I ended up giving up on this one. I loved the beginning, but then I had trouble following it and investing in any part of it. I love the author and her first duopoly, though, and want to support her work as a whole…this one just wasn’t for me.

How do you even review a book like this? I received a notification I was approved for an ARC on the day it was archived, so I ended up reading the full version and fell in love with Margaret Owen. The Merciful Crow has been on my TBR for the longest time and I'm now eating crow that I haven't read it sooner.

I want to bathe in her prose. It's so gorgeous and silky and just incredibly well-crafted. I love the way she seamlessly transitions between the third person omniscient fairy tale-esque narrator and Vanya's impertinent, sarcastic first person POV. She just has such a mastery of words and the English language, and I am stupidly jealous.

She has also mastered the craft of storytelling, and I am, again, ridiculously jealous. The way the tale is woven and built over the course five hundred pages is a work of art, and I was spell-bound the entire time I was reading it. I couldn't even find the time to try to predict plot twists or guess the ending because I was too busy wrapping myself in this stunning tale.

I only need a few words for this review because this book was BEYOND words!
It was incredible
Seriously one of the BEST books to come out of 2021
Do you like stories that flow beautifully with an insane amount of detail that actually is able to keep up with?
Do you like characters that you can’t quite decide if you love them or are IN love with them?
Do you like side characters that are all uniquely different and that help to MAKE the story?
If you answer yes to any of these then you absolutely HAVE to read this book.
It is everything you ever wanted wrapped into a gorgeous cover.

This was by far my favorite book of the year! I absolutely fell in love with the Merciful Crow duo, so I was very eager to pick up LITTLE THIEVES.

Owen did not disappoint. Using a fairy tale that is not so well known, Owen takes it, rips it apart, and then weaves together a story that is unlike any I've read before.

This book is both a plot driven and character driven book. I found this really pleasant because often we get one or the other. With a well paced story and character both innocent and deceiving, LITTLE THIEVES explores what it means to fight for yourself and those around you.

Vanja is a morally grey character that both inspires and infuriates. Her character arc is a stunning example of how a writer can keep a character true to themselves while also growing into the person they should be.

One of my favorite aspects of the story was Vanja's godmothers. Their relationship is so balanced and well done. It was seamlessly easy each time they came into the story.

Over all, this is a book that should not be missed. Thieves, queer cast, unusual twists and mythology make this novel a five star all around!

<i>"I think there are lives that make it easy to be good. Or what most people call good. When you have wealth, status, family, it's easy to be a saint, it costs you nothing. I can't say if you're a good person or not. But the more I know of you, the more I understand that the world keeps making you choose between survival and martyrdom. No one should fault you for wanting to live."</i>

TL;DR: A *fantastic*, complex dark wintery fairy-tale retelling of "The Goose Girl" that combines an unlikable-but-ultimately-sympathetic protagonist who breaks the Fourth Wall with a powerful commentary on trauma, abuse, survival and the subjectivity of morality.
<b><i>I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</b></i>

Vibes: Brothers Grimm's "The Goose Girl"

Genre: Fairy Tale-Retelling
First in a Series.
Enemies to Lovers.
YA -- catalogued as YA, but could honestly pass for New Adult quite easily.
The MC, Vanja, is 16 (...going on seventeen) but reads much older. Fairy tales tend to have a sort of timelessness about them, where the protagonist could honestly be anywhere from 14 to 40 and it wouldn't change much. That is, if you changed the age from 17 to 25, not much in this story would change either.

Character MVP: All well-developed characters in their own right, but I kinda gotta go with Ragne, the Low God Eiswald's daughter, and Vanja's first true friend. She's blunt and caring and fiercely loyal and I don't know. I just really enjoyed every scene she was in. There's one scene where she defends Vanja and calls everyone else out for their BS and perpetuating Vanja's trauma and that was just really great to see.

