Review: Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

on October 2021
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 512
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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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.

Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of "The Goose Girl" about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.

Honestly, I cannot really describe how much I love this book. And that is something because I am not a huge fan of the story of the Goose Girl, but Margaret Owens made it one of my favorite fairy tales.

The full and vivid world where we have our Goose Girl, Vanja, impersonating Princess Gisele so she can escape her godmother’s impossible question: who would you wan to serve forever: Death or Fortune?

Um, Vanja says no thanks and begins her journey to make her own rules and win her freedom.
There’s political intrigue, morally grey characters, a very intelligent boy on her trail and oh, magic.

It’s so clever and creatively different, I started going back and re-reading certain parts. Vanja and Gisele are amazing. They are both terrible and vulnerable and have potential for great goodness. I love how their roles reverse, and how they pull away and pull back together, seeing each other finally as two sides of the same coin.
And I enjoyed the romance too with the boy who is involved in this epic cat and mouse game with Vanja. Will he catch her, will she let him?
And while the story is on the longer side, it doesn’t feel it. It’s deep world building and complicated characters make the reader want to stay and continue on this journey with them. There are so many fun twists throughout you’re never bored.

I am DYING over here that there is going to be a sequel because I cannot think of a better thing to spend the next 12 months drooling over.
Little Thieves is another wonderful book written by Margaret Owen, I might say my favorite one yet. It really pushed her into an auto buy author for me. I hope you will try it. It’s perfect for the winter months ahead.