Book Review of Medici Heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan

Cover Story: Surrealism
BFF Charm: Mixed Bag
Talky Talk: Historical Friction
Bonus Factors: Lady Leads, Art Appreciation, Heists
Relationship Status: Godspeed

Cover Story: Surrealism
After reading the book, this cover makes a lot of sense and includes a lot of elements from the plot. But at first glance, if I hadn’t read the book, I would have no idea what was happening. The characters staring into an artsy sun? Disembodied priestly hands? An imposing building with cards? Books? Something floating around it? It’s pretty, but strange. Dali would have loved it.

The Deal:
In 1517, the Medici family runs Florence—and much of the rest of Italy—through wealth and power. But not everyone is under their spell, and Rosa Cellini has plenty of reason to hate them. A gifted thief, Rosa has a plan to make them pay—literally—but she’ll need the help of a few friends. And Michelangelo.

BFF Charm: Mixed Bag
Although Rosa is essentially the novel’s main character readers get to read from a variety of POVs throughout. Rosa’s pretty great, although I’d worry that she would get arrested (or worse) thanks to her line of work. Sarra, known for her engineering prowess, is also cool, but the double life she leads also comes with a fair amount of danger. Giacomo, a master of disguise, is delightfully irreverent on the outside but hides a good amount of pain underneath. And Khalid, whose bulk and knack for fighting makes him super imposing and at times scary, has a total soft side hiding underneath. Out of the four teenagers involved in this story, he’s my favorite. My favorite of all of the characters, however, is Michelangelo. (Yes, that Michelangelo.) We don’t get any chapters from his POV, but he’s always in the background, scowling and scoffing. He wouldn’t appreciate me thinking this, but he’s hilarious.

Swoonworthy Scale: 4
Medici Heist is a heist story (natch). And while some heist stories make time to build relationships, this book shoehorns them into the action. The two different character pairings are sweet, which one being far more obvious than the other, but they don’t feel fleshed out. The more unexpected one—although thinking back on the story, I see there were hints all along—makes the most sense, while the other is obvious … and obviously forced.

Talky Talk: Historical Friction
The Florence of 1517 is a powder keg. The Medicis have taken control, turning the city from a republic into a dictatorship, and the people aren’t happy. There’s an undercurrent of danger throughout the book, even outside the heist’s inherently dangerous nature. I love a good story about political unrest, and the evil powers that be getting their comeuppance. I would have liked more character development, however, as they all felt a little flat, even after learning their backstories.

Bonus Factor: Lady Leads
A lot of heist books still revolve around a male main character being the one with the plan and the smarts, with any non-males often relegated to support roles or “distractions.” I enjoyed how Medici Heist led with a female main character, and featured a female character as the main engineer, too. Ladies get things done!

Bonus Factor: Art Appreciation
It would be truly amazing to live in the Renaissance (minus the lack of proper plumbing or electrical infrastructure and internet capabilities …) and get to see Michelangelo working in real time. It might be a case of never meet your faves lest you be disappointed, but I’d be willing to take the chance.

Bonus Factor: Heists
I love heist stories. And I especially love heist stories in which things go wrong (because humans) and the people involved have to make split-second life-or-death situations. There are certainly bumps along the road for the characters in this book, and it’s fun to read how they get themselves out of tight corners.

Relationship Status: Godspeed
You and I had a fun time together, Book. I don’t feel like I got to know you very deeply, which is a bit of a bummer, but we managed to meet our end goal, which is what matters most. I wish you all the best in your new life. It might not be smart for us to meet again, but know that I’ll think of you.

Like everyone else with a healthy interest in pop culture and history, I already knew that the Medici family of Europe’s Renaissance period had quite the reputation for being terrible people. However it was only with this novel