Verdict: 5 stars, and I'm pretty sure Margaret Owen is a new auto-buy author for me. I initially started reading this back in October/November, and fell in love with the 3rd-person narrative tales that scaffold the book as well as the wintery vibes, so shelved it until winter. The Germanic, dark fairy tale vibes and Owen's lush prose drew me in and was a perfect winter read. (I'm very much a mood / seasonal reader.) The story was a *bit* long at times, but much as I do when I read Maggie Stiefvater's books, I didn't mind and just found myself enjoying the story.

Here's what worked for me:
✓-- VANJA AS PROTAGONIST.
I sometimes feel bad when authors write books with unlikable protagonists, I don't like them, mention that in my review and insist that you can have an unlikable character as the MC and have it work, but then can't think of any specific examples. Like in [book:Iron Widow|52459864], which I found SO problematic; one of my biggest issues was that Zetian is downright unlikable. Like Vanja here, she has a history of being abused and used by others, but where Zetian is cruel (and sadistic and murderous) Vanja is more sympathetic. Owen actually takes the time to make you understand -- eventually, over the course of the novel -- that Vanja's past is really f**ked up and she never had a real childhood / got to figure out who she is as a person, because she's been so focused on surviving. And, yeah. She does shitty things. And cruel things. But Owen deftly draws her pain so that you understand a bit of what she's going through: when she's finally getting close to Emeric (physically and emotionally), who has betrayed her in the past, she not only relives her near-miss with sexual assault but simultaneously has all of her fears and insecurities and doubts come rushing back to her. It's powerfully done and allows for a much richer and complex character than Zhao does in their sensationalized depiction of Zetian.

✓-- Normalizing of Diversity.
This is a comparatively little thing, but I appreciated how Owen handled things like pronouns and diverse relationships. It's handled matter of factly and not made a big deal of.
For instance:
--there's a guard or soldier who uses "they" pronouns. Deliberately done, but nothing is made of it. That's just the way it is.
--Similar thing with the Low God Truth: when Truth appears, Justice asks, "which ones today?" and Truth says "They is fine," and that's that. Implying a fluidity, but also Justice asking normalizes that behavior.
--Barthl has a husband, and that's fine. No big hullabaloo, just who he is.
--Same thing with Giselle -- the biggest thing is that she needs to produce an heir, which she couldn't *technically* do in a same-sex relationship.
--Also, Owen subtly challenged the "male norm," which I definitely appreciated. Soldiers and guards weren't by default male and referred to as "he/him."

﹅ -- The Germanic Vibes.
Something I liked, because I think Owen handled it well and I have a working background knowledge of Germanic words and culture to understand it. I did read an ARC, so perhaps in the published book there's a glossary or character index or something. It's tough, because when authors do something similar -- springboard off of a culture to create new words without fully explaining them -- but I'm *not* familiar with the culture, then I get frustrated. Like, here I know "glohwein" is meant to be "gluhwein" which I've had. So I knew what it was, and didn't need any other context. For someone not familiar with German culture/language, it might be offputting.
Plus, the German vibes made total sense given "The Goose Girl" retelling.

So far this year I seem to be reading only great books and bad books, and this definitely falls into the former for me. Can't wait to read the sequel and may try to read Owen's other duology in the meantime.

WONDERFUL!

It was a little hard to get into at the beginning, but I quickly became entangled in this interesting world. The main character was honestly straight up unlikeable for about the first quarter of the book, but as she is influenced by the other characters and she grows as a person, she really grows on you.

The style is somewhat inconsistent, but I didn't find that it pulled me out of the story any.

*Thank you to the publisher for this eARc.

I am obsessed with this book and will definitely be rereading this in the future. It just had that perfect chaotic MC energy mixed with fantastic side characters and so much wonderful lore.

This book did so many things that I loved, and even if it had just done one of them I would have loved this book. Instead, they combined to make a masterpiece, and I can't stop thinking about it. There is so much to appreciate here, and considering this book was a standalone at first (and can technically still be read as one), it's doubly impressive.

