Packed with heists, gods, and monsters, the Germanic worldbuilding is easily accessible and readers will love rooting for Owen's clever antiheroine with ambition.his will find an audience anywhere there are fantasy fans. 'A cast of fully realized characters are colored by Vanya's sharp tongue and criminal proclivities, making her a fun, and occasionally unreliable, narrator. 'Centering a cued-white cast and variously inclusive secondary characters, Owen's engaging narrative is at times overloaded with complications, but she nevertheless pulls it together, creating a story to savor that builds toward an emotionally satisfying resolution.' - Publishers Weekly (starred review) A lush and lively adventure replete with romance, revenge, and robbery.' - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 'Pivoting from her innovative Merciful Crow series to retell an often revisited fairy tale, Owen delivers a cynical, sarcastic, devious, damaged, and self-aware antihero, a climactic crime caper, and a twisty legal-political thriller. 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. 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. Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. 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. 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. The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place.

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.

Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago.

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

Little thieves review