they want the moon and promise unrivaled gifts of knowledge in payment.

Are the aliens looking to conquer Earth by luring humanity in with Trojan horse-like gifts? Or are they intergalactic conmen looking to gain valuable realistic for a few trinkets?

I had selected this as one of my free Kindle Unlimited reads a while back. I didn't expect too much from it - most of the books I've read through that program have been 'okay' - but this was really a fun read.

The character of Conn if quite well drawn. Accomplished, smart, and driven it's easy to see why she's our primary focus. But she's young and with that comes some inexperience and the questioning of her own abilities. My only real complaint about the character is that she seems to accomplish a little too much in her young age consider she's not set up to us as a child prodigy of any sort. Still, I really like the way she handles herself in a wide variety of tough situations.

Overall this was a really enjoyable sci-fi thriller and I'm hoping to read more in this series.

Looking for a good book? Girl on the Moon by Jack McDonald Burnett is a YA sci-fi space opera romp and an enjoyable one.

4 stars

* * * * * *

Girl on the Moon

author: Jack McDonald Burnett

series: Girl on the Moon #1

publisher: Kindle Press

ISBN: 9781662503634

Kindle Edition, 361 pages

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