marisol flores has had an unconventional upbringing in diary of a teenage jewel thief. she's the youngest in a line of jewel thieves, but her first job as point person ends badly and she must flee with her mom to new york city and try to fit into a normal life.

all she's wanted for years is a normal life. but starting a normal life by pretending that she and her mom aren't hiding from the man who killed her father means that she's jumping at shadows. fitting in at a normal high school is also a challenge. she doesn't know about being normal. nothing in her life has been normal.

so when she meets will campbell, who is charming and seems to be taken with her, she's not quite sure how to act. she wants to trust that he likes her and enjoys her company. but she has a hard time trusting anyone. and she also feels like she can't be totally honest with him.

as their relationship deepens it becomes clear that there is more to will than meets the eye. but it's not until the villianous petrov gets his hooks into will and all those that mari holds dear that all truths are revealed. and as they all work together to bring down petrov, the fact that mari can finally be honest about her true self with will frees her from so many of her worries. she realizes she doesn't have to fit into a prescribed version of normal. all she needs is to find happiness, and she has that with will.

will is a total dreamboat of a character. he's got his reasons for paying attention to mari, and they have more in common than mari realizes at first. his unconventional upbringing makes him the perfect match for mari. totally swoonworthy.

3.5 stars
Being posted on Aug 14th 2017 @ readingwithwrin.blogspot.com
Marisol has been taught her whole life how to pull of the perfect heist, but when things go wrong and she finally gets to be a 'normal' teenage girl she doesn't really know how to handle it all.
She adjusts to high school fairly easily, thanks in part to her having done online school, and from just blending into the background for the most part. With Will helping her get caught up in Math, and Jamie helping her find clubs to join to help her make friends. Marisol seems to start enjoying her new life. That is until a family member shows up and she realizes she's may be being followed by someone.
This causes her to panic and to doubt her new life completely. She realizes that there really isn't a way to get away from the world they've been a part of, and she may have put all of her new friends at risk too.
Overall  I did enjoy this book, but I'm also not going to lie I was a little disappointed that this was more girl adjust to normal life and less heist related. Not saying this was a bad thing, just wasn't exactly what I was suspecting. Also how in the world did she not have any idea who Will was? Having said that, I really did like the beginning and the last thirty percent of the book. The middle part while important to show her new life, and how her connection to Will changed things, was also a little boring to me personally. I wish we would have either gotten to see more of her friends at school or her family dynamic because I felt like we didn't really get to understand it until almost the end.  
I am interested to see if this gets any companion novels because that ending was the perfect setup for some, and they sound like they would be Amazing!

While this is not what I had excepted when I requested this book, I did find it to be a good read.

Diary of a Teenage Jewel Thief had excited me right away with the synopsis and beautiful cover, and even though it wasn’t what I expected it was still a really great read.

Mari’s character was something special and not just because she was a thief. For some reason I expected her to be extremely confident given the fact that she’s a skilled thief and has traveled all over. In actuality, she was confident when it came to her thieving skills but when it came to social situations, she was completely clueless. I felt like the two sides to her were so drastically different that it helped make her a really deep and interesting character. Through it all, no matter how scared or worried she was, she stayed tough and sassy. Even when Will, who literally made her want to melt, was flirting and getting so close she could hardly think.
One of the small highlights for me was Mari’s relationship with her Mom. Yes, they were thieves, but they were also mother and daughter. I loved how they never lost sight of that also put each other before anything else. Family was what really mattered to them, and it showed.

The only thing I wished it had more of was the actual stealing, but I understood that it really wasn’t needed for where the storyline was going. Still, it would have been an extra layer of fun. Also, considering she comes from a long line of jewel thieves, it would have been cool to get a closer look at her interesting family.

Diary of a Teenage Jewel Thief will have you hooked from the very first page, I know it did me. With page after page of romance, action, and adventure, I can promise you it’s worth the read.

*I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts/opinions are my own. Thank you!!*

Well, that was an entertaining and quick ride! Diary of a Teenage Jewel Thief kept me intrigued the whole time, but there were a couple things that kept me from really liking this book. 

1) All the characters weren't developed or as complex as I wanted except for the MC. Though Mari was a nice narrator, the book is very much focused on her and we don't learn much about the other characters. This led me to not really care about anyone. I had this sense of detachment as I read the book because of it. I would have loved to see more scenes between Mark and her mother so that their relationship was more heartfelt, and some more of Maris interactions with high schoolers to see that juxtaposition between jewel thief and awkward teenager. 

2) The romance had this weird ownership quality to it that really rubbed me the wrong way. There's instances where phrases like "my will", "I'm his", "you're mine", "you belong to me" are used. This was meant to be swoony, but really irritated me. No one should own another person, and I couldn't block out my irritation. 

