This was a good hard sci-fi read. The main character was likable, and the cultural differences were interesting. The ending was a little too neat for me (although I do like a happy ending), but didn't take away from my overall enjoyment. Keep up the good work Meg!

I really appreciate the copy for review!

Great first-contact/alien society immersion story. It flowed really well and each time I had to set it down (pesky real-life details intruding...) I wanted to pick it back up ASAP. Avery is very likeable without being too-perfect. Compared to some science fiction, it was really nice to have a fairly ordinary protagonist: not a prodigy with multiple extreme competencies but a hard-working individual with both an essential skill and some deficiencies. Details were well thought out. I'm definitely buying this one - and the sequel when it's available - for my small public library. Looking forward to finding out more about the Vardeshi, and hoping for more development of the Blanks and Voxes and how humans interact with them.
(spoiler alert) The only jarring note: the abrupt revelation of a romance, completely out of the blue. Personally, I prefer my sci-fi to be romance free, but fortunately it didn't dominate the rest of the story and the fallout of the revelation was handled gracefully.

A good story would have been 4 stars if it wasn’t for the forced and weird romantic intrusion towards the end. Nice story, plot isn’t that much going on, but I assume it would be dealt with in a sequel.
Nice take

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion