"For all my schemes and facades and artifice, I am not prepared in the slightest for the simple, devastating intimacy of being believed."

A young girl with the worst luck is thrown to the Low Gods of Fortune and Death for a chance at a better life. She winds up a servant for the local nobility and at 16 years of age steal everything, and I do mean everything she can from those that hurt her. Her latest scheme leaves her with almost enough money to escape the empire, but it also leaves her with a deathly curse that she must figure out how to break within a matter of weeks. Fortune doesn't seem to be giving her any breaks when a junior prefect of the high courts arrives and is asking too many questions about the recent robberies. Can Vanja outwit this new arrival, will she be able to escape before the prince returns and demands a hasty wedding, and most importantly can she break the death curse that has her turning into rubies and gems?

This story has romance, action, an evil villain that wants to watch the world burn, but also did a great job of making me laugh out loud. The characters in this book were developed in a way that they all stood out and showed immeasurable growth throughout the novel. It also does a great job of describing the huge role trauma and PTSD can play in our lives and how difficult it can be to let someone in after being hurt before. All of these elements combined makes this book one of my top favorites in the genre.

A little thief by any other name would hang just as well.

Vanja, thankfully, has a whole host of identities, and all of them are just as wily and hard-to-catch as she is.
We meet our main character as the princesszin Gisele, the soon-to-be margrafin of the territory Boern, and though she acts flighty and confused, the real Vanja underneath considers herself to be a lot smarter and trickier than the common noble person, and as such, has gone to great lengths to accumulate wealth discreetly. This is where she becomes the Pfennigeist, or Penny Ghost, the burglar who has stolen from nearly all nobles who have the misfortune of proximity to the margrave's castle.
It's coal-grey swirls of misfortune for Vanja when Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad shows up from the Godly Courts to solve the case....or is it?
Because although Vanja carries an air of self-importance, it is with Emeric and others from her life before stealing Gisele's magic pearls (and beauteous visage) that she learns to trust in others, and sees that it is possible to be believed, even without hard evidence.
Margaret Owen's writing is at once serious and delightful, and full of mystery as well as outright humor (I still giggle thinking about Vanja's indecent doodlings at inappropriate times). Little Thieves is definitely one of my favorite books from the past few years, with the gremlin goose girl who steals everything, including my heart.

I loved this book! I think the twist on the original fairytale, it really was cool to see the perspective of the servant. It’s something I’m not used to seeing in fantasy and I really enjoyed the concept. However, I did not completely enjoy the writing style, it was definitely something I had to get used to. Anyone who loves fantasy and fairytales would love this book. I’ll definitely be purchasing this when it comes out!

Once upon a time on the coldest night of midwinter....

Vanja was born with the worst luck that can exist, she is the thirteenth daughter of a thirteenth daughter, when was young her mother gives her to the goddess of Fortune and Death, they became her God Mothers, but with a price.

It's slightly inspired in the fairytale The goose girl, I say slightly because it´s feels very unique, the worldbuilding was so rich with inspiration from German folklore. It's a beautiful and complex tale with magic, goodness, shapeshifters, mystery, princess, thievery, and a race against time to break a curse.

Once upon a time a princess and her maid from her ...

If you know the original tale, they are two girls, the good princess, and the evil maid,
Vanja grew up in a castle as a maid of princess Gisele, when they were children they were best friends, but now things are complicated, and with the help of magic, Vanja impersonates Gisele.

The prose is so beautiful, very lyrical, feels like a traditional fairy tale, the story set in the present, but have lots of flashbacks (so put attention) they serve to understand the present events, why Vanja steels jewels, why she doesn't want the help of Fortune and Death and why to masquerade as a princess.

I adore the world, beautiful old fashion fairytale but this is a story about character development. The characters are amazing; Vanja, Ragne, and Gisele. I'm here for the female power and support.

Vanja is fun, she wants to be independent, is smart and resourceful, she is not perfect, makes mistakes, does not accept help from others easily, and can be selfish.
The side character: Ragne, I want friends like her, so awkward, fun, and loyal, she is fantastic, Gisele, she is cool one you know her and Emeric, so sweet and so smart.

