Hammajang Luck is a fast-paced and compelling sci-fi heist. When Edie is released from prison, she vows to steer clear of crime. She’s already lost enough time with her family and only wants to provide for them. Too bad that her ex-friend Angel has different plans. Edie has no interest in Angel’s plans, especially since their last heist is what landed her in prison for eight years. Yet Angel is planning one last heist that will set all of them up for life. As Edie is persuaded to risk it all for an epic heist, will she be able to reconnect with Angel and provide for her family?

I loved reading Hammajang Luck! I particularly love a good heist plot. Makana Yamamoto weaves in sci-fi elements and Hawaiian pidgin to create a compelling story. I appreciated the inclusion of pidgin and the traditions from Hawaiian culture. Edie is a fascinating character who has been forced to make difficult choices, but is finally prioritizing her family above all else. I loved the complex family dynamics, especially between Edie and her sister. The queer rep is incredible, from the sapphic romance at its heart to the excellent side characters. I loved the queer found family and how they all looked out for each other.

Hammajang Luck is perfect for readers seeking an epic sci-fi heist, queer found family, and witty banter. I’m looking forward to seeing what Makana Yamamoto writes next!

Thank you to Makana Yamamoto, Harper Voyager, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc.

3.75 stars!

Thank you to Makana Yamamoto and Harper Voyager for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Good times were had all around! This has the right combination of fun, emotion, and vibes to make it just a really solid read which I actually think is really difficult with heist novels so kudos to the author for that.

Edie is fresh out of prison, only to immediately be embroiled in a heist which could surely send them back for good. I was really engaged by the world of this book, to some extent moreso than by the plot. It's got the classic cyberpunk feel but with a bit of sun and grime baked in that make it feel novel and dynamic. I do like the characters and I think seeing their little moments of interaction and affection leading up to the heist were some of my favorite parts. The heist itself was a little flat, punctuated by unexpected moments but in a very predictable-feeling way. I think emotional and interpersonal tension was really well established in the early parts of the book and it felt like that all got brushed away in an attempt to have a clean conclusion.

All around, well done and enjoyable but not stand-out for me in particular. I do look forward to seeing what Yamamoto tackles next because this is a really great debut!

Happy reading!

Like any heist story, Hammajang Luck hits all the familiar beats: a mastermind, a grifter (or two), a hacker, a thief, a fighter, an evil trillionaire just begging to be stolen from, and so on. I went in expecting an Oceans 8/Leverage-esque heist story, and that's exactly what I got. There's the build-up and prep, the context and motivation for our main POV, Edie, the tension between the mastermind, Angel, and Edie, and the overall capitalistic setting that has put the characters in their relative positions and wanting to get the job done. Ultimately, it's nothing "groundbreaking" in the heist genre, but I absolutely loved the space station/cyberpunk dystopia setting, and the Hawaiian representation and culture present throughout, and the queer contexts of the various main and side characters as well. If it was longer, I would have loved to see the other members of the crew developed, and some better fleshing out of the dynamics between Edie and the crew, but overall this is a solid heist story. A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this eArc in exchange for my honest thoughts!

I only have good things to say. It’s fun. It’s fast. And it’s queer. It reminded me at lot of Borderlands and Arcane, two of my favorite things (with a lot less violence).

I love sci-fi in my movies (and this would make a phenomenal screenplay!), but usually not in my books. It can be cumbersome and hard to envision for me, but Hammajang Luck didn’t let me down. The sci-fi elements were solid and tangible. Makana Yamamoto really pulls the reader into their world and makes it fantastical but easy to digest, even for those not as well versed in the sci-fi genre. I loved Kepler and the way the environment was set-up, lower wards vs higher wards, and the way class systems were really divided by their physical placement. I could have read a book about just Kepler and been perfectly happy.

The characters were likable and realistic. I appreciated seeing each of their strength and their flaws. I reveled in Edie’s anger and their twisted and confused feelings over Angel. I felt the tension in their interactions and felt Edie’s conflicted loyalties and their concern over whether (or when) Angel would put herself over them again. But Malia was definitely my favorite, and I loved seeing the way she connected with Edie and her confidence in herself and her own skill.

I really have no real critique for this novel. I loved every second of it. Like I said in the beginning, it’s fun and it’s fast. The pace is comfortable, and everything happens so quickly that the characters don’t linger over their choices or languish with too much time on their hands. This is the first heist novel that I’ve read, so while I can’t comment on how this one compares to others, I felt Yamamoto devised an excellent story.
And I definitely can’t complain about a rich man getting what’s coming to him.

