A fun, super quick read that I really enjoyed and felt the characters and story were well written and that the plot was detailed and really held my attention!

Undercover Thief had a mysterious premise, a girl whose parents disappeared and a school of spies. Although there was parts of the story which I enjoyed, the writing style just wasn’t for me since there was a lot of dialogue and I like to be drawn in with knowing and feeling what the world is like through descriptions. If I felt more drawn in and attached to the characters, I would have loved this book

Undercover Thief was a fun read! I really enjoyed the way Pam handled herself. She really was a fantastic kid who was skilled at so much at such a young age. Completely unrealistic but so much fun!

Her parent's leave something to be desired but I found it light hearted and a ton of fun, with enough drama to keep it interesting as well!

Thank you NetGalley for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

*REVIEW* ☆☆☆.5
As middle grade reads go, Undercover Thief was kind of middle of the road. It's a cute story with a unique premise. The characters felt a bit flat. I would call it average, but middle grade readers should enjoy this book regardless.

When you're abandoned at 9 years old, what choice do you have but to become a notorious, world class thief? Life has turned out pretty good for Pam, until her parents unexpectedly return and cart her off to a boarding school for spies.
I really liked Pam, though she did get annoyingly arrogant for a little while, luckily that phase passed. She's a very cool character, friendly and loyal, despite the slight disregard for the law! Seeing her hack and trick her way out of almost anything is very entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I'm very happy to see this is the start of a series as I definitely want to read more of Pam's adventures at the school.

Undercover Thief by H. T. King, 278 pages.
Glass Slipper Publications, 2019. $12.
Language: R (49 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
After being abandoned by her parents years ago, Pam was forced to adapt to stay under social services’ radar. Now 14 years old, Pam has a new family, and they have honed their skills to provide for themselves through heist jobs. But their routine is about to be interrupted: the parents are back.
Unrealistic in the most fun way, I hung onto every word of Pam’s story from the very beginning. Starting this book before bed was the wrong move because I couldn’t put it down -- my morning alarm came too soon after finishing. Somehow, King created an engaging character who can seemingly do everything without feeling like a Mary Sue. I felt Pam’s resentment, and I wanted her to succeed. Yes, there were cheesy parts and cliches, but I was so entertained that I didn’t care; I was simply having fun reading Pam’s adventure. I’m looking forward to the sequels. The only reason this book is labeled “optional” instead of “essential” is the swear count.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I was definitely that girl that was into spy books when I was little and this book has it all. Great plot and characters. I would definitely recommend.

I have very mixed feelings about this book.

I read it very quickly but I think that was more because it felt like a fanfiction of Ally Carter's Heist Society and Gallagher Girls series'. I could very easily have given you the names of characters in this book and place them with the characters from Carters' books and they would almost be exactly the same, right the way down to having a British character in an American spy school, one of the main characters being the headmistresses daughter, and the new student in the school being an outcast trying to be expelled then changing her mind. I love those series' which is probably why I didn't hate this one, it was so similar to a series I grew up reading and loving.

I thought the story itself was alright. Not the best but not the worst. I think it took way too long to even bring in an event in this story. The traitor in the school wasn't hinted at until 50% and nothing happened with that until the final 5% of the book and it was very, very quickly resolved. More time needed to be spent building the plot and not just having the main character, Pam, trying to show off how much she learned on the streets while also hating everyone and acting like she didn't trust anyone. Why did she tell people so much so quickly if she didn't trust them?

I also had a few issues with Pam as a character, besides her being annoying as anything. If she had been in my class in school people would have hated her not adored her as everyone apparently did here. I thought she was an unrealistic character. I may not know a lot about living on the streets and being a thief but I have read other books with similar situations where the homeless thief character was a similar age. 'Stealing Phoenix' by Joss Stirling being a good example of this. I also thought the resolution between Pam and her parents was too sudden and easy in the end.

Finally, I think a major flaw with this story was the viewpoint it was written. I have read very few good books written entirely in first person. I think first person works well and at points in this story it did work. However, I think it needed to be mixed in with other perspectives. We were too limited to what Pam could see and what she thought. We needed more of what else was going on. More descriptions. More everything really. It just fell short of something and rushed to get somewhere.

And yet, I can almost guarantee that I will still read the sequel when it comes out.

It was a very quick and easy read and all the characters had their own amazing personality and the writing style of this book really makes it flow.

I tried so hard to read this book, but I just couldn’t get into it. The book starts in media res, or in the middle of things, which was slightly confusing. I’ve read other books that make use of this plot device, but the way it was done in this book left me feeling as though I had accidentally skipped reading a chapter. This book also just didn’t feel realistic to me. I read books for fun, and I really love fantastical and imaginative stories, but I just couldn’t accept the main character as such a talented thief at her young age. I’m not against the idea of it, but the execution of this plot point was just difficult for me to accept in this book. I might try to read it again at some point, but as of right now I just can’t get into the book. I’m sure this book would be fun for other readers, especially middle grade readers who enjoy adventures. Even though I enjoy many middle grade novels, this one just wasn’t for me.

