Given that the name that was, most likely, inspired by Becky Chambers' Salvagers series, this book had some large boots (hah) to fill. While I found the start of the book rather slow (ironic, given the fact that the pace of the book barely leaves you with room to breathe), I found myself growing fonder of the characters as the chapters went on. I guess we aren't really supposed to like our protagonists - a hot-headed racer and a hot-headed former military woman - from the get-go, but that is a hard path to take. I wish the both of them had been fleshed out more, as it seemed that parts of their characterization were pushed aside in favor of action scenes and battles worthy of the genre-tag space opera.
I'm really not the biggest action afficionado, but I found myself enjoying this book as I do with films that tend to not take themselves too seriously in the downtime between fights. The characters were definitely a big highlight of the book and I hope that the subsequent two books manage to capitalize on that aspect of the story. All in all this proved to be a great audiobook that I will surely return to in printed form some day when I am looking for high-stakes entertainment and a fun rivals to lovers sapphic romance.