This was my least favorite of the three Lady Astronaut books. This is the first one where it's not from Elma's PoV but instead Nicole Wargin, wife to a powerful politician and a lady astronaut. While Elma travels to Mars, Nicole is on the Moon and deals with the backlash of the dangerous Earth First terrorist group that already tried to sabotage the Mars mission.

Most of the book is spent trying to find out who Icarus are, Earth First terrorists who are on the Moon. It hit a bit close to home, because unvaccinated people are bringing polio to the moon, there's quarantine while the moon settlers wait for vaccine from Earth.

Most of my issues with the book are that I really couldn't connect with Nicole at all. Elma struggled with anxiety, Nicole with anorexia, and as a perpetually overweight person with anxiety anorexia is very hard to grasp for me. She just never felt likeable to me. I applaud the choice at the end of the book to make her the next US president as character development. Also, it kinda read like a cold war espionage novel, and that is not a genre I enjoy reading at all. So I felt it dragged on quite a bit.

Overall, it was decent but not great, IMHO.