Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

An action-packed tale full of romance, royalty, and adventure, inspired by the story of Anastasia. Perfect for fans of Six of Crows,Cinder, and the cult classic television show Firefly.

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?

2.5 Stars

This was super disappointing. I did not really connect with any of the characters and the story did not interest me. It is unfortunate because I really enjoyed Geekerella but this had none of the same charm I was expecting.

“The Heart of Iron” is the first novel in a series which is written by Ashley Poston. The novel follows Ana, who was found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a space captain and his crew, that 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, a spoiled boy beats Ana to the coordinates. 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.

I found the novel really fun as the novel is basically Anastasia, in space. The novel is a fast-paced and engaging novel. I found Ana quite annoying sometimes as she was a bit of a loose cannon, as she is willing to take all the risks and putting her own crew mates which are her so-called-family in harm's way to save D09 from permanently dying down due to his memory core glitch. I mean I get it, but he didn't want anyone to get hurt for him, so in a way she was disrespecting his wishes, but I did like the romance between Ana and D09. I also liked Jax as I found him a fun and enjoyable character with a cute romance. I gave the novel a 3/5 stars.

I love me a good crew! Lots of great action too and quite the ending. So glad I had the sequel on hand to jump into!

So I will try my best to be coherent, but I'm afraid that all might have left about three pages into this book.

First thing you need to know is that I'm now doing something I probably should have started eight years ago: using the preview function on Goodreads. (Or, that failing, the sample function on Amazon.) Hopefully this will keep me from starting a book to only realize by page sixteen that I want nothing at all to do with the book. (Like that last book I started.) Why this is important is because I previewed this book on Goodreads, hoping that I'd be somewhat interested in reading it so I could borrow it for my upcoming week. You see, I'm going to be very busy with work this next week and thought it would be nice to have a book downloaded to my phone that I could read at odd moments and while taking short breaks.

...

Basically, what I'm saying, was this book was supposed to last me until at least Friday at noon time. I was not supposed to devour the first half of the preview, borrow the book and subsequently read almost half of it before the end of the day and finish it the next evening.

So, I love this book. I love this book in a way I haven't loved a book in...a very long time. (After last year, I thought I lost my book mojo. No book I read for the first time last year got a five star rating from me. None.) This book is so...so my type of book.

This is Ana's story, but it's told from four different perspectives and I loved each one. I never felt, oh, them again. They're each interesting characters and have movement. They don't just float around while one character carries everything.

There's a found family. Aboard a spaceship. (Yes, please.)

There's a lost princess who is brave and stubborn and so far out of her depth.

There is one of the absolute sweetest romances ever between said lost princess and a ‘metal' (android) who is having anomalous feelings. And glitches. And they might be the same thing.

There is a far-flung universe that we've barely scratched the surface of and there are so many more stories to tell. (I need more Viera Carnelian in my life.)

There is plot. And action. And things happening besides romance!

There is also a rather...complicated M/M romance (that totally has its sweet moments) and a solid, established F/F relationship between secondary characters.

I don't know how to tag racial diversity, (because it's IN SPACE) but there is that, too.

On one hand, I'm almost a little upset I didn't read this book when it was first released - because I know I would have loved it then, too - but now I get to read the sequel without having to wait for it to be released. So, yay!