Gather Little Thieves (Little Thieves #1) Portrayed By Margaret Owen Readable In Version
was a fun take on The Goose Girl that expands upon the handmaid character from the fairytale, her background story, what led her to stealing the princesss identity, and her personal redemption.
The romance is sweet, and I enjoyed the sapphic subplot as well, I found some inconsistencies with tone and pacing: the plot drags a lot and could have been shortened to make up for this, and some of the juvenile humor took me out of the serious parts of the story at times.
The book is still technically wellwritten though, so it getsfrom me, The setting of this lively tale is more or less that of the brothers Grimms tales of myth and magic and blood, set in a Germany that was already outdated when the Grimms went about collecting those tales: a patchwork land of titles and castles, ruled by those with absolute power, sometimes only a few days horseback travel across.
There is a smattering of German terms, including Germanish, never quite pure, such as nouns written with small case letters,
The tale at the heart of the story is “The Goose Girl,” which has been redone a number of times, each with a different take.
So it is here.
This version begins with the “evil” maid who dares to abandon her princess in order to have a life of her own.
The horror!
Written in an engaging first person, the story is divided into parts, with further divisions within each part.
All begin with a different opening of the same tale, before Vanja, our heroine, explains why she is pretending to be Princess Gisele, a mask only possible through a magical pearl necklace.
She is slated to marry the handsome but cruel Margrave, who makes Gaston in the Disney Beauty and the Beast look like a sweet, timid charmer by comparison.
Vanja, sold to Death and Fortune as a child, raised by them, then put as a maid in a castle, is a thief, determined to swipe enough gold to get away from both her intended, who she knows is a creep, and also from her godmothers.
But things do not go as planned, She ends up cursedwith a month to solve the curse or die, Meanwhile she runs into enemies as well as possible, . . allies.
The style is funny, wry, colorful, and I loved the side characters, As disaster after disaster overtakes Vanja, and her allies, it was sheer fun to see the inventive ways she would deal, especially as the stakes kept rising.
I would have read this book to pieces as a teen, I look forward to seeing where this storyline goes,
Copy provided by NetGalley This is a laughoutloud funny retelling of The Goose Girl, told from the perspective of the wicked maid who stole her mistress's life.
It's full of lovable, eccentric characters and features a very prickly, not very sympathetic, but still lovable heroine,
It would have gottenbut then it went and twisted my native language into a weird pseudoGermanish with even more umlauts but mixed with real German words, very confusing! and turned the setting into some sort of tourist stereotypeBavaria, in which everyone eats sausage all day and even uses sausage metaphors for anything sexual eww.
That's why these were some of the facial expressions I had occasionally while reading:
But then I decided to just ignore it/ go with it, and enjoy the ride.
That worked quite well, so it still getsstars,
What you can expect:
hilarious snarky banter
wonderful nonhuman characters that stole my heart
inventive magic system
twists and turns
the story of two female friends who've destroyed their friendship utterly slowly repairing it again
an enemies to lovers tale between a jewel thief and an investigator
tons of character growth and overcoming the psychological effects of past trauma I dont how or when it happened but this book snuck up on me and I absolutely loved it.
It reminded me of everything I used to love about YA fantasy,
Vanja is not good, nor is she bad, She is a product of her circumstances and is hellbent on survival no matter the cost, Some of her thoughts and reasoning were so deeply relatable that I couldnt help but love her and root for her.
Protect vanja at all cost, I love the worldbuilding, the ways the gods are portrayed as well as how hinged on human emotions everything is, It makes everything so easy to grasp and understand in ways that I didnt expect, I understood every single characters motivations even if I often disagreed with them, Thats how you know a book is damn good, I also adored the romance unfolded and was developed, i was rooting for them so hard, Dislike to love excellence.
The writing was also stunning, i underlined so many quotes and so much of it felt like a punch in the gut.
Especially when vanja was talking about her loneliness, how unlovable and expendable she thought she was and how she had no one but herself.
Babygirl needed a hug. Or a hundred. And as such seeing her open herself up was such a beautiful thing to witness, Aside from the emotional parts, i loved how sharp and witty vanjas voice was, its so effortlessly entertaining and engaging, funny in many places.
