Review: Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre

Series: The Honors #1
Publication Date: February 13th 2018
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
Amazon ~ Goodreads ~ TBD

Synopsis: 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. 

My Rating

5/5 stars

My Review

Zara Cole is a thief, living off of what she can steal and sell. Most people didn't choose this life, but Zara did. After escaping her abusive father, she was given the choice to either make it on her own, or to travel to Mars and live on a claustrophobic compound with her mother and sister. Thieving isn't always easy, especially when you steal from the wrong person. After Zara steals from Deluca's daughter, he sends men after her to get his possessions back. When the opportunity presents itself to escape into space, Zara immediately takes it to get away from Deluca's wrath. But life in space isn't as free as Zara through, especially when your alien host is keeping secrets from you.

I loved this book so much. I knew I was going to like it before I even started reading it, but it was a lot better than I expected. The world, the characters, and the plot were all so perfect. I desperately need the next book in this series right away.

Zara is a fantastic main character. Zara may not be the smartest person, but what she lacks in knowledge she makes up in courage. She is the type of person to do things first without thinking, but she always follows her heart and on the inside she is a compassionate and loving person. Getting to know her in the beginning of the book, we find out that she's had an abusive past with her father, and has gone through a great deal of things that most young people don't. You can really tell how strong of a character she really is. Her character development throughout the book was absolutely fantastic. She goes from a closed in person that keeps everyone out, to slowly opening up and trusting those around her. She establishes great connections with the people around her, and she honestly becomes such an amazing character. I loved Zara.

The other characters in this book were great as well. Beatriz is Zara's partner among the ship (Nadim). I honestly didn't like Beatriz at all in the beginning, but after she goes through major character development of her own, I really found myself enjoying her character and the hilarious things she does. Nadim - the ship - was a really great character as well, he honestly felt like a little brother figure. He's sort of naive and young, but has such a good heart. Marko and Chao-Xing were a little less present in the book, but still played a major part. I enjoyed Marko's character from the beginning, he's very strong and definitely gives an interesting perspective, plus he used a Polish saying so that gave him major brownie points with me. Chao-Xing is distant and rude (except for the very end), and even though she's not a very good character, we do see some change in her and I definitely didn't hate her as much as I thought I would.

The world that the authors created was definitely my favourite part of this novel. We are given lots of background on how Earth was almost destroyed and the Leviathan were able to save it. The Leviathan are an alien species that basically function as a space ship that can talk to you (kind of like Siri, but with emotions). As Zara and the crew explore space, we are met with so many different settings and we learn more about the Leviathan and other areas in this vast world that the authors created.

Overall, there wasn't a thing I didn't like about this novel. Once I got into the book, I could not put it down. The world that the authors created was breathtaking, the characters were amazing and there was tons of action and descriptions to keep the reader engaged in the story. I can't wait to see what happens in the future books.

Happy Reading,
Aneta