I really enjoy this. If you like dark fairytales, complex and gray characters, and almost impossible missions, then this is for you.


Review dates on Goodreads, thestorygraph and bookbub: 05 Oct.

I struggled with this one. I started out liking it. It seemed interesting enough. However, things quickly shifted. There were so many things going on that it was hard to follow where the author was going. So many plot points could make a good story on their own, but it felt like things were just thrown in to hit more points (goose girl, detective, terrible husband, politics, curse, demon cat...just to name a few). Too many characters and plots to try and focus on. By halfway through, I found it hard to care about any of the plot points or characters.

Fantasy. Vanja is the thirteenth daughter of a thirteenth daughter, so is orphaned by her mother who swears that she must rid her family of Vanja's curse. So Vanja is left at the feet of and watched over by two of the lower gods, Fortune and Death. Vanja tells her story, filled with conspiracy, murder, and thievery but holds out hope for a free future. Thrilling story that is beautifully told!

Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I've never read The Goose Girl which is the premise for the retelling of this story, but it didn't bother me at all. I absolutely loved this book. It wasn't a fast read, but it was complex and compelling.

I loved the main character, Vanja. She's had a rough upbringing and she's found ways to survive on her own. She doesn't apologize for being a criminal or for the choices she's made. She owns up to her mistakes and her crimes and she does what she thinks is best for her and the people around her.

After her mother doesn't want her because she is the thirteenth child of the thirteenth child, Vanja becomes the goddaughter of Fortune and Death. Between Fortune, Death, and Vanja's life as maid, Vanja has not had it easy. The story opens with her as Gisele, getting ready to steal jewelry from another wealthy couple where she is attending their party. I love how the author chose to weave in Vanja's history and how she became Gisele throughout the story instead of introducing it right away. The story is told in the present, with various flashbacks or conversations that take us back to things that happened previously.

As Gisele is attempting to steal away from the party, she runs into the Low God, Eiswald, who is angry with her for stealing. She curses Vanja to become what she has always wanted. By the full moon, Vanja will become her greed in the form of rubies and pearls if she does not make up for what she stole. So, the story unfolds as Vanja is simultaneously attempting to break the curse, avoid dying by her murderous finance, acquire enough money to leave the clutches of Fortune and Death, and avoid the junior prefect who is on her tail for all her crimes.

I loved how everything wove together. At first, I was super curious about everything would fit together without seeming overwhelming or without being fleshed out enough. With only two weeks until the full moon and Vanja sprouting jewelry in various places on her body, some of the plot lines seemed a little far-fetched. But I was wrong! All of the plot lines wove together and brought the various characters together in a way that showcased all of them. It didn't only feel like Vanja's story, but also Emeric, Gisele, Range, and Joniza's.

I loved Ragne and her fierce protectiveness of her friends. I also loved watching her try to understand humans and human emotions. I loved Emeric and Vanja. They were such different characters, yet they were both so similar. They learned how to accept each other for who they were and grew to care about each other deeply. I really appreciated the development of their relationship and that it wasn't insta-love. It was a well developed, well thought out relationship that worked for both characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait to read whatever Margaret Owen has next!

Margaret Owen has no business messing with my heart like this. It’s just not fair.

This book was freaking amazing. Her writing style is among my all time favorites, and the way she took the story of the Goose Girl and retold it in such a creative way while preserving the gist of the original story is amazing to me. The worldbuilding was so well done and can we talk about that cover??? Like omg?? It’s so beautiful????

Also, the characters. I would die for these characters. Characters talking through their trauma together and helping each other acknowledge it? Friends to enemies to gradually rebuilding that friendship again?? Nerdy librarian type who actually is super cunning and devious??? Shapeshifter with poor social skills???? I love the characters too much to put into words.

The only thing I wasn’t completely satisfied with was the romance felt a little physically rushed. If they hadn’t both come out as demisexual I wouldn’t have had a problem with it, but it was weird for them to both identify that way and then end up making out like a week later when they hadn’t had enough time together to know each other. Still, I love the fact that there was demi rep even if it felt a little off to me.