Pamela Torres is a thief. She turned to stealing as a way to survive when she is left alone as a 9 year old. At 14, her parents return. Through an interesting course of events, Pam ends up at the Victoria Institute, a spy school.
Pam has a crazy number of abilities that the normal teen does not. She has a hard time with her parents’ return. She acts up at school and spends many evenings in detention. She makes fast friends in Ronnie and Gwen.
In the end her skills help her to save the day.
This was a fun read. The opening was a bit different but once you get past wondering what is going on the story flows well. Other readers objected to Pam’s skill level at such a young age and her beef with her parents. I can understand that view but felt like most stories of this type play up the skill of the main character. Her upset with her parents was valid and once they actually talked about the issues things started to improve.
I look forward to the next book to see how Pam develops into a law abiding citizen.

This book published several years ago and was re-released November 19, 2019 per Netgalley.

Undercover Thief by H.T. King was interesting. I felt like a lot of this book was very unrealistic. I felt like the whole life was really lacking in this book. The way the parents are portrayed is super unrealistic. Why wouldn't parents talk tho their own kid or ditch them for six years. I had a really hard time believing that part of the story. Plus no one is perfect especially at 15 so it was really hard to believe that Pam was so perfect.


I really wanted to enjoy this story but it fell super short for me so I was really disappointed. I don't think the idea was executed very well. I really wish it would have been a better book. I would have loved to see Pam be a more developed and well rounded character.


As always I encourage to read a book if you are interested especially because I love to be challenged on my opinions. Don't just take my word for it.

Fell in love with the concept and the juxtaposition of the world building, would definitely recommend for younger readers / those fresh to this type of book.

This young adult book was a ton of fun to read. I hated every time I had to put it down. In Undercover Thief, Pam is a pretty experienced thief when her parents who walked out on her six years ago decide to come back and force her to go to a spy school.

Thoughts:
To say I was completely engaged in this story is an understatement. The author apparently really knows how to draw out my emotions as I read through the story, none more so than every time there was anything related to Pam’s parents. Pamela’s parents left one day and didn’t come back. So when they decide to come back – six years later- I was furious with them. I mean, how dare they act as if they only went out for milk at the corner store? And who doesn’t know that their own parent died? Or what their 9-yr old child is doing in order to survive? In my opinion, they don’t get a single say about anything in her life ever again. Ever. They lost that right a long, long time ago. So, when she gets to the school they force upon her I loved every time she dished it out to them and made their life miserable.

While I really enjoyed the book, I do think that there are two parts that some may have issue with. Pam is really skilled at just about everything. From being a master thief who can steal from the Louvre to knowing how to beat security systems, she can do it all at 14/15 yrs old or younger, depending on when she learned how to do these special skills. The other aspect some may have difficult with is related to suspending reality. While I personally had a lot of fun reading the book, I know some may not want to have conversations in their head about how realistic some of the situations are – whether it be regarding her parents and how they couldn’t have known what was going on with their child for 6 years or the type of classes being taught at the school.

This story came at the perfect time for me. It was light-hearted fun, with lots of good drama to keep it all interesting, not to mention all the supporting characters that made the school come to life. Loved it.

Recommended for those who love Ally Carter books and who want to read stories about feisty teen heroines.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Glass Slipper Publications for the reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

We really wanted to love this one but to much of it was just unrealistic. To us it felt like this was a book two instead of a book. We would have loved to see more development in Pam's development and maybe the story starting before it did. We think with some work this one would be a hit!! We love spy books and this one should have been right up our ally. This one was kind of a take it or leave it story.

This is a fun, fast paced book.

Pam was left with her grandmother because her parents worked away. A lot. One day, they didn't come back. Her grandma died shortly after and nine year old Pam was terrified and alone. After almost starving, she started stealing, just to survive. One day she met another kid that was a thief and he took her in. Jerry, Leah, and Micah became Pam's family. They were just kids, but they were thieves. Not just the stealing food type of thieves. They broke into museums to steal. Leah was an expert at tech and Jerry and Pam did the rest. They were able to disable complex security systems and not get caught. The kids stole big things for a reason though. Micah needed special doctors that wouldn't contact any social services person. Jerry, Leah, and Micah lived with their drunk father. Right before they left, their father hurt Micah and he lost his vision. They never used guns or hurt people. That was part of their code. While they were thieves, all of them were good kids deep down. This found family made me heart both happy and sad.