Vanja is our thieving MC, and I loved her so much. She was chaotic in the best of ways, while also thinking things through and trying her best to survive. She isn't necessarily a good person, but it made her growth throughout this book even better, and I loved that her journey taught her to rely on others without sacrificing her independence. I also loved her connection to Death and Fortune, and the stories she told in between parts of the book solidified Little Thieves as one of my favorite reads this year. I love stories in stories in stories, and I love when gods are used in books, and this book only further proved that love to me. It's so well-done, and I'm just obsessed.

I also absolutely adored the rest of the main cast, and the diversity we saw there. There were quite a few side characters in the end, but they all felt fleshed out and unique, like real people. I loved every one of them for different reasons, and it was fun seeing how their varying motivations and personalities played together in the story (or when they didn't work well together either). There was just so much good done here, and I can't wait to see where the next book brings them.

The plot was also gripping, and I found myself so invested as I flipped from page to page. I'd been mainly reading audiobooks around the time I read this, as I was having a hard time focusing on physical books, but Little Thieves was the exception. I tore through this story, page after page, because I couldn't get enough. I wanted to see what secret Vanja and her friends would unravel next, which new god might come into play, or what new thing Vanja would try to snatch. The plot blended really well with the journey Vanja went on, emotionally/mentally/as a person.

Overall, I loved this even more than I loved The Merciful Crow duology, and this book has solidified Margaret Owen as an instant-buy author for me. I can't wait to see what she writes next, whether it's about Vanja or the next character I'll fall in love with.

I didn't really enjoy this book, which is a real shame because I enjoyed the author's last duology. Somehow the characters just didn't quite click and I found myself skimming through this a lot.

I really wanted to like this book. With a beautiful cover and intriguing plot, I thought I'd be sold for this book. Unfortunately that was not the case. The first half of this book was just boring. There wasn't much to draw me in and the curse wasn't as interesting as I thought it was going to be. It was just not interesting. I almost decided not to finish the book but I looked over some reviews and a bunch stated that the second half was better, so I figured I'd continue and give it a shot. While I do agree that the second half of the book was better because the plot was finally going somewhere, it did not make up for the first half of the book. I thought that everything beside the curse was interesting but most of the book was about the curse. I wish the secrecy of the margrave was the main focus of this story. I think it would have been more interesting. It would have resulted in a shorter book also, which would have been okay with me.

There was really only one character I liked in the book. And that would be Ragne. I did not like Vanja at all which is probably a big reason on why this book didn't work for me. I thought that I'd like her better as the book went on but I didn't really. So I didn't really care if she broke the curse or not. Emeric was alright but nothing really stood out from him as well. Ragne was honestly the only redeeming character.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, Little Thieves by Margaret Owen was not really for me. I absolutely appreciated the atmosphere of the book as it did remind me of the darker fairytales but that was about it. The first half of the book dragged for me and while the second half was better, it did not make up from the beginning. I did not connect or like any of the characters except for Ragne. I pushed through hoping it would get better but unfortunately it did not get better enough for me. I do recommend reading reviews of people who loved this book and give it a try yourself.

one of those “oh my god let me immediately put this back on my tbr so i can enjoy it all over again” reads. little thieves is everything a fairytale retelling should be—dark, a little fucked up, and a fantastic twist on the original tale. vanja is one of the best ya protagonists i’ve come across in a long time, and the enemies to lovers romance did not disappoint.

I’m mad at myself for having this book so long without reading it. It was clever, it was interesting, it was a take on the Goose Girl I haven’t seen so far. There is a very clear voice in the book - and perhaps a few too many pop culture references which I think will date it pretty severely in a couple years. But it was fun, and it wrapped up the story it told instead of dangling a cliffhanger.

It’s only getting four stars because the pacing was slow and the book too long - it should have been 20% shorter

Little Thieves is a Goose Girl retelling, but from the villains perspective.
Vanja is the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, and the servant of Princess Giselle. Until a year ago when Death and Fortune try to make Vanja pick between them and choose who she wishes to serve for the rest of her life. But Vanja decides to take her life back, by stealing Giselle’s for herself. Now Vanja leads a lonely double life, until she crosses the wrong god. Who curses her to turn into jewels, until she makes up for all that she has stolen.