Also, this book has my absolute favorite thing in it. If you know me you know what that is. Yup! A ✨🌿🌸trigger warning🌸🌿✨ right at the very beginning so you can’t miss it! Love that. 10/10. Thank you Margaret Owen for protecting your readers. You’re the best.

I started out really liking this novel. It's an interesting take on the "goose girl" fable and the various small gods (and their manifestations/abilities) were intriguing and compelling. Unfortunately there was just too much happening, which made the novel drag unnecessarily under the weight of the 74 (or what felt like 74) concurrent plots, many of which could have been the basis of a novel in its own right. There's the goose girl plot, the detective plot, the horrible husband plot, and castle politics plot, the secret back story plot, the deathly curse plot, the demon cat plot, the debt to the gods plot, and the godly court plot...plus all the plots that spring up from the relationships the MC's three different identities and histories. About 1/3 of the way into the book I was exhausted and annoyed, which severely hampered by ability to enjoy the remaining 2/3s of the book. I'm sure many will love this work, and there genuinely is a lot to love, I just lacked the stamina to care about so many plot line offshoots for a newly introduce, morally gray MC.

I absolutely love this author and I could not wait for this book! It did not disappoint and was better than I could imagine. I ended up reading this book in one sitting and It was so good. I will be purchasing this book for my public library's YA collection.

I really enjoyed this book. Little Thieves was very different from what I expected after the synopsis but it worked in its favor in this case because the synopsis didn’t really sell me but I had a good time reading it in the end. I picked this book up because the author Margaret Owen wrote The Merciful Crow which I really liked as well and I wanted to try her newest book. The beginning was slow for me but by the halfway point I was hooked. Fun and fantastical and the romance really won me over by the end even though I wasn’t so sure at first so I think the build up worked really well.

This is the latest in which seems like a newish literary trend of taking a classic Fairy Tale and telling the story from the (often misunderstood) villains perspective. This is not a dig at all. I happen to like this trend if handled properly. And with Margaret Owen at the helm how could it not be handled properly? She does a great job of taking a simple fairy tale and making it complex, tragic, funny, romantic, and sweet all at once. I understood our heroines perspective and couldn't be sure I wouldn't do the same in her shoes. There are lots of twists and turns and it doesn't end at all like I thought it would. I expect this novel to be a big hit, on pary with her Merciful Crows series, if not bigger. 5 out of 5.

I completely underestimated this book. I was so sure that it was going to be worth reading but not amazing, but I LOVED it.
First of all, Vanja is very chaotic and opinionated in a somewhat cliche way. Normally, this bothers me a bit, but she’s amazing. She’s smart, doesn’t take ANYONE’S sh*t, and she sticks up for herself. I am totally in love with her. She’s simultaneously horrible and amazing and it’s great.
Emeric motherf*cking Conrad, y’all. The other love of my life. He’s??? Just???? So???? Sweet???? Like I guess I have a new top three book boyfriend and I’m not mad about it. Again, smart, caring, and his relationship with Vanja is moderately healthy and very much adorable.
This is very reminiscent of Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, but I like it MUCH better. The fact that Lou was a thief who didn’t pull off a single heist was annoying, but this was a thief/law enforcement romance that was amazing and actually included copious amounts of crime and deception.
Lastly, the SUPPORTING MAIN CHARACTERS OMG. I loved every single one of them, even the lesser ones like Barthl. Ragne is probably my favorite besides Emeric and Vanja, but I also love Giselle and the others so much.
Most of what I liked was character and plot based, but there’s also a great world in place and I find it amusing that Death and Fortune raised a kid and are having a high stakes yet tame custody battle for the entire book. READ THIS BOOK.

I loved this book so much. Watching how the main character grows and actually goes through set backs before finding herself at the end of the story was very refreshing. The plot kept me interested the entire time and I love all these character so much! This book couple might just be my new favorite one! I cannot wait to have this book in my hands. Thank you for allowing me to read what has become one of my new favorite books.