The plot and mystery were also smart and kept me wanting for more, seeing how the next step unfolds,
The queerness and found family aspects were so unexpected but an absolute win for me, Two of my absolute favorite things, The MC and her love interest are both demi, and two of the major side characters are sapphic, Having gone into the book thinking it very nonqueer, I was absolutely delighted, This is one of those rare situations where I wish I could give a book more than five, It blew my mind in so many ways that I cant even get it in writing how good I thought this book was.
Think of something, it did it amazingly,
First of all, I LOVED the tone where it felt like the main character, Vanja, was talking straight to the reader.
It felt like I was part of the story and pulled me right in, it was even better that it was full of snark and sarcasm.
And following the morally gray character was beyond fun, but Vanjas character growth was also perfection!
All the side characters was so well done and with fleshed out personalities.
I think the shapeshifter Ragne is my all time favorite, she just lights up the page every time, And the romance was slow burn and so sweet, but also snarky but also explored insecurities and vulnerability,
This book is chunky and a lot of things happens, so I would understand that some people will find it a bit heavy.
I didnt mind it, because I was so invested and even thought it added to the story, Because everything was so well worked through and nothing is left unanswered,
In my opinion, it is perfect, It doesnt hurt either that I have Illumicrates special edition and its the prettiest book I own, This book makes me happy in every way, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and give it a very solidstars! It is apparently a retelling and much more embellished version of a German fairytale called The Goose Girl.
I have never heard of it prior to reading this book so I cannot compare, but as someone who speaks conversational German, I enjoyed the sprinkles of the language throughout the text.
Little Thieves follows Vanja, the adopted Goddaughter of Death and Fortune and servant to Princess Gisele, After faced with a choice she cannot make, Vanja takes her life into her own hands by stealing Giseles, Posing as the Princess and living a double, no really a triple life, Vanja winds up cursed for her greed and wrongdoings after a runin with a God in the woods.
She has two weeks to break the curse or she will wind up dead, That is a very basic synopsis for a wildly intriguing, fun, magical, dangerous, witty and twisty story, Vanja is an awesome protagonist! She is clever and manipulative, but in a way that makes you root for her because she is trying to be in control of her own life.
She is likeable and strong! The real and the fantastical are woven together
so well that its entirely believable in this world where gods and mortals interact with one another.
I just loved the book! I enjoyed it in every way and would definitely recommend it! I will cover buy the heck out of this.
Who even needs a synopsis!
P, S. Preorder received!
This is on the November TBR, I'm really hoping a get out of this slump soon, This one is a chunky monkey!,
TW/CW:
I was definitely entering a reading slump when I picked up this book, which would explain why I took about a week to get through the first quarter and then abouth to finish the rest of the book.
Little Thieves was a very welcome surprise, I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, but I do love me a good retelling, and a beautiful cover to match really doesn't hurt.
This was a found family, slow burn romance, heistlike book that had everything to be perfect and for me it definitely delivered.
It felt like a lot at times, there are a ton of characters, and names, and royal pain in the asses, but I had the absolute best of times following Vanja in her misfortunes.
I also really liked how we were following the current timeline most of the book, but we also got some fairytale like storytelling when a flashback moment was needed for some backstory, and to allow us to better understand our characters current decisions.
I would compare the romance to A Far Wilder Magic, we have two seemingly opposite characters who really don't like each other that end up finding out they may have more in common than they think, and that the line between love and hate is truly a thin one.
There's also this thing with horses, that completely gave me a flashback to Cassandra Clare and ducks if you know, you know.
Of course I also cried, I'm a crybaby when sad scenes turn up and there was a tough one here, more than one actually.
Little Thieves was the fantasy book I didn't know I needed to complete my summer TBR, we have Gods, and their usual meddling ways, I honestly laughed so hard by the end with some of the reveals, we have morally gray characters, an antihero we all needed, some slow burn romance to melt all the cold stone hearts, and a version of the Goose Girl I absolutely loved to read.
Also theres a second book Yes pleaseTBR immediately
I've also had the Merciful Crow on my TBR for an absurd amount of time now and this was the sign I needed to get to it soon!.