I have never heard the original story of The Goose Girl, so I can’t talk about how this rendition compares. But on it’s own, I absolutely adored it. I honestly wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I did. I was surprised that there was a minor enemies to lovers romance, that didn’t take the reigns of the plot. Which I felt fit perfectly with the story. I loved all our characters and the plot was intriguing enough that I didn’t need the romance to hold up the story. Vanja was obviously our “villian” but we were led to understand why she did the things that she did. I felt sympathy for her. Throughout the entire book I felt a whirlwind of emotions, which makes for a great book in my opinion. Little Thieves made it into my top 15 books of 2021. You don’t often get to see the villains perspective, which made this book pretty unique. I highly recommend checking this one out!

This is another ARC I am shamefully behind in reviewing, as it was already published 3 months ago. I am not going to lie, I almost cut my losses and DNF’ed this book because I was not enjoying it in the beginning. Sometimes books have slow starts, so I generally read about 25% before making a decision about whether or not I am going to finish it. I passed the 25% mark of this book and just couldn’t get into it, but I decided to persevere and continued plugging forward. I’m glad I did, because about halfway through was a turning point for me. I enjoy fantasy books with a healthy dose of romance, but the romance is generally not the draw for me. This is a rare case where the central romance is what redeemed the story in my eyes. It just felt so real and the sizzling tension that develops between the characters gave me actual butterflies. Something that sets this story apart is that the main characters are “normal” in the sense that there is nothing physically remarkable that sets them apart. They are not beautiful and there is never an illusion that their appearances are anything but plain. The attraction between them grows organically through their interactions, which made it feel all the more real. There is no instalove or mooning over each other’s physical attributes, just pure magnetic chemistry between two people who are equally matched in intellect and wit. For this reason alone, I finally made it to the end of this book and gave it a higher rating than I would have otherwise.

I love Margaret Owen so much I would literally read her grocery shopping list. This woman just knows what she's doing. Remarkably and stunningly written book. The plot and characters are divine, exactly what I want from a fairytale retelling.

This book did not disappoint! I absolutely love Margaret Owen's creativity and ability to birth characters that are intriguing, unique, and hard to let go. Vanja has been added to the morally ambiguous, Slytherin girls' unite hall of fame. Emeric took me by surprise, as he starts off as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in Buffy...but ends up really being Wesley circa Angel.

He has this vibe when he goes after Vanja, cause he is smart and figures her out in no time at all. Vanja of course takes offense and immediately assists him off a very-high-and-possibly-not-survivable-window.

The relationship between Vanja and Gisele is complicated. Vanja was Gisele's maid, and she considered herself Gisele's best friend, until a certain point in their lives when Gisele's family makes it pretty obvious to Vanja where she stands. Gisele comes from privilege and is unable to see how Vanja is really treated by her family as Gisele herself tries to treat Vanja as a sister but has huge privilege blinders on making her unable to really have a connection. Vanja is of course resentful, so when opportunity to get back at Gisele, and greatly improve her odds, arrives she does not hesitate. Gisele has problems of her own, as her mother treats her terribly and hacks at Gisele's confidence bit by bit, ultimately giving her off to our antagonist (an extremely unpleasant fellow) as one does in medieval times to improve their odds.

Ragne is a shapeshifter, daughter of the goddess that curses Vanja for stealing one of her protection amulets from a high born lady. Vanja is cursed to grow gems on her body until she makes things right and returns what she has stolen/does a truly selfless act. Ragne sticks around Vanja, and quickly becomes the most adorable pseudo human as she slowly learns human etiquette but only the parts she wants/likes and leaves the rest behind. She is powerful, and a truly great companion to Vanja as she is the only one who is always there and understands her better than everyone.

I truly came to love these characters. The world, the magic, the ways goddesses mess with human lives, the morally grey decisions... *in lurve* Margaret Owen is an instant buy/pre order author for me. She has written two duologies so far (because I guess this book has a sequel!!) and I loooved her first, and love this one as well.