3) there's this big sequence of events at the end in which Mari is facing down a bad guy, and it was really entertaining. Throughout the whole book were told (but not really shown, mind you) that Mari is this kick ass girl who can scale buildings, knows Krav Maga, and is fluent in multiple languages. And yet when the climax happens she's always sheltered. I wanted her to do something, but she's pretty helpless. I think what she did was pretty kick ass, but I wanted her to do more. One character (won't say who bc of spoilers) always protects Mari and puts her life above theirs, and it's their "classic move" I wanted to shove this person over and let Mari be a badass! 

BUT 

Diary of a Teenage Jewel Thief had a really good premise. While I would have loved to see the relationships developed more, the writing was good and kept me going! There's room for improvement, but nothing's perfect. I would read for of this author for sure. 

3 out of 5 Stars

*Review will be published August 1st on Stellar Kitten Book Reviews / will update with link at that time

❝ The life of a professional thief is glamorous. That is, if you consider attending five high schools in three years, possessing my own personal collection of ski masks, having better knife-throwing skills than social skills, and not having a close friend since elementary school glamorous.❞

This was a really light and fun read that you could easily get done in a day. Diary of a Teenage Jewel Thief is a contemporary YA romance that follows Marisol (Mari) and her mother after they escape a rival thief and move to New York. 

Based on the title and description I was expecting to see more of Marisol's skills come into play, or see her getting into trouble using her skills to help others. Something along those lines. While there weren't too many instances where Marisol went on heists or did unexpectedly epic things, I still really enjoyed this book just for the romance aspect. 

As can be expected, Marisol is nervous about starting up school and trying to fit in. She's never really had any friends or done anything "normal", so she struggles with her social life and some of her schoolwork. It's in seeking help for her math class that she gets to know Will Campbell, her sidewalk Romeo.

❝ Well, maybe I'm scared and want you around for protection." His grin crooks to one side, and he winks. He's teasing me. 

And it's working. "Well, come on then. Lag behind and I'll leave you to fend for yourself.❞

What I liked about Marisol trying to be "normal" was that she really put in the effort. She talked to the teacher about getting extra help, she took the initiative to join a club at school, she pushed herself to go out and hang out with her friends, and she chose not to let Will take over her life completely. She still went to her club meetings and everything else. 

What I liked about Will? He accepted Marisol as she was! He didn't demand that she stop hanging out with other people just because he wanted to walk with her after school.  He waited for her, brought her coffee, texted her. He just genuinely cared and showed it with the little things. He was also really adorable in that "I'm a flirt, but when you flirt back I'm going to blush" kind of way. I loved it <3

The only thing I think that might be a little disappointing, again, is that we don't get to see much of Marisol as a thief. I was also left wanting to know more about the rest of the thieves in Marisol's family. There were also other side characters introduced that weren't mentioned very much for the rest of the book because the romance between Will and Marisol was the obvious focus of the book. So, if you liked romance, this is great and you should pick it up. If you were hoping for more action then this might not be for you. 

The action-y stuff in this book happens more in the beginning with the first heist and then progresses some more towards ending of the book. I think the book did a good job of tying together loose ends and answering a lot of the questions behind Marisol's father and Will's interest in her.

This lovely book comes out on August 8th <3 Go check it out!

DNF. 54%

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me this novel in exchange for a honest review.

Hate to DNF it, but I don't feel like continuing. Maybe I'm not being picky enough on NetGalley.. But it just was not really something for me. Think I'm too old for this ? (Ha that feels awful to say..) But I'm no teenager, haven't been one for almost 10 years.. And this is just to childish for me.
I would have hoped for more action and actual thievery.. But after the beginning scene it just went downwards. And honestly ? The guy she is falling for is kind of creepy in a bad way and there is ZERO chemistry ? Just no..

Please note: I received DIARY OF A TEENAGE JEWEL THIEF on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to both the Publisher and author.

I read this story in ONE night. I couldn't put it down because Mari is a smart, sassy- yet sweet- heroine and I wanted to know what happened to her and hella-hot Will. Rosie Somers wrote a fantastic story about a girl trying to keep true to herself while simultaneously trying to blend into her surroundings. It's hard to ignore your birthright when it's also your family's livelihood, yet Mari does just that in order to fly below the radar from her family's past until her two worlds collide and everything falls apart. The tug back and forth between Will and Mari is spot on and I couldn't put the book down until I found out if they got together, what happened to her mom and uncle, and what would happen with Mari and Will's future on top of everything else. Be prepared for a thrill ride as you turn the pages of this story.  :) Highly recommend this book.