Sarah Miller is a marine, not a space soldier. Or so she thought until her father, the esteemed Fleet Admiral, is forced to step down, with Sarah first in line to take his place. Despite Sarah’s reluctance she agrees to play the role and along with her twin brother Max, boards the Crown Space Station.

While aboard she faces interpersonal setbacks, corrupt internal politics and PTSD unlike anything she encountered on Earth. Not to mention her crippling fear of deep space. However, despite everything, she manages to find romance with a Lieutenant Commander, Annie. Can her relationships and love keep her sane and safe in cold dark space? Or will her demons and enemies prove too much for even Sarah to take? All the space thrills and more in, The Fleet Admiral’s Daughter.

This book was a ride that’s for dang sure. I took a bit of a risk reading this one because I am terrified of space. However, the premise looked interesting and I am glad I gave it a chance because I enjoyed it. I was anticipating an alien foe or some space demon. Instead, I found an emotional story full of depth, growth and human connection.The plot was fairly easy to digest, minus some technical jargon. The characters were layered. And the writing style overall kept me engaged. If you like intense action and deep space stories then you are in the right place.

I appreciated that the plot took turns I didn’t expect, given the setting is space. For the first half of the book I was anticipating an external threat to pop up. Such as aliens, or other hostile entities outside the space station. However, as the story progressed it became obvious that the real threat to Sarah and her mission were the people inside the station. Without giving away any spoilers let’s just say that first impressions and gut feelings in this story are key to Sarah’s survival. There are no coincidences and every little thing that seems suspicious, probably is, which was so fun in the end when she started putting it all together.

Sarah is a great MC. I loved her emotional depth and growth over the course of the book. Her anger at her father and unhappiness at being forced to be on the space station is surprisingly relatable and I found myself empathizing with her. Plus her relationship with her twin is sweet and I love how realistic and imperfect their connection is. However, I was caught off guard that they called each other “brother” and “sister”, instead of their names. Sarah’s sweet sapphic romance was a highlight of the story for me though. I appreciated that they came into this book already having history so their connection was evident from the get-go and you were just hoping for them to get together.

Overall the writing style was great and kept me engaged. However, it did drag on in some bits and went maybe a tad too into the day to day for my taste. I think I’m slightly more of a thrill seeker in this genre. Though If you enjoy very in depth character stories with intense action scattered throughout I think you’ll really appreciate that aspect. The technical jargon did also lose me a bit but that is 100% just my opinion.

All in all, this deep space thriller is a read with surprising depth. From the perilous missions to the interpersonal betrayal you will not want to put this down. Not to mention you’ll consider putting in an application to the Space Force. If you like high stakes sci-fi and sweet sapphic romance, you are in the right place. Happy reading!

Thanks to G.A Gaudio for an ARC of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.