Pam's parents show up after all these years and realize that Pam can handle a lot of things they didn't expect. They worked together with some law enforcement officials (maybe retired or secret) to find and grab Pam. She was drugged, put on a plane, and brought to the US. She's in a school that is for spies. Only select kids are brought in and they take classes like manipulation, all kinds of foreign languages, law, and others. Pam's mom was in the CIA along with the woman who ran the school, Miss Price.

Pam is stubborn and doesn't follow rules well. She causes a lot of problems every day at school. All she wants is to go home. But she also gets close to the other kids, especially her roommate Ronnie (who is Miss Price's daughter) and Gwen. Over time, Pam starts to trust these girls and they become family, too. She struggles with missing her other family and isn't handling her parents departure and arrival years later well. There is one teacher that Pam gets close to, too. She excelled at manipulations and was really smart. It was trust and hurt that were her biggest downfall. That and how she acted out. Pam turns 15 early in the book. At times, she feels extremely immature. Other times, she feels like an adult. I guess that's because she was forced to be responsible, but still didn't really understand what it's like to be an adult. There were times she annoyed me, but she had such a caring heart. I loved how she stood up for her family and friends. I love how she talked to people like humans, even if others didn't seem to think they were. Her friendship with Ronnie and Gwen was perfect.

While at the school, Pam overhears a girl, Marley, speaking on a secret phone. It sounds like she was planning something dangerous at the school with someone else. Pam decides to keep an eye on Marley and prevent whatever bad thing might happen. She loved some of these kids and teachers and her basic instincts seemed to be to protect. While Pam tries to protect her heart and her secrets, she eventually hits a point where she breaks and people find out who and what she really is.

I don't want to get too deep into the story. The book was fast paced with a lot of action, but also a focus on the characters. I enjoyed this and gave it 4 stars.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

I loved this book. I am a huge fan of this genre and this didn't disappoint! It was a story full of emotion, friendship, regret, anger, forgiveness and crime! It was very well written and I couldn't help but fall in love with the character, Pam. I felt complete empathy all the way through for her, even when she was been stubborn and awkward.

I hope there will be another installment to Pam's journey. 5 star read!

I enjoyed the plot of Undercover Thief. It flowed smoothly from start to finish and there were no hitches or bumps that distracted me from the main storyline. The plot twists were unpredictable and always left me shocked. The concept behind Undercover Thief was fresh and original. It was refreshing to read a book about an idea that has not been recycled and remade over and over again. Ronnie and Gwen were some of the best characters in the story. Their love for Pam allowed them to understand her past and help her save the future. But the most important part about their characters was that their personalities had layers. They may have been goody-two-shoes, but they were willing to accept Pam’s past and mistakes and understood that sometimes you had to break a rule or two for the greater good.
In the end, Undercover Thief did nothing less than intrigue me from beginning to end. The exciting plot, fascinating concept, and thoroughly written characters kept me on edge all through the entire novel. With a perfect balance of drama, action, and suspense, I would recommend Undercover Thief to middle-grade readers.

This would be a 2-star rating if not for the fact that I adore Pam's chosen family, her friends, and love the interaction she had with her schoolmates. That aside, I hated how the author portrayed her parents in the first half of the book. If they were horrid parents who should never have been blessed with Pam, I could understand it. But they're redeemed and are actually good parents, which begs the question: why weren't they the first ones to "talk" to her, why did they never ask her what happened when they were gone for six whole years, and why did they not apologize? Not only was it unrealistic, it was so bad, I just didn't even consider it a blemish on the parents. I blame the author for writing them the way they did. It didn't work in anyone's favor other than to give Pam a great excuse to shrug them off in her passive-aggressive to just downright blunt manner.

The plus to this book is the creativity of the spy schools and Pam's pain. I totally felt it and her rage is one of the things I love about this book. She was a bit of a perfect specimen and normally I hate those characters, but Pam had her fault (yes, just one), and it made her human. I had no problem with how amazing she was because to me, she was a genius who needed to smarten up, quickly. So absolutely no complaints from me in that department. I did, however, have an issue with how the parents were handled, and this one scene will forever bother me: how a certain adult just blew up on her, and Pam never thought about it after that dramatic scene. It was almost as if... it was just there for a point plot. Cue gasp!

The premise of the book is a good one and sounds like it would be fun for a middle grade reader ( I thought my niece would love it) but after reading it I don't feel the same way. Even within the first few pages it feels like the book was written for older characters that were suddenly caged down in hopes of capturing younger readers. I totally understand having fantastical things in stories but a five year old carrying for a blinded one year old is a little much for me. It could also be because of the kindle version of the book but there are a few spelling mistakes or spots where there isn't a space between words and that was distracting as well. Maybe the novel should have stayed in it's original form instead of the rewrite. The 2015 version on goodreads actually seems to have some good reviews.