Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine, Ann Aguirre

She's following a different drummer.  She had horrendous headaches when she was young and her father thought it was all an act.  She's been in out of hospitals, been in mental health care facilities and she survived.  But when her mother and her sibling moved to Mars to get away from her father, she stayed.  A dome on Mars just reminds her of a jail cell.  So she moves to the Zone.  It's an outlaw land that all the losers hang out in.  And she was surviving just fine until she stole the purse from a moneyed man's daughter...

Katherine Tegen Books and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published February 13th.

When the man hires assassins to go after her and her friends, she turns herself in to a halfway house.  When one of the other inhabitants tries to kill her, she decides she's going to go farther away to hide.  But she finds herself suddenly being offered a place she'd never dreamed of.  They were going to make her an Honors student and send out on an intelligent space ship.  Maybe that would be safe.  Not really...

I really enjoyed this one.  The ship she's on is young and doesn't know all the ins and outs of the Leviathan ships.  You learn that as you get older and keep passing tests.  Zara can meld with her ship which is very interesting.  

Trouble starts when the ship goes into a deep sleep that it shouldn't.  The old warrior ship comes after it and is taking it in for punishment.  Zara and her partner manage to get their ship free and they hide.  But when the ship hears another of his kind sending a distress call, he has to go to help.  And it gets even worse.

This is an exciting story with all sorts of aliens, danger to everyone, and a plague of trouble that needs to be stopped.  I wouldn't be surprised if this is the beginning of new series...

Carniepunk by Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Estep, Allison Pang, Kelly Gay, Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Meding

Are you brave enough to visit the carnival?  Better take your hellhound with you...

Gallery Books and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this ebook anthology (thank you).  It will go on sale July 23rd, so make a note to remember to grab a copy.

This is an interesting mix of stories.  They are unique and have their own flavor.  They have zombies, vampires, the dark fae, monsters and the like in them.  Sometimes circumstances causes the problem; sometimes it's all in their minds.  Many of them are filled with horror; not one of them is boring.  If you enjoy tales that are out of this world, you'll enjoy this book.

I enjoy anthologies and this one has all kinds of surprises it it.  I enjoyed the one by Allison Pang even though it's a bit sad.  I especially liked Hell's Menagerie by Kelly Gay.  It was so good, I went online and bought her four books about Charlie Madigan.  Charlie wasn't even in this short story but Ms. Gay impressed enough with her style and story line that I have to read to more.  You might find yourself doing the same thing as you sample these different authors.

Just remember, you want to be careful about what might be hiding behind opening in that big tent on the midway...

Happy reading.