Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Heart of Iron (The Iron Kingdom, #1)

by Ashley Poston

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?

Reviewed by shannonmiz on

2 of 5 stars

Share
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
2.5*

This one was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I didn't dislike it or anything, but neither was I particularly eager to pick it back up. This is going to be one of those dreaded "meh" reviews where I flat out just don't have a lot to say about it either way. But I'll try! 

It did have some positives, of course. I enjoyed the relationships in the book. There were two main relationships, and I was quite invested in both. The characters were pleasant enough. I didn't quite fall in love with them, but they were certainly enough for me to root for and care about their outcome. I think that is kind of the overall theme for me: Everything was fine, there was nothing that made me hate it; there just wasn't anything that made me love it either. I did like that there were a lot of diverse elements weaved into the story; that was most definitely a major win! 

The world building was a bit lacking, and I didn't fully understand the dynamics. But really I think my main complaint was that it all felt so very predictable. I was never really wondering what was coming next because I felt like I knew already. As such, the stakes didn't feel terribly high, and nothing was really compelling me to keep reading. 

Will I Read the Sequel? Yeah, probably not. I mean, just too many books, too little time. I bet the cover will be gorgeous though. And if I see good reviews, I suppose my mind could be changed. So... maybe but leaning toward no. 

Bottom Line: Though not a bad book, just simply not enough to hold my interest. If you are a space fan (especially with royalty involved!) it could be worth a go! 

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 14 January, 2018: Finished reading
  • 14 January, 2018: Reviewed