This was a DNF for me at about 20%. By that it was clear I was never going to get into this story. It felt very distant and lacked much to give the setting life, it’s a shame because it sounded interesting and the cover is beautiful.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was able to read this ARC courtesy of NetGalley.

A fun heist story in space! I enjoyed the fusion of a scifi heist story with Yamamoto's Hawaiian heritage. I hope this is not the last of their work!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance reader's copy of the book. I liked this book. I'm a sucker for a good heist story and this definitely was a good heist story. What prevents this from being a five star for me and even knocks it down to 3.5 stars is how the lead and one of the secondary characters couldn't figure out their shit until almost the very end and that's not something I'm a fan of. Otherwise everything else was good. I was sucked into the story and read this fairly quickly. As heist stories go, it was good.

Thank you Harper Voyager for the eARC via NetGalley.

Futuristic, heist, Hawaiian crew - ‘Hammanjang Luck’ sold me on this to read the eArc. Unfortunately, it fell kinda flat in places where I really expected more.

Also, several scenes of this novel coincidentally reminded me a little too much of a TV series I recently viewed. I guess thats what bothered me. I felt like I knew what was coming next without putting in the effort to think about what I was reading. A personal issue, but if anyone has watched "Leverage" they may understand as well..

The setting was lacking. I get Kepler is built up of different wards, like slums and rich, etc. The different wards they explored were brief, and not that different from one another. Sure, the wealthy have more mods implanted in them - but Cy, the trans character, had lots of mods done too. I wish we could have explored more of the actual world - to see how different the world Edie and crew live versus what the other Kepler wards experience.

It was fun to see the characters using Pidgin. It gave a sense that they were upholding the culture passed down to them. It was conversational and natural dialogue that didn’t feel too structured.

‘Hammanjang Luck’ was a fine novel, just wished there was more world-building to understand the social structure of society.

Thank you HarperVoyager and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am a simple girl, I see “cyberpunk lesbian heist” and I say “gimme.” I’m very pleased that Hammajang Luck did not disappoint and it was one of the most fun reads of my year.

I should probably start with a bit of a disclaimer: I am not the pickiest person when it comes to world building, and I do not spend a lot of time trying to predict how things will happen (and also I tend to be a vibes and character driven reader). While I loved Hammajang Luck, it’s a little on the cheesy and mildly cliche side (not a bad thing imo) and I can’t really comment on whether or not the heist is “good” in terms of execution. The vibes were excellent and I felt very fond of all the characters, so YMMV. The world building worked for me, and I like to fill in details on my own, but I digress.

I loved the premise of this and the factors that drove Edie to agree to taking on the heist, and I really loved the way Hawaiian culture was woven throughout the story—the clearest example is the inclusion of Pidgin (Hawaiian Creole), which I thought made the story richer. This book is also very queer and I loved how normalized it was. Edie and Angel’s relationship is a b-plot for sure but I really liked it! I thought it was fun to see the tension between reconciling pre-existing feelings with the Big Betrayal between the two of them and the fact their relationship at the start of the book is a hot mess. I appreciated the romance was messy and the way they approach it is messy, because this is my personal favorite flavor. The characters worked really well for me, even the bratty teen and the precocious teen (I think, maybe, if a teenager who is So Sure of their skills they think they’re better than older characters at their jobs is something that will irritate you your experience will be different than mine, but that’s neither here nor there). I thought it was interesting to see varying opinions on body modification, especially ones involving the brian. The antagonist was easy to hate and the main cast easy to root for, but I did really like how the mystery around Angel unfolded. Outside of the crew’s relationship, I also really liked Edie’s relationship with their family and how those pressures affected them. The cyberpunk setting was like catnip to me and while I think the antagonist was a little like… Obviously Evil, I didn’t mind. Edie’s narrative voice was strong and distinct, and I think Yamamoto wrote an impressive debut.

Overall I had a blast with this and loved the experience. I think it’ll most likely be a YMMV situation for most people, but I highly recommend.

Heist plus second chance love plus super queer cast? Hammajang Luck is all of those things and this enjoyable debut from Makana Yamamoto kept me engaged and invested during the emotional rollercoaster that is this story.

Edie has just been freed from the prison she has spent eight long years in, by the person who betrayed her in the first place, Angel. Going back to her home means dealing with the daily struggle of her sister Andie to keep her kids fed and cancer treatments paid for. No one legit will hire Edie here, and she doesn't want to leave her family again, so she accepts Angel's offer of One Last Job, the one job that will set them up for life and by the way, destroy the billionaire overlord that makes everything terrible.

I will admit that I found the romance between Edie and Angel to be the weakest point, not only because EIGHT YEARS IN PRISON, thank you very much, but because we don't get to know Angel very well, so for Edie to fall back into her arms was a little disappointing. But I love a good found family and in this, the book delivered.

