HaBO: He Invented a Fast, Galactic Type of Travel

You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!

This HaBO comes from Michelle, who is looking for this romance:

This has been driving me crazy. I know I know this book but I can’t for the life of me remember the title or author. I pray that SBTB might be able to solve the mystery!

It’s a book from the last 5 years. It’s about a scientist who is working on a terraforming project to save her home planet. I think there’s a shield or something that is failing on her home planet. She left her home planet to pursue higher education. She is looked down upon because she received her higher education degree from a less prestigious planet. She manages to meet a guy in a bar who might be an ex-soldier. They have a moment but he leaves her high and dry as he is urgently pulled away on a rescue mission.

The girl loses her position working at her current professor’s (a kind man) lab because of a scandal and she ends up applying and getting a job at this guy’s lab (all she is really interested in is the access to processing power as a side perk).

The love interest is a hero because he invented some super fast way of travel. A little by accident if I recall. He pops into a galaxy far, far away and becomes close friends with the ruler there while he repaired his ship for the trip back. Now he is mega rich because everything related to this type of travel is owned by him. Anyways, she points out why the current very expensive project they’re working on is never going to work. The messenger isn’t shot and she continues working at his lab.

They’re definitely into each other but he doesn’t want to force an employee to date him and she is determined to forge her own path and not rely on him. Time’s ticking on her family’s home world and she is rushing to complete her project to get it funded. She has one memorable night where she uses 3D printing to complete her terraforming pods. Then someone bombs her project area and nearly kills her. He ultimately helps her complete her project. Her project is demonstrated to be viable and the ruler from the other galaxy is interested in funding it. The hero even sends help to her planet in the form of supplies to help temporize things so that her family doesn’t die. I think it was his brother that he sent?

Please, please I hope you post this. I just want to find this book again so I can re-read it, haha.

Count me in as very interested in this one!