Space in His Heart: Beautifully-written Contemporary Romance
Title: Space in His Heart
Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Genre: Romantic Suspense
As a child, I always dreamed of being an astronaut. (I decided I wasn’t cut out for that when I realized how well you had to do at Mathematics to even stand a chance!) But when the opportunity to read this book came along, I jumped at it. Finally, a chance to be in space – despite my abysmal Math abilities.
Aside from the prologue and epilogue, which are set in 2011, New York Times best-selling author Roxanne St. Claire’s book is largely set in 1999, when the space program was still, if not going strong, then at least still alive and kicking, even if regular Americans simply could not relate to what NASA was doing.
Enter hard-driving PR whiz kid Jessica Marlowe. She’s given the unenviable task of making America fall in love with space again. Her grand plan is a simple one – but one that will work! She wants to give the space program a human face – and preferably a very sexy one. She chooses the attractive and intelligent Commander Deke Stockard to be NASA’s poster boy. Deke’s a Navy fighter pilot and astronaut who’s more concerned about the safety of the upcoming missions. What’s more, there’s a medical emergency on the space station, and the time pressure to get up there is intense. He simply has no time or inclination to make nice with the PR woman, and he’s incensed that Jessica’s trapped him into becoming involved in her publicity stunt. But orders are orders, and Deke acquiesces reluctantly to media training, photo-shoots, and television interviews. Not surprisingly, he becomes a media darling, falling in love with Jessica along the way.
Since this is a romantic suspense, St. Claire throws in a saboteur who jeopardizes the safety of the missions, an inside source who’s feeding false information to the media about NASA’s technical troubles and a jealous rival or two at Jessica’s PR firm. The pacing is perfect, and had me turning the pages late into the night, until the plot lines intersected neatly at the end and we finally reached the happy ever after.
While the plot was great, what I really enjoyed reading were the details about NASA and space program that went into the book. I felt almost as if I was out there in Florida with Deke as he did his safety checks. Kudos to St. Claire for all the careful research that she did! The other thing that I really enjoyed was the chemistry between Jessica and Deke. Both of them together were combustible enough to, well, launch a shuttle or two. I especially loved that Jessica was a career woman who (like many of us) had to work hard to claw her way up in a very competitive field, while dealing with lots of backstabbing. I was really rooting for her, although I was a bit disappointed that she gave up her position with her firm in the end. As for Deke, I loved how take-charge yet sensitive and intelligent he was. No wonder America (at least in St. Claire’s world) fell in love with Deke!
This was a beautifully-written, entertaining book, with wonderful characters and witty dialogue. I felt transported back to a more romantic and idealistic time, when the notion of space travel, and cooperation between the great powers in exploring the final frontier, were still high on our agenda. The highest praise I can give is that it was so good, it made me wish I had had spent more time perfecting my Mathematics!
