Waiting on Wednesday #298 - Honor Among Thieves & Heart of Iron

Honor Among Thieves
(The Honors #1)
by Rachel Caine
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& Ann Aguirre
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Publication Date: February 13th 2018
Publisher:  Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN: 9780062570994

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Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell.

Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.

Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight. (Goodreads)

Heart of Iron
by Ashley Poston
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Publication Date: February 27th 2018
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
ISBN: 9780062652850

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Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him.

Ana’s desperate effort to save D09 leads her on a quest to steal the coordinates to a lost ship that could offer all the answers. But at the last moment, a spoiled Ironblood boy beats Ana to her prize. He has his own reasons for taking the coordinates, and he doesn’t care what he’ll sacrifice to keep them.

When everything goes wrong, she and the Ironblood end up as fugitives on the run. Now their entire kingdom is after them—and the coordinates—and not everyone wants them captured alive.

What they find in a lost corner of the universe will change all their lives—and unearth dangerous secrets. But when a darkness from Ana’s past returns, she must face an impossible choice: does she protect a kingdom that wants her dead or save the Metal boy she loves? (Goodreads)

This week I'm excited to bring you not one, but TWO Waiting on Wednesday picks!
These two book covers look so pretty together, I just had to share them both.
And did you read those summaries?? Both books sound really awesome!
I managed to get my hands on an e-ARC for both books,
and I'm super excite to get started on them!!

**"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine,
that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.**

Review: The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre

The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things
by Ann Aguirre
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Publication Date: April 7th 2015
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9781250047502
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary | Realistic Fiction
Source: ARC

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Sage Czinski is trying really hard to be perfect. If she manages it, people won’t peer beyond the surface, or ask hard questions about her past. She’s learned to substitute causes for relationships, and it’s working just fine… until Shane Cavendish strolls into her math class. He’s a little antisocial, a lot beautiful, and everything she never knew she always wanted.

Shane Cavendish just wants to be left alone to play guitar and work on his music. He’s got heartbreak and loneliness in his rearview mirror, and this new school represents his last chance. He doesn’t expect to be happy; he only wants to graduate and move on. He never counted on a girl like Sage.

But love doesn’t mend all broken things, and sometimes life has to fall apart before it can be put back together again… (Goodreads)

I was definitely intrigued when I received a copy of The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre. I had read Aguirre’s Mortal Danger last year, which was a really interesting read, so I was pretty excited to see what she could do with a contemporary novel. Contemporaries are my favorite at the moment, and it’s always exciting to see what an author is going to come up with, and I was definitely not disappointed by the book. I really wish I would have picked it up sooner!

Sage Czinski is the Queen of Bright and Shiny Things. Every day she leaves a kind word on a post it note on the locker of someone who needs a little morale boost. Why, you ask? Because if she’s nice to people, but doesn’t get too close, then no one will find out about her past. The past that was a horrible experience and still gives her nightmares. And Sage has built a new life and reputation by doing this, even though no one really understands, that is until Shane Cavendish walks into her life and turns everything upside down.

One of the things I love most when reading a book is when I find myself really connecting with the main character. I found Sage to be very relatable. I love that she was so eco-conscious, and wanted to do good things for the earth. (I do my best to do this as well!) And I absolutely love that she leaves notes on the lockers of people who need a kind word. In high school, this could really mean so much to someone. If there were more people like Sage in real life, I imagine life could be easier for so many people. I really loved this character.

The romance in the book between Sage and Shane was super sweet. It was not a case of insta-love, but instead was a relationship that grew over time and built into something really special. And I loved seeing it this way, because Sage and Shane were so perfect for each other; they had really great chemistry together, and had such similar pasts. They were a really cute couple.

This book was a super cute read, but while it had it’s cute moments, it touches on some pretty serious issues as well, such as bullying and abuse. Having these issues in the book didn’t weigh the book down at all, however. The issues made me sad and super angry at times, but they didn’t really overpower the story to the point where it would become depressing. And the book wrapped up very nicely with a happy ending and only left me with a few lingering questions.

Overall; if you’re a fan of contemporary novels, you’ll really enjoy reading The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things. I really enjoyed the book, and I’m looking forward to reading more contemporaries from Ms. Aguirre in the future!

Review: Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

Mortal Danger
(Immortal Game #1)
by Ann Aguirre
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Publication Date: August 5th 2014
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 372
ISBN: 9781250024640
Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy
Source: From Publisher for Review

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Revenge is a dish best served cold.

In Ann Aguirre's Mortal Danger, Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn’t imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She’s not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he’s impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly . . . bad things are happening. It’s a head rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil’s bargains, she isn’t sure who—or what—she can trust. Not even her own mind.(Goodreads)

Mortal Danger is the first book that I’ve read by Ann Aguirre. I was really looking forward to starting the book as I had heard many great things about the author. The book was not what I expected, but was an intriguing read.

When we first meet Edie in the story, she’s absolutely had enough, she can’t take anymore of the torture that her classmates put her through on a daily basis. Not being beautiful or rich makes you a target for bullies at her exclusive private school. And the torture that her classmates put her through was brutal. So when she meets Kian and he proposes an opportunity to change all that, she jumps at his offer. Little does she know that while things might get better, they can also get much worse. 

I found parts of Edie’s ‘transformation’ into a popular girl to be a little unrealistic. Mostly that while she never had confidence and was super insecure before, she was instantly able to overcome that one she changed. It would have been nice to see her grow into her new confidence a little more. I liked that she didn’t really turn into a ‘mean girl’ once she changed, especially since that was pretty much her plan all along. While she wanted revenge on the people that had humiliated and tortured her in the past, she never actually did anything bad to them, and when things did start to happen to them, she felt really bad. I felt really bad for Edie for the things that had happened not only in her past, but for the things that happened after her change as well.

Kian was a very mysterious character. I was curious about him throughout the whole book, and I was on the fence on if he was trustworthy or not, especially knowing that he could have helped Edie SO many times in the past but didn’t. That made me feel a bit leery of him, and it bothered me that Edie was able to overlook it so easily. However, he definitely does have the swoon-worthy factor going on, and that is always a plus.

The storyline for the book was interesting, but also a bit confusing. There were a lot of characters to have to keep up with, and also some information in the book that just left me hanging. I had a lot of questions when I finished reading the book, as I felt a lot of things were left undone, but I’m hoping that we will get answers to those questions in the next book. I did enjoy the creepiness of the novel, and that it constantly kept me guessing on what would happen next.

Overall, while I didn’t love this book, I did think that it was pretty interesting read, and the series definitely has potential. I’m curious to see what is going to happen in the rest of the series for these characters.