I received an ARC through NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

A space found family that has Long Way to a Small Angry Planet vibes. The two main (and POV) characters are a human woman and an alien man, who have been friends for a long time, and they're both kind of messy, but especially Sierra. The book is very queer-normative, there is a nonbinary character, queer relationships, etc. There are also droids that are animal-shaped and specifically built to be companions, which is really cool and I want 5.

I liked the bits of worldbuilding - the history of humanity is that they fucked up TWO planets, so the Council went "no more planets for you" and now legally humans cannot settle a new planet anymore. Harsh, but I can see how we would end up that way. There's also a race (or many races?) that came from gene-modified Earth animals, resulting in intelligent bears, wolves, etc that can communicate like a person.

Overall, I liked the worldbuilding and the characters... but I feel like the plot was lacking. The pacing was off - at 80% in I felt like we haven't really got anywhere, and then it all happened at once, and then it was over. This is why it didn't fully grab me. The ending twist will probably make me read the sequel, though.