From the Bookshelf of Mostly Sapphic…

Atmosphere

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Start date: November 1, 2025

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What Members Thought

Jul 17, 2025 emily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook-read-to-meee, get-angry-now, aunt-niece-nephew-dynamics, books-i-own-physical, depressing-situations-sad-people, family-drama, friendships, tier-two-solid-reads, historical-fiction, queer-romance

IT’S MIDNIGHT, AND IVE BEEN SOBBING LISTENING FOR THE LAST HOUR, AND EVERY EMOTION IN MY BODY IS HAPPENING AT ONCE.

(I’m going to come back tomorrow with more thoughts after I’ve slept bc I HAVE THEM)

~~~
OKAY, POST SLEEP THOUGHTS:

i'm still bereft. i know taylor jenkins reid is very popular, and i get why her books appeal to a lot of people. for me, the only ones i've read and really had emotional reactions to were this one and evelyn, for... obvious reasons to anyone who knows me. they felt like IT’S MIDNIGHT, AND IVE BEEN SOBBING LISTENING FOR THE LAST HOUR, AND EVERY EMOTION IN MY BODY IS HAPPENING AT ONCE.

(I’m going to come back tomorrow with more thoughts after I’ve slept bc I HAVE THEM)

~~~
OKAY, POST SLEEP THOUGHTS:

i'm still bereft. i know taylor jenkins reid is very popular, and i get why her books appeal to a lot of people. for me, the only ones i've read and really had emotional reactions to were this one and evelyn, for... obvious reasons to anyone who knows me. they felt like she picked two of my fav things (old hollywood and space!) and gave me sapphic romance and wonderful character study and delicous family feelings on top of it in a way that just HITS, for me. i love space. i am in no way smart enough to ever have been an astronaut, but i wanted to, for a while, as a kid. i did a project on the women in the 80s who went to space in elementary school and it stuck with me and is still something that i remember. i loved joan. i loved vanessa. i really enjoyed their dynamic and i SOBBED for nearly the full final hour of this audiobook (and i highly rec the audiobook version!! the narrators are both ones i've already loved and they knock it out of the park, here).

what really surprised me, and took this one futher over the edge towards I'M HAVING AN EMOIONAL REACTION was the relationship with joan, and her niece, frances. i was totally unprepared for it. i have a six year old niece that i adore, and spend a lot of time with, and GOD, i got a lot of the feelings joan was dealing with, here. it's wonderful to have kids in your life, and i don't ever really want to be a mother, but it is hard to love kids that aren't your own, sometimes, and a lot of joan's emotions re: frances (tho, not the actual trajectory of the arc) hit on my own.

now, about that ending: (view spoiler)

IT WAS DESIGNED ALMOST PERFECTLY FOR ME. THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND I SHALL RE-READ MANY TIMES. ...more

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Jun 10, 2025 Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, lgbt, 5-stars, f-f, great-side-characters, sapphic-favorites, sapphic-favorites-gold, favorite-couple, would-read-again, favorites-five-stars-and-beyond

5 stars. Sapphic readers rise up! TJR has given us another one. I find it strange that it’s not mentioned that the ‘love story’ that is referred to on the cover of the book is between two women. I had absolutely no interest in this book (I haven’t loved anything by TJR since Evelyn Hugo) but once I was told it was sapphic I immediately picked it up from my library and I’m so glad that I did. This was fantastic.

I loved the setting of the 1980s, that period of time has always been such a huge fas 5 stars. Sapphic readers rise up! TJR has given us another one. I find it strange that it’s not mentioned that the ‘love story’ that is referred to on the cover of the book is between two women. I had absolutely no interest in this book (I haven’t loved anything by TJR since Evelyn Hugo) but once I was told it was sapphic I immediately picked it up from my library and I’m so glad that I did. This was fantastic.

I loved the setting of the 1980s, that period of time has always been such a huge fascination of mine. I thought the writing was absolutely gorgeous which isn’t a surprise but damn does it feel good to enjoy a book from TJR again. Joan and Vanessa both work for NASA in their Space Shuttle Program. Both women are intelligent and felt very real. They get together and there is no real big drama in their romance except towards the end (we’ll get to that stressful shit in a moment don’t you worry) but they do keep it hidden because of their jobs and because it’s the 80s. I really liked both characters and how flawed they are. They had great chemistry and the love story between them is so incredibly touching and tender.

The ending drama though, TJR what the fuck? My heart was in my throat for the last 50 or so pages. I was nauseous as hell from the third act drama all the way to the ending. It got intense and my nerves were shot! Speaking of the ending, what was that? It just…stops. I get why she ended it like that but this needed an epilogue or something.

Other than that I did really love this. It’s slower paced and is a quiet type of story so don’t go in expecting some big huge things to be constantly popping off. It’s a lot of day to day life. There are definitely some hard hitting and emotional moments though because it wouldn't be TJR without them. I don't think this will hit for a lot of people as much as Evelyn Hugo did but the romance was absolutely lovely, and I love anything that has to do with space and NASA so this ended up working for me. ...more

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Jun 24, 2025 kp rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2025

brb, listening to Bowie and crying.

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 07, 2025 Courtney rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbt, sapphic, closed-door, sapphic-mc, historical, closeted, 2025, mc-has-kids, characters-are-coworkers, best-of-2025

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 29, 2025 Maria Ciletti rated it it was amazing

This book was amazing! What a great story. So many things in the book rang true for me. Loved it. Highly recommend it.

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Aug 06, 2025 CK529 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historic-fiction, sapphic-reading2025, fiction

This hits all the emotions and is also intelligent and reflective and insightful and so many other things. Amazing story. And truly amazing narration. I have been listening to audiobooks since the mid 90s, and I can't think of any that were narrated better than this. I'm stunned by the book and the narration. ...more

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