The Good for Nothings by Danielle Banas is a fun space romp.
Cora, the daughter of well known crime lord family, struggles to fit into her family. During a job gone wrong she and her glitchy robot companion, Elio, get caught and placed in prison with two others. Wren is a human thief and Anders is a disgraced Andilly warrior.
There the warden makes a deal with Cora, if she can find the three keys, and the treasure he is searching for he’ll let her go. With not much time left for Elio, Cora agrees to hunt the fabled treasure with her strange cell mates. Along the way Cora learns that family is what you make of it and it doesn’t necessarily have to be blood, and goes in some pretty terrifying adventures, (that one planet was a giant death trap, no thanks).
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This is a fun book full of hijinks, adventure, secrets, and finding yourself. Cora has only has one way to see the world, her crime family, and her new companions get her to start seeing things a new way, even if it starts based on a lie. Anders is a delight, and I need more of him.
This book could easily spin off into more, and if it does I will happily read them, but if not I will enjoy what I got which is a rag tag group of misfits and my favorite trope of all time, Found Family.
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Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review. (3.5 stars out of 5)

Join Cora, Elio, Anders, and Wren as this rag-tag group of four sets off across the galaxy to search for infamous keys that lead to a priceless treasure...or at least one that may make them very, very rich and win them their freedom.

This is a very hard book for me to give thoughts and opinions on. For the better half of the book I had to drag myself to my kindle to read, and found myself needing to take several breaks from it because I desperately did not want to continue. I was very disappointed because, despite what is suggested in the summary of the book, it was nothing like the Lunar Chronicles and resembled a very watered-down version of the Guardians of the Galaxy. It wasn't until maybe the last 30% of the story that I felt like it really picked up pace and I got interested in what was going on. I also got extreme whiplash from what I perceived to be a sudden plethora of Guardian references and comparisons towards the end (not super obvious, just inferences I can make after seeing the movies so many times).

Those things being said: I really enjoyed the dynamic between our four crew members and I feel like they really developed as a team and family towards the end of the story as did the plot and pretty much everything else. This was a fluffy and predictable book that provides another option for readers who are normally averse to the fluffy and predicable of the romantic variety in their reading. I would recommend this book for younger YA readers, if not some juvenile as well mostly because content-wise there isn't a whole lot to be concerned about. We have a few cuss words and hand gestures thrown in, but the romance stays pretty innocent making it perfect for readers who may be ready for a mild introduction to YA.

The Good for Nothings by Danielle Banas is a great sci-fi adventure story packed with enough plot twists that will keep readers guessing at the turn of every page. The characters are well developed and so different from one another that it makes the story very interesting. The main character, Cora Saros, is part of an alien crime family that she just can't seem to fit in with. She sets out on task of epic proportions to prove she can be an asset to her family's criminal endeavors. Along the way, Cora and her robot, Elio, meet Wren, an Earth girl and Anders, an Andillan, and the shenanigans begin. Cora also discovers what family really means and that sometimes not fitting in is not so bad.

The Good for Nothings was an enjoyable adventure involving the most unlikely group of convicts. Cora Saros is trying to prove to her family of thieves that she’s got what it takes to be a part of the family business but in her desperation she only makes more mistakes as the story moves along. Cora has only had one friend her entire life, Elio the android who needs a new body, and she would do anything to help him. After a heist goes bad she finds her self in prison with Elio and two other young convicts; Anders the broody big guy (my favorite character) and Wren the Earthan (human) who is just too perky and can’t stop talking. While in prison the Warden blackmails them into going after a treasure in return they get their freedom. The story is full of adventures, close calls, and Cora finally learns what family is really about. I would totally read another adventure!

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Entertaining, but suffers from bloat that unnecessarily slows the story and does little to add to the plot or characterizations. This also results in a sort of whiplash effect as the reader is dragged to and fro from high-energy theft plots to the much slower, rather moan-y no-one-loves-me-I-have-no-friends teenager internal monologues.

<i>The Good for Nothings</i> is an entertaining space adventure that throws the reader straight into the action. The protagonist, Cora Saros, is the member of a family whose "business" is intergalactic smuggling. She bungles a family operation -- which is not surprising, since her mother / criminal ringleader assigned Cora a task that played <i>against</i> her strengths, instead of allowing Cora to make use of her actual (considerable) abilities. Cora finds herself and her robot best friend in a prison cell with two other misfits and, next thing they know, the group is blackmailed by the warden to recover a long-lost treasure. There are plenty of important stakes among the members of this ragtag group, and I especially liked the book's message about loyalty and just who your "family" really is. Told from Cora's point-of-view, the story makes for an engaging read with a distinctive "voice."

This was fun. I liked the characters (especially Anders). It was light and entertaining. Just the sort of book that doesn't take itself too seriously that I needed right now. I would totally read more about these characters (especially Anders).