Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
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.
Representation: Both the MC & the love interest are demisexual, most likely demiromantic, wlm romance. Two lesbian side characters & wlw romance. Several other queer side characters including a genderfluid god with alternating pronouns (they even ask on page what pronouns to use during a specific scene).
Hello? Why did no one tell me about this book sooner? Especially with my love of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and Thorn by Intisar Khanani? Little Thieves is what would be born if Six of Crows and Thorn had a baby.
Little Thieves is a Goose Girl retelling, which apparently I have a love for Goose Girl retellings, but the author also does a great job of not just rewriting the story, but adding her own twists and expanding upon the story. There were so many times that I laughed out loud about something a character said or did. Vanja especially has a love of inappropriate jokes (like butts) that I think does a fantastic job of showing her mischievous nature without being too crude or force. The majority of characters are relatable, and Vanja very interesting as a morally grey main character.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever be over this book, truly one of my top 5 books ever.
Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? Let me know in the comments!
BeffyNicole Reads 