I loved this very cool retelling of the goose girl fairy tale, in which our heroine doesn’t come to quite the same end as the original story, thankfully. The story itself was amazing, and I adored the world-building, and the details amazed me. I can’t recommend this enough to fantasy or fairy tale fans! 4/5⭐️

#LittleThieves
#NetGalley #Edelweiss
Little Thieves is another amazing novel from Margaret Owen. She has a masterful writing style that grabs you and pulls you into the story. It isn't meant to be a quick read, but I became so enthralled with the story that I finished it in one day. A must read for anyone who loves fantasy and old time fairy tale myths.

New to Margaret Owen's works and wow what a place to start. I can understand why everyone was so excited for this one. A blend of high stake action and emotional journeys to be had by the characters is sure to leave everyone invested to see what happens next. Plus the very cat and mouse relationship between our hero and heroine felt just right and not overly stereotypical as it usually is. It was refreshing to see something so well.
The richly detailed fantasy landscape was like nothing I had ever read before with the Germanic folklore touches proving to be unique at almost every turn.
Plus the language of the book just ticked all my boxes, the beautiful prose mixed with hard truths, sarcasm and some humor makes it that much more meaningful to the readers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review. Little Thieves is out in October of 2021.

Little Thieves is a goose girl retelling set in a magical land (I'm going to say it's similar to Russia, but really, anywhere in old-timey Eastern Europe would probably work). If you aren't familiar with the Goose Girl, it's basically: evil-maid-steals-princess'-identity and also kills her talking horse (not cool, evil maid). In this version, our maid turned princess is also something of a general con artist who was raised by the gods Fortune and Death.

I really enjoyed this! I'm not overly familiar with The Goose Girl as a fairy tale, so it had a freshness to me that other retellings (like Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella) do not. The story really isn't the draw in this one - it's good, and some googling of the original story tells me that the author did a few cool things with certain plot points, but the best part of this book, to me anyway, was the characters. There is a ton of character development, especially for the main character. While she's likable the whole time (even and maybe especially when she's mischievously selfish) you definitely have the sense that she's grown as a person by the end of the book. Her dynamic with the wayward princess is also just a delight to read (as is often the case in the real world, they are both wrong and right) and the love interest was worthy of her attention. The Ragne character was a joy to read - she was hilarious and enchanting and provided some great comic relief. I also like that I don't have to wait for a sequel; not everything needs to be a trilogy!

TLDR: Come for the Goose Girl retelling, stay for the excellent character development.

This was really well done! It's not quite as intricately written, but I think it's a great read-alike for Naomi Novik's fairy tale retellings which are quite popular at my library. I'll be widely recommending it to fantasy readers once it comes out in the fall.

It’s not a surprise that I am a big fan of Margaret Owen’s books. The Merciful Crow duology was incredible and if you haven’t read it I highly suggest you check it out. Since that duology, Margaret has become an auto-buy/read author. When I found out Margaret was doing her own spin on The Goose Girl story, I was desperate to get my hands on it immediately. Needless to say, Little Thieves did not disappoint. I read the entire book over a weekend.

The worldbuilding, similar to Merciful Crow, is lush and I ate up every little tidbit of information that was given to me. Margaret has a way with weaving worlds by including little side stories and subtle character-building that I can’t get enough of. Vanja is one of the main characters, and I loved how morally-grey she was. I hadn’t experienced Margaret writing an ambiguous/villain-esque character before, but after Vanja I need her to write more! Vanja is looking out for number one, clever, and sarcastic AF. Her insults are on point and I could not get enough of them. She’s an angry character, and her story is one derived from pain. Emeric, a junior prefect investigating a string of robberies, is the cinnamon roll I never knew I needed. He’s awkward and clever. My favorite character, though, would have to be Ragne. Her character is incredibly amazing. I don’t want to spoil any of the other side characters because their presence throughout the story was fun to discover and fall in love with them.

This story started out with multiple heists and looked to be fast-paced, but gradually shifted into a detective story. The ending left me hoping that there will be more stories in this world just because the characters were so amazing. I need some stories from maybe the gods' perspectives. I highly recommend you pre order this book immediately if you love heists, sarcastic antiheroines, and a beautifully-written story with a fun band of characters and a mystery to solve!

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.