This review contains minor spoilers.
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?
Have you ever read a lengthier novel, enjoyed reading the story here and there, then finished reading the book and think to yourself: “I am so glad that that is over..” Well(!), you guessed it. Heart of Iron was like that for me.
I kept my expectations of Heart of Iron incredibly low. All I knew going into this book was that there were multiple points of views from 4 different people, and that I really wanted to end up liking this book.
Once I started reading Heart of Iron, I quickly realized how this story would go down. There were some not-so-major-but-very-major hints placed within the first 50 pages and….Heart of Iron is a 467 page book, in the hardcover copy. It was incredibly hard for me to want to continue the rest of the book since the hints that were so freely given, I already felt like the story was over before it really even began.
There are multiple points of view that we read from. We read from Ana, who’s past is hidden. We read from Robb, who is such a great character in all aspects. We read from Jax, who doesn’t like to talk about his past or touch people; I really liked Jax’s character. We read from D09 whose point of view is unique unto D09. There is another point of view we read from as well, but I won’t mention who they are. I’ll leave that to you to figure out.
Ana has a humanoid-robot as a best-friend. She also has a very noticeable physical burn-scar on her face. Ana will do anything to save her loved ones. She’s loyal to the core, and even if she’s feeling a little unsure about something, she sticks with what she knows. Ana’s steadfast loyalty doesn’t always have the best outcome, but Ana wants whats best for everyone, and that shows in the actions she takes.
Robb is such a great character. I didn’t think that I’d end up liking Robb all that much, but getting to know his story and getting to know well, him.. I can’t help but like his character.
Jax is such a wonderful character. There’s quite a bit of interplanetary-racism whenever he’s around, but Jax doesn’t let that be who he is, nor does it stop him from loving who he loves. I like Jax’s character a lot, and I hope that in the next novel, nothing bad happens to him.
D09 proved to be an incredibly interesting character. I was so relieved when I found out that D09 had their own point of view. Like, I was actually pretty elated when I turned the page and started reading their point of view. D09’s character is the one that fluctuates the most, in my opinion. — That’s all I’m going to say though, ’cause hello spoilers!
All around, I loved reading Ana’s, Robb’s, Jax’s, and D09’s point of views. They all bring something to the story. They’re all beneficial to the story, and with each of their varying backgrounds they kept me interested in the story.
What I didn’t like about Heart of Iron was that it was so predictable in the beginning. Like, so incredibly predicting that I almost stopped reading the book 3 different times. With Heart of Iron being predictable as it was throughout the entirety of the novel, I could not enjoy the book as much as I wanted to.
Another thing that bothered me about the story is that even though I loved all the characters and what they bring to the story, all the points of view made Heart of Iron feel dragged out. The book could have ended much sooner in my opinion.
What I liked about Heart of Iron is the genuine loyalty and trust that this crew has with each other. I also liked how the story started almost right away — there was no waiting. It also helps that the story as a whole was interesting.
I liked the characters. I love that there are people of colour who are main characters, and I love that there were queer characters in the story as well.
Overall, I enjoyed getting to know the characters, and some of the story, but that was about it. I kept my expectations for Heart of Iron low, and my expectations weren’t really met, unfortunately. I’m also incredibly picky about the Sci-Fi books I read, so that doesn’t help me at all. Not liking this book feels like the whole “It’s not you, its me” thing.
I give Heart of Iron, 2 stars.
Have you read Heart of Iron?
What did you think of it all?
Did you find the story to be predictable, like I did?
Happy Reading!
— Adele
Heart of Iron was OwlCrate’s March ’18 featured book, in their Across the Galaxy OwlCrate box!
Adele Is Reading 
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