ARC Review: The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

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The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
Series: None
Author: Lauren James
Published September 7th 2017 by Walker Books

Goodreads Synopsis
Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never met, never even spoken to – someone who is light years away?

Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship travelling to a new planet, on a mission to establish a second home for humanity amongst the stars. Alone in space, she is the loneliest girl in the universe until she hears about a new ship which has launched from Earth – with a single passenger on board. A boy called J.

Their only communication with each other is via email – and due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit across space. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love.

But what does Romy really know about J? And what do the mysterious messages which have started arriving from Earth really mean?

Sometimes, there’s something worse than being alone . . .
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

Pretty much since YALC, I heard this book spoken about on twitter, all the time. So when I was offered the chance to review the book, I jumped at it, because everything I'd heard was great - nothing negative at all. The day it arrived, I immediately started it, and didn't stop reading until I was finished. Now, that may make it seem like I loved the book, but, unfortunately, I did not, but we'll get to that later.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is Romy's story. She was born about a spaceship headed to a new planet, and has never been on Earth. Her parents were part of the mission to find, and land on the planet, and discover whether it was habitable or not. They were never supposed to fall in love, so it's safe to say that Romy was not a contingency that NASA had planned for. However, her time aboard the Infinity has been quite enjoyable, especially when she's binge her favourite TV shows, or written fanfiction about them. The issue is, that when she was 11, her parents died, and she was left alone, in charge of a flying metal can, with a vacuum on the other side; understandably, she has good and bad days. When a brand new craft is launched, and it's so much faster than the one she is in, she can't wait to meet the new astronauts, and finally, not be alone. Through emails, and later calls, with the commander, J, she finds in him a kindred spirit, and is slowly falling for someone she's never met.

I have to say that I loved Romy, who was everything and more that I could have wanted. Considering she had been completely alone for over five years, and saw no way that would be changing for quite some time, she was in a much better head space than I would've accepted. Being born on the ship, her parents, in particularly her father, had raised her with the practical skills she'd need aboard the ship, and NASA kept sending school work for her to do. This meant that she was able to deal with any problems that arose on the ship, and also had something to do to fill the void. When J first appeared, and she lost all contact with Earth, she uses him as a sounding board, and can't seem to do anything without asking him first. This is something that I also understand her doing, but still, it's dangerous.

Now, on to what I didn't like. For the past 4 months or so, I've struggled to read anything that isn't escapism, and I need it to be light, and fluffy, and not too real, if you know what I mean. So when certain things happened in this book, that I wasn't expecting at all, it kind of ruined my reading experience, and my enjoyment. After all that, I found myself not enjoying the book, and more flew through it because I wanted to know how it ended, and, really, just wanted to be done with it. I don't know, if I was out of my funk that I've been in, or knew more about the book, going in, I might have loved it as much as everyone else seems to have. All I really knew was that a girl was on a spaceship, all alone, and then starts communicating with a guy, and wasn't alone any more. Maybe some more research would have let me go into the book, and not be blindsided as much.

That's not to say that it wasn't a good book, because, really, it was; it just wasn't the book for me. If you like twists and turns in books, and enjoy them being set in space, give this a go!

Dates Read:

September 1, 2017

Rating
3 Stars