Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre

Honor Among Thieves by Ann Aguirre, Rachel Caine
Series: The Honors #1
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: 13th February 2018
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Rating:

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.

Guys, this book was strange. I loved the concept, and I loved the space travel part, but bloody hell, there’s a romance developing between a human girl and a living alien spaceship. It’s the weirdest thing, and I can’t get on board with that.

I think Honor Among Thieves is a strong science fiction book in a lot of ways. There’s a fair amount of action, although the focus is definitely on the world-building and the relationship between humans and these Leviathans. I really liked what the authors did here.

That said, the book gets very weird when it comes to the romance. There was flirting between the main character and the Leviathan that she was living in. The word “seduce” was used. I think it would have been better if the relationship had stayed platonic and they’d forged a really strong bond (like an unstoppable force, y/y?) but instead it became very odd. I’m not sure how readers will feel about this.

I loved the relationship between Zara and Bea, and I was actually shipping these two because they had some chemistry. Individually, they’re also really good characters. Zara is the main, but Bea was also given a decent amount of development. I hope we get to see more of her in the sequel, and that her character doesn’t get pushed to the side in favour of the weird romance.

In terms of plot, there’s a good amount of action. There are a couple of slow points, but the book is mostly quite suspenseful. I was really interested in learning more about the mysterious Journey. The ending was creepy, and I’m really excited to learn more about what is going on there.

Honor Among Thieves isn’t the best book I’ve read, and it’s certainly not the strongest YA science fiction, but I enjoyed it and I’ll be reading the sequel when it’s releases.