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Reviewed by: Kathy Jaccarino, High School Librarian Title: Thieves' Gambit Author: Kayvion Lewis Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Year: 2023 Good for Grades: 9-12 Genre/Type of Book: Mystery/Thriller
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: No Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: I am of fan of the Ally Carter books about crime families and thought this would be similar to that genre, but with more diverse characters. If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be: Who do you trust when lives are on the line?
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Review:
This mystery/thriller centers around Rosalyn (Ross) Quest, the teen-aged member of the Quest family, a family of thieves whose “work” is international, but their home base is an island in the Bahamas. Ross is beginning to question her loyalty to the family business. She wants a “normal” life, she wants to have friends, go to school, head off to college, and find out who she is really meant to be. However, her mother believes that family, and the family business is everything, and family are the only people you can trust. Ross is set to sneak off to a gymnastics school for a summer session. She has planned her “escape” immediately after a heist she and her mother are pulling off. Things go awry, and her mother is captured. Ross needs to rescue her and come to terms with the guilt that her actions, her plan to escape, may have led to her mother’s capture. Not having any way to raise the astronomical amount of money demanded for her mother’s release, Ross does the only thing possible, she joins the Thieves’ Gambit. This is an invitation-only contest/opportunity to compete against other thieves in a series of heists….winner gets ANY wish granted. Ross feels this wish is the only opportunity she has to save her mother. She is up against other young thieves from competing families of thieves. Ross struggles with who to trust! Can she trust any of them? Should she form any alliances? This begins a rollercoaster ride of action and suspense. The events/contests take place all over the globe, these exotic settings give the novel an exotic tone. Truthfully, I found the plot a bit confusing to follow as things wrapped up at the end. This is a bit of a romance that starts between Ross and another contestant, Devroe, but both characters struggle with allegiance to family versus their feelings for each other. The ending was not satisfying, at least for me. I think the author leaves things somewhat vague and questionable in preparation for a sequel, possibly a series?
This would be a fun book to feature in a display of other "heist" novels. I think there could be some fun here...maybe for Valentine's Day- These books will Steal your Heart???
Number of party hats:
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