Hammajang Luck is basically Oceans 11 but make it sci-fi and queer. Did I mentioned that I freaking love Oceans 11? A good heist is always a good time, especially when the target deserves it soooo much. The only thing that made this a bit difficult to read is that so much of the dialog was Hawaiian Pidgin. Thankfully, my husband was born and raised in Hawai’i so I’ve had a fair bit of exposure to it. Otherwise, I would have been lost a few times. I would absolutely love to hear this as an audiobook, though. It would be so much fun! In fact, when they make Oceans 37, this should be it.

I absolutely understand the comparison's to Ocean's 8. It's a heist operation in space with a Hawai'i background.

Edie unexpectedly finds themself paroled from jail after 8 years, just to be offered one last job by the woman who betrayed them. Edie and Angel put together a crew to pull off their biggest heist yet.

I loved Edie's family and how they were willing to do anything for them. The crew was an interesting blend of people, but there were so many characters that it seemed like they were all kind of one-note. Sci fi is usually a bit harder for me to read, but this one was pretty easy - light on the world building but gives enough details to make it plausible. I definitely enjoyed the Hawaiian cultural references and all the queerness. This was a solidly good debut, and I'm excited to see what else comes from the author!

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

Super fun and easy space heist! I really enjoyed the MC and appreciated that the world building wasn’t terribly dense. The biggest issue I had was it felt like three different plot points and a relationship all happened really fast and within a few chapters so it felt sort of crammed in there just to have. Another 50 pages to help some things cook and it would’ve been a 5 star read for me! Overall though I really loved it and found myself being sad that I’ve finished it!

I appreciate a good heist, and LOVE that this one is set on an exoplanet 120 years in the future with all the tech body modifications you’d expect for a future-set novel. I also love that the author’s Hawaiian heritage is present with many of the characters speaking Pidgin (Hawaiian Creole). This was super queer, with the 8-person heist crew including transmasc, transfemme, nonbinary, and multiple sapphic characters.

What I didn’t love: the romantic subplot was a strong undercurrent throughout the story, and Angel was a cold jerk for 95% of the book. Tatiana the smug teenage thief continually telling Edie (a mere decade her senior) how much younger and better she was also majorly got on my nerves. Both of these annoyances are resolved by book’s end, but they impacted my enjoyment while reading.

Oh this was an exhilarating read! I'm not usually much for heist stories, but this one hit the nail on the head with everything I loved about the heist crew dynamics of Ocean's 8, and the incredibly well-rendered world-building of a Space Station culture of The Expanse. Most of the crew are queer women or genderqueer, the commonly used patois language is Hawaiian Pidgin, and at the heart of it is a second chance love story. Angel and Edie are hard to root for because of the history of hurt between them, and I wish we had Angel's POV as well in the story. But her motivations as a dark horse mastermind makes the heist beats of the story really taut and exciting till the very end. I also adored that this is such a classic found family story, but also weaved into it is a story about a family of immigrants and the community they create in a new world. Not to mention the oodles of delightful banter, excoriating social commentary and the incredibly visual style of writing that that the author effortlessly deploys to make this a positively unputdownable read. I can't remember the last time I felt so satisfied after a sci-fi read that delivered on every front for me.

Thanks muchly to Netgalley for the ebook ARC. Do yourself a favor and pick this up ASAP when it releases in January. Can't wait to read more from the author.

I really wanted to love this book, and I do appreciate what it was trying to do and the representation, but in the end it didn't work for me. I found the characters uninteresting and couldn't root for their romance. I wanted more from the world building, especially the cyberpunk elements. I think this would have worked better as a graphic novel or an animated show than a written book. The best part are the cultural and family portions.

I think a lot of readers, especially those who love con artists, heists, and queer characters, will love this. I'm sad it didn't work for me.

💰ℍ𝕒𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕛𝕒𝕟𝕘 𝕃𝕦𝕔𝕜💰

When I found out this was a queer, Ocean’s Eleven-style sci-fi adventure with a focus on Hawaiian culture, I was immediately intrigued. I love a light-hearted heist, especially when the criminals have Robin Hood ambitions and the target is someone you love to hate. I had high hopes, and I’m happy to say, this story absolutely lived up to the hype I built up in my mind.

The world-building in this book is fantastic. The author creates a future where, despite having colonized the galaxy, humans still hold onto their cultural heritages. I particularly enjoyed the use of Hawaiian pidgin throughout the story, which allowed me to learn more about Hawaiian culture in such an immersive way.

