Title: Honor Among Thieves (#1)
Authors: Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Released: 2018
Source: Library
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 of 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. (Synopsis From Goodreads)
My Thoughts: I'm having mixed feelings about Honor Among Thieves. For the most part, I enjoyed it, but there was one part of it that I just couldn't get down with.
I really enjoyed the beginning of the book. I liked the setting, the space-adventure feel, boldly going where not many humans have gone before. I thought Zara was an okay character, I wasn't absolutely in love with her, but I didn't hate her. She was one of those tough girl types. Her backstory was a little strange to me. She would talk about how she lived in this rough, rough place, but she chose to be there. She could have been with her mother and sister, but decided her freedom was more important. I didn't really understand her thought processes sometimes. I also don't really get why she was chosen for the Honors Program. Sure she had some skills at putting mechanical things together, but she really didn't have any other talents. I don't know why they picked her, maybe that will be further explained in the series.
The thing that really killed this for me was the weird romantic feelings Zara had for the Alien Whale Ship Zamir. I did not get it. I did not ship it. I did not root for it. Having a sentient space ship that you live in is fine. I could see becoming friends with Zamir no problem. I think it would have worked better for me if maybe Zamir had been some type of hologram that Zara could have interacted with. The whole bonding thing just got very weird and sexual, and I wasn't here for it. It was strange to read. And this romance happened very quickly. They gave each other a ship name. Blech. It made me uncomfortable and want to roll my eyes all at the same time. A lot of attention was placed on this romance too, which just caused my enjoyment of the story to go downhill.
This whole book just felt like an overlong introduction to this series. I'm definitely interested in continuing because the ending has me curious, but it didn't have to be as long as it was. So Honor Among Thieves was a mixed bag for me. Cool concept, interesting setting, I'm always up for space books, but the romance or whatever it was, was really, really dumb.
BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.7/5
Good Except for the Weird Alien Ship Romance. I'm Not a Fan of That.
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