A whirlwind of drama, suspense, and action.
A person with claustrophobia typically has an intense fear of enclosed spaces. Although it feels that way to astronaut Mia Gray, her claustrophobic space is neither small, tight, nor enclosed. Earth encumbers like a straightjacket, one she desperately wants to escape. Years of training, passion, fear, and anticipation have been leading up to her first space mission with NASA, a stint on the International Space Station. But instead of socializing at pre-launch parties, entertaining admirers at press junkets, and finally experiencing the exhilaration of leaving Earth’s gravity behind, Mia is recuperating from a life-changing accident. Physical rehab helps Mia regain her independence, but her husband can’t stop treating her like a broken vase. Worse yet, NASA deems her unfit for any future space assignment. However, letting go of her childhood dream isn’t part of Mia’s plan, and she will do whatever it takes to find her way off the planet, even if it involves a psychic who has a plan to connect with consciousnesses from other worlds. Against the better judgment of her family, Mia embarks on an unorthodox experiment that could be a first contact event. While sequestered for weeks in a classified facility, she may or may not get in touch with species far from Earth, but Mia is sure to get in touch with the woman she buried under years of grief and the weight of obsession.
With enough science to lend credibility and enough foreshadowing to keep the story bounding ahead, Mia’s Journey is a whirlwind of drama, suspense, and action. The pacing is erratic to start, with time passing too quickly to get to know the characters. Once Mia has a goal to work toward, however, readers come to understand the fiercely independent woman who helms this intriguing story. Whether it’s her cavalier attitude toward marriage or inattention to the adversities facing her aging mother, Mia is a willfully self-centered character, one who is engrossed in her pursuit to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. But it is exactly this unwavering determination that lends credibility to her reckless course and makes her self-discovery so significant. There is an air of mystery as Mia struggles to remember the details of her accident and gets to the root of her issues just in time to land in a dangerous heap of new problems. A story about learning to love others by truly loving ourselves, Mia’s Journey proves that we can find inner peace, even when things don’t go the way we planned.