The characters were another highlight. The banter and chemistry between them was wonderful, and I loved the LGBTQ+ representation. Edie, in particular, stole my heart. She’s big-hearted, selfless, and stubborn as a rock. Through Edie, the author does an excellent job of exploring the challenges faced by people trying to rebuild their lives after prison, showing why returning to crime can feel like the only option.

And, of course, the found family trope was the cherry on top. The sense of belonging and loyalty among the characters was so heartwarming. I had so much fun reading this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, queer read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

U.S. Pub Date: January 14, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager Publishing for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

#hammajangluck

4.5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for this advanced copy! You can pick up Hammajang Luck on January 14, 2025.

This book sucked me in right away and kept me hooked the whole time! I really have to be in the right mood to read sci-fi, but I feel like the premise and world-building in this story didn't overwhelm you. It eased you in while still keeping the story moving, which I really appreciated. Edie was a fantastic protagonist with flaws and strengths that leapt off the page, I love how Makana Yamamoto wove in a queer, non-binary character and cast so easily into this world. I also loved not only the romantic relationships but the found family vibes evoked with this heist crew.

Angel and Edie's relationship was wonderfully portrayed with just the right amount of angst and tension. I wasn't sure Edie would be able to forgive Angel, but I think the way they went about it made sense for the characters and story.

Overall, this was a super quick and fun read that I highly recommend picking up come January!

This book was not bad, but it was also not for me at all. First, I had zero clue that it was written in a dialect for some parts, and I absolutely hate that so much. I also just did not love the way this book was written. For me, it felt like too much telling rather than showing.

I enjoyed all the LGBTQ* representation in this book, and how “natural” it felt to have those characters, rather than them being a part of the story with that being their only character trait. I also did enjoy the found family, as well as the real family, aspects of it, but overall I think I am just not meant to be a sci-fi reader.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for the advanced copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC! All opinions in this review are my own.

RATING AND OVERALL THOUGHTS:

3.25 stars. I found this to be a very middle of the road but quick heist novel. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. It was all very surface level and formulaic but it does have amazing queer rep and cultural/socioeconomic themes.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

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WHAT I LOVED:

- The natural inclusion of queer identities that isn’t seen enough in SFF!
- I really saw the love the author has for their culture and Hawaii in the novel and love how it was so seamlessly translated into the characters every day lives.
- The times Edie spent with their family, especially with their sister Andie and her kids, was honestly the best parts of the novel. You could feel the genuine love there and I honestly looked forward to those moments more than the plot moments centered around the heist. My only gripe with that though was how much Edie seemed to *hate* Tyler and went out of their way to try and prevent Tyler from seeing the kids which is pretty fucked up. Tyler was a douche in the sense that we were constantly *told* he put climbing the social ladder over his family with Andie but we never got to actually *see* that so when Edie constantly had the inner thoughts of keeping Tyler away from Andie and the kids, it just felt like someone was pissed that their older sister grew up, had a family, and was currently undergoing some martial problems that Edie took a hard side in. Unless Tyler was doing actual harm to the kids, you don’t prevent them from spending time with their parents. It wasn’t Edie’s place to decide that.

WHAT I DISLIKED:

- The romance was unbelievable. Honestly the idea that Edie just rolled over nearly the entire book, even after Angel was the reason they went to prison, and Angel never truly got called out for it until towards the 80% mark only for Angel to get sooooooo offended for being (rightfully!) called a snake that she kicked Edie out of the room leaving Edie to roll over and show their belly again. I already wasn’t buying their romance, since there was no real moments of bridging that reconnection, that the Happy Ever After ending had no meaning. There was no redemption.
- The characters were very one-note. I didn’t hate them but I had no attachment to any of them really. They were all there to serve a purpose in a very barebones matter. I also didn’t feel like the crew never really became a family, there was no genuine connection for most of the book. Edie absolutely felt like an outlier to most of them except Cy but that is only because they knew each other their entire lives.
- The plot was very predictable, I never felt any of the stakes and it didn’t do anything new in an exciting enough matter to keep me engaged. I did find it hard to suspend my disbelief with how easy everything seemed to be and that they were never caught sooner.

WHAT I AM NOT SURE ABOUT/WANTED MORE OF:

- I was surprised to find that the Hawaiian Pidgin was easy to read (I did have to look up a few words here and there as expected for one with no familiarity of the language but most of it I gleaned via context clues) however I found the dialogue that was written entirely in, for lack of a better word at 2am, “proper” English felt unnatural. I just felt like no one would actually speak like that. I would’ve rather the entire novel been in Pidgin honestly.
- The worldbuilding was a bit sparse which isn’t necessarily *bad* but it also just felt like Earth Lite:tm: but in the vague notions of Space:tm:. There was no depth to it which was a reoccurring problem throughout the novel.