Review - Little Thieves (Little Thieves, #1) by Margaret Owen

 

 

Title: Little Thieves (Little Thieves, #1)

Author: Margaret Owen

Pages: 512

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Release Date: 19th October 2021

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

A scrappy maid must outsmart both palace nobles and Low Gods in a new YA fantasy by Margaret Owen, author of the Merciful Crow series.

Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl...

Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother's love?and she's on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja's otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back... by stealing Gisele's life for herself.

The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.

Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele's sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja's tail, she'll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.

 

Goodreads | Storygraph | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Bookshop

 

 

 

My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

 

 

Vanja Schmidt is the goddaughter of Death and Fortune, both of whom she is trying to escape from.

After years of being Princess Gisele's maid, Vanja took over her life, and uses the princess's standing to steal from the nobility to fund her escape.

But after a heist, Vanja finds herself cursed by a Low God, with only two weeks to break the curse to stop herself being turned into jewels because of her greed.

Can Vanja stop the curse?

Can she escape a future of serving either Death or Fortune?

 

The blurb for this book really intrigued me, and I decided to give it a chance despite not loving the previous book I read by the author.

Vanja was a likeable, morally grey protagonist. I felt sorry for her and enjoyed seeing how she reacted in different situations and with other characters.

Ragne was my favourite character, but I also liked most of the other characters such as Emeric, Vanja, Gisele, Death, and Fortune.

The romance was sweet and didn't feel rushed.

The concepts of the Low Gods, and things like the nightmares and Vanja being able to see good and bad fortune were interesting.

The plot was enjoyable and held my attention throughout. While I wasn't gripped, I did want to keep reading to find out what happened.

I really liked the writing style of Vanja's voice.

 

Overall, this was an enjoyable, unique read.