Imagine, you start your ideal job for a company that promotes living in space. The crazy side of that job is you despise heights, while everyone you work with cannot wait to leave the Earth. This was the situation Samantha Gerris found herself in. She thrived on working for Space Island Group but at any thought of leaving the ground, her anxiety kicked in. She managed to avoid this fear of hers, until she meets the man she marries as one of their first dates is in a glider plane.
Samantha is a character that I feel many can identify with in the sense that so many of us seek the ideal job, family and overall life. It depends on the area, but I also share that fear of heights so I was able to truly identify with feelings expressed. Many of us have experienced a loss in our family and the grief that comes with it, whether we express it openly or bottle it up to just get through our day.
Samantha finally decides to go into space to be with her teenage children and life is escalated to another level for her. Upon her arrival, an alarm rings and all occupants are to evacuate. However, after a small mishap she finds herself aboard a Katarian space vessel that is leaving the station to go back to their home. She is stuck on-board, away from her children.

Kelly Beltz did an amazing job by taking me on the ride with her main character, Samantha throughout this entire story. I was very pleased for a tale that includes encounters of alien life forms, there was nothing overly complex to create the feel of the species introduced. I have attempted a few other stories that introduce alien beings and the language, body descriptions and even names become so overwhelming that it can be annoying when trying to visualize what you read.
This novel (which certainly has a second part coming!) was hard to put down as I was very much sucked in. For me, it has quite the punch of romance, action, adventure and science fiction. And it was a treat to learn that the Space Island Group did indeed exist!  While I find that some works of fiction can be hampered when an author mixes in some parts of ‘reality’, this idea only enhanced the tale for me.

Reviewed on 10/28/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Ann Hauer

 We’ve built on Earth and now it’s time to build above it.  Samantha Gerris works for a company that has been charged with building a space resort.  It will be reached via an elevator/launch pad system to ferry passengers to an all-inclusive space resort.  With this new idea, new technology must be invented.  New jobs and fields are to be had.  And everyone wants a piece of this history.

The book begins with Samantha coming from school and being hired into a plum position with the company tasked with building everything.  Over the course of years, she grows at the company, gains friends, falls in love, gets married and has children.  She’s content where she is and never wants to head to space.  She is a complacent person, not apathetic, but just comfortable with where she is in life.  And then one day everything changes…

Through tragedy and life being turned upside down, Samantha starts life anew.  Everything is different. Everything is scary.  Nothing is as it was.  She is forced to just go with everything that is happening.  So unlike the person she used to be – the person she is used to being.  It is sink or swim time for her.

Where there was land there is space.  Where there was unacknowledged loneliness there is new love.  Where there was steadiness there is adventure.  But then something threatens her new life.  She must fight for what she wants and what she knows is right.  Something she had never foreseen or never would have done in her old life.  Is she strong enough?

Reviewed on 03/27/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Bethany Showell

 Landing the job of her dream in research and development at the Space Island Group (SIG), Samantha Gerris finds herself doing what she has always wanted to do and all with her feet firmly on the planet Earth.  While others made SIG a career so that they could go into space, Sami was scared of flying even after meeting an almost perfect man who happened to be a pilot.  Marriage and two kids later, Jack Bennett finally got his chance to go into space leaving Sami and the kids on Earth, then a tragic accident took Jack from his family.  Finding out that both of her kids wanted to follow in their fathers steps and take a job on the Space Station/Space Resort, Samantha knew she could not sit by and watch the rest of her family leave her.  Doing what she never thought she would ever do, with the fear of losing her kids stronger than the fear of traveling in space, Sami joined her kids in space.  Now Sami will learn the Katarians have been a part of her work, her husbands work and now her children’s work on the space station for many, many years.  With her knowledge and know-how, Sami may find common ground and even happiness again through an adventure that takes her to places she never expected to go.

Reviewed on 02/13/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Debbie Berry

 I read a lot of Science Fiction and often find that the story gets so bogged down by the science that the characters don’t get fully developed. Thankfully, in the book “Beyond The Stars: Kataria” author Kelly Beltz manages to deliver a well balanced novel full of adventure, romance, and suspense with fleshed out characters that I actually cared about and related to.

Samantha Gerris is doing the one thing she swore she would never do, traveling into Space to assist with the completion of the space resort being built by the Space Island Group (SIG), the company she has worked for since she graduated from college. She spends the flight reflecting on the events that brought her to this point where she is facing her biggest fear and, before she knows it, she is at the space resort settling into her room.

Within a few days of her arrival at the resort there is an emergency and she ends up on an alien starship heading to the planet Kataria. On the way she visits new worlds, faces dangerous situations, falls in love and comes to realize that her fears have been holding her back, something she plans to never let happen again.

I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. It had all the elements of a good romance novel without the graphic love scenes plus, the space technology was plausible and the characters, alien and human alike, were believable. I also appreciated the little details the author included as they helped me relate more to the characters and kept me engaged in the story. I am looking forward to the next book in the series and hope Ms. Beltz doesn’t keep me waiting too long as the anticipation just  might kill me!

Reviewed on 01/17/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member April Hanson