The Stars Too Fondly

Cleo and her three closest friends sneak aboard the Providence, an abandoned research vessel whose whole crew disappeared twenty years ago. They want answers, not a ship. Then the dark matter engine starts by itself, and the four are carried toward Proxima Centauri with no way to turn around.

The only other presence on board is a hologram of Billie, the missing captain, who has her face, her memories and her sharp tongue. Cleo has dreamed of being an astronaut all her life, and with Earth in decline, the unplanned voyage feels close to a gift.

The farther the Providence goes, the stranger the physics around it becomes, and older mysteries about the lost crew resurface. Cleo and Billie start out at odds, and their clash slowly becomes something neither of them expected.

This is a standalone science fiction novel for adults, told through several points of view. It combines space adventure, mystery and sapphic romance, and the tone moves between funny, adventurous and emotional. The friendship among Cleo and her crew carries as much weight as the central romance.