Little Thieves, by author Margaret Owen, is the retelling of the Bavarian fairy tale Goose Girl. Little Thieves is about a girl named Vanja Schmidt who was given away by her mother to Fortune and Death when she was a young. Vanja goes on to become a servant. After being treated like a punching bag by Giselle's family and friends, she takes the life of the princess with the help of some enchanted pearls. Vanya steals jewelry from the wealthy in order to save up enough money to escape the reaches of the goddesses Fortune and Death's constant meddling.

Death and Fortune told Vanja that when she turned 17, she would have to choose which of her mothers she wanted to serve for the rest of her life. She's one job away from gaining enough money to flee when she crosses the wrong god and is cursed. She has two weeks to break the curse or she will turn into jewels, stone by stone. As if she doesn't have enough problems, Gisele's odious fiance returns home from the war and a junior detective is hot on the case of her theft spree.

But there's more to the curse than meets the eye, and Vanja must navigate through a field of ever-more-dangerous obstacles, including Ragne, the daughter of the god who cursed her, a junior prefect, Conrad Emeric, bent on arresting a jewel thief, Giselle, and her hatred for what Vanya did to her, and, worst of all, the real princess's domineering, sinister fiance who has brought back darkness and evil with him in hopes of rising to the top. Vanja is greedy, cunning, sarcastic, selfish, and stubborn but also funny at times.

I think one of the most interesting parts of this story is whether or not Giselle will forgive Vanja for literally destroying her life and leaving her penniless. They grew up together, were best friends, but Giselle's family treated her like a punching bag. It takes a series of tragic events for these girls to take a step back and see the world through the other's eyes. I also loved Ragne. Ragne is a shapeshifter who is told to watch over Vanja and make sure she doesn't go off the rail, as it were, in her attempt to make right what she did wrong. Ragne also falls in love with Giselle which should make a certain part of the population eager to see how it plays out.

What a fun book! If you don't know, I am a huge fan of retellings! As someone who was not familiar with The Goose Girl fairy tale, this book was an exciting adventure! At first, I felt a little thrown into the main character Vanja's world. The magic wasn't something I fully understood and the royal titles were long and confusing, but as the book went on it all started to come together. You follow along as Vanja tries to break her curse as well as sever ties with her godmothers Death and Fortune.

I truly loved the characters in this book and I think they're what makes this story one of my 2021 favorites. Vanja is so morally grey yet you can't help but love her. Her forced new friend Ragne was one of the best side characters I read in all of 2021. And Emeric was just the best.

I am so excited there is going to be a sequel and I look forward to spending more time with my girl Vanja. Highly recommend this one if you're looking for a fun and unique fantasy story!

I wish I had liked this more, it has everything I ask for. But I struggled to get through this, I just could not connect to the characters, and the pacing was too slow. Did I buy it? Yes. How could I not with a cover like that?! Will I still book-talk it? Also, yes. Hoping to give it a re-read and enjoy it more the second time around.

The Little Thieves is a story about Vanja, a cursed child who was raised by her godmothers Fortune and Death. Vanja has lived her life by stealing the identity of Princess Giselle and has been cursed by another God due to her greed. Vanja has to escape the curse while also battling with Giselle’s fiancé and several others that are trying to pin crimes on her. Normally this would have been a hit for me due to the story line, but I spent a lot of the time a bit confused and not really enjoying the story. Might have just been the wrong time for this one. 3 stars. Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) in exchange for an honest review. Though I did end up listening to the audiobook version.

This is a retelling of a lesser known fairytale, “The Goose Girl” and I LOVE that the retelling trend is expanding outwards to go beyond the fairytales that everyone knows! Vanja Schmidt is an absolutely delightful morally grey protagonist who is witty and flawed and full of real human emotions and insecurities. The side characters are full of life as well and Owen does a great job of bringing this world alive.

I thought that the magic rules along with bringing in the God realm made sense and operated well within the plot line. Owen's writing style is entertaining and I fully enjoyed listening to the audiobook of LITTLE THIEVES. This will definitely be added to my list of titles I suggest to teens at the library, I think they'll like it.

Saskia Maarleveld is honestly one of my favorite audiobook performers out there right now, always doing a great job with the narration.