Book Review: Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)

Release Date: February 27, 2018
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Length: 480 pages
Source: OwlCrate Book/Audible Audiobook

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?

    

Review:

Protagonists: This story is told from four, third-person, POVs. We have Ana, the orphan girl raised by a crew of outlaws, Robb, the screw-up son of a noble family with a mission, Di, the Metal boy who's Ana's best friend and medic, and Jax, the best pilot in the galaxy with a tragic past, I quickly came to love most of these characters, though I have to say that I felt we didn't get a lot of time to truly know Di, and while I care for him because Ana and the others care for him, I couldn't really get invested in his character all that much. Ana is a fantastic heroine, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, she's a force to be reckoned with, Robb has a deep sense of loyalty to those who deserve it, and Jax is pretty much the personification of my favorite character trope, the cocky yet damaged character. None of these characters are perfect, they each have their flaws, whether it be poor impulse control or an inability to move on, they're flawed, but each has the potential to grow.

Romances: So, I wasn't a huge fan of one of the biggest romances in this story. See, Ana has feelings for Di, or D09 as he's sometimes referred to as, and whether it was the fact that Ana has these feelings from the beginning of the story, Di's appearance not being very humanoid, the fact that he's a fairly emotionless robot, or some combination of the three, I just couldn't get into their romance. Eventually, it gets to a point where there's hope that I might get invested in their romance, but things happen and the book ends before I can really get invested. The other main romance in this story though, I did really enjoy. Robb, a cocky and rogueish noble, and Jax, the pilot with a dark past, have some really great moments in this story. There's one scene, that kind of reminds me of Star Wars, but their dialogue during that scene was fantastic and I felt there are so many fantastic moments between them in this story, yet not really enough. For what there is, it's fantastic, and it doesn't affect my rating that I want more, I just want more.

World Building: The world building in this story is fantastic, from the history to the mythology of this world everything was captivating. I don't read too much sci-fi, but this is the sci-fi that I love, space battles, outlaws flying through space, lost royalty, mysteries, I love it all. This story also has major Cinder by Marissa Meyer vibes, mixed with a little Star Wars. This is also an Anastasia story after all and while I think this story did a pretty good job in that area, it was how things diverged from the story being retold that really fascinated me. There are some fantasy elements mixed with the sci-fi in some of the best ways I've ever seen and the royal angle of this story and the secrets hidden in Ana's family history are astounding. There's a lot built out in just this one installment, so much that I'm wondering if this might be a duology.

Predictability: This story is on the predictable side of things, not only with it being a retelling but the foreshadowing was pretty obvious as well. Take, for example, there's something in this story that could have been a truly amazing twist, I mean mind-blowing, but I felt like I got all of the pieces to that puzzle quite a while before it was revealed, there are quite a few twists that went that way, though there were a few times, particularly toward the end where things were more shocking.

Ending: The final climax of this story is fantastic, it's intense and chaotic. There's a lot that goes into setting it up and everything leading to this final mix of scenes was fantastic. As I said earlier, there are a lot of shocking, and some not so shocking, moments in the end and I pretty much raced through this story until the ending because I could hardly stop. There is a bit of a breath after the final climax but still as things unravel and even though there wasn't really a cliffhanger, the ending does feel too soon, and I'm excited to see where things go.

Rating:

Even though I had a few problems with one of the characters and one of the romances, I still really love this story and cannot wait to dive into the next (and final?) installment!

Book Review: Geekerella

Release Date: April 4, 2017
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Quirk Books
Length: 320 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Anything can happen once upon a con…

When geek girl Elle Wittimer sees a cosplay contest sponsored by the producers of Starfield, she has to enter. First prize is an invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Elle’s been scraping together tips from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck behind her stepmother’s back, and winning this contest could be her ticket out once and for all—not to mention a fangirl’s dream come true.

Teen actor Darien Freeman is less than thrilled about this year’s ExcelsiCon. He used to live for conventions, but now they’re nothing but jaw-aching photo sessions and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Federation Prince Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the diehard Starfield fandom has already dismissed him as just another heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, closet nerd Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.

    

Review:

Protagonists: Elle is living a Cinderella life (pre-ball), evil stepmother, two stepsisters, orphaned, the works, but as long as she has Starfield, her parents' favorite show she can make it through. However, it was just announced that the reboot movie will star teen heartthrob and teen soap star, Darien Freeman, the last person Elle wants playing Prince Carmindor. Darien is secretly a HUGE Starfield fan, and to play a character like Carmindor, a character he connects with on multiple levels is his dream. However, due to his father's insistence on keeping his heartthrob image alive, he can't show off his nerdy side and fans of Starfield are calling him a disgrace. When a twist of fate finds Darien and Elle anonymously texting each other, they may be just what the other needs to help them overcome their obstacles. I love both of these characters so much. The funny thing is that while there are definitely parts of their characters that I can relate to, the things I can't personally relate to, make them no less compelling of characters. Their drive to overcome the challenges life throws at them, and persevering when all seems hopeless is inspiring and I just couldn't get enough of these characters.

Romance: The romance is phenomenal. I mean, I can't even put into words how it made me feel. The romance starts off friendly which is hilariously juxtaposed with their hatred of each other's alter egos, but then a shift happens and things turn romantic and it's just super sweet. The way they bond over their mutual love for a nerdy show and then as they discover more about each other slowly they begin to fall, it's beautiful. Some of the texts between them made me smile and tear up, some made me laugh hysterically. It wasn't even the Cinderella aspects of this relationship that I liked because let's be honest, there are no real romantic moments between Cinderella and the Prince except for a dance or two. The way these two connect and get each other, the way that it sort of parallel's Elle's own parents' romance just made this book explode with wonder.

World Building: So, the big hook for this book is that it's a contemporary Cinderella retelling with a Nerd Culture twist, and I think this book handed both elements beautifully. So, for those who've read my reviews for a while, you know I LOVE a good fairy tale retelling and this is a GREAT fairy tale retelling. I loved how the author mixed all of these fairy tale elements into a story that is truly a love letter to nerd culture. This retelling was pretty standard, but there were twists to some of the classic elements, little changes here and there, that made this retelling truly shine. So, I like to call myself a nerd, and I do get swept away by nerdy things such as comics, mythology, and of course books, but I'm not an "Issue X is the first appearance of villain Y" type of nerd that's super hardcore about one or two specific things. I dabble, but still, this book touched my heart in so many ways. I may not have experienced things like these characters do in this book, but I've heard about them from friends and I'm sure we can all relate to Elle when Darien was cast in the Starfield movie, because I'm sure we've all had that one book to movie or tv series adaptation where we felt a character was miscast. Again, this is a huge love letter to nerd culture and even if you're a dabbler like me I'm sure you'll love it!

Predictability: So.... this is a fairy tale retelling and with that territory comes a lot of predictable moments, but I didn't care. Look, in general, this story had a lot of predictable moments, not all tied to the retelling aspect, or even the "it's a book" aspect, but I just didn't care because this story was fantastic. The writing and everything made me not care, and honestly, there were quite a few amazing and unpredictable twists in this book. One twist in particular, which I can't even remember what it was now, but I do remember predicting the twist, but the how of it all was unknown to me until it happened and I remember really enjoying how the author presented that twist.

Ending: The ENTIRE third part of this book (this book is broken into three parts f.y.i.) was spectacular, and I may or may not have shed quite a few tears. They were both sad and happy tears because this book is just that emotionally moving. Honestly, I'm not sure what the final climax of this book even was because there were so many moments when our intrepid heroes had to over come great obstacles in the end. Every climactic moment was pure gold, and while this is most definitely a stand alone, I was still left wanting more in the end. Nothing specific, just... more.

Rating:

This book is everything I ever wanted it to be and more! This was one of those books for me that I went in knowing I was going to love but came out thinking that love isn't a strong enough word for how I feel about this book. Even with a doozy of a plot hole that I picked up on toward the end that I'll chalk up to human error on the part of one of our protagonists. I can't wait to see what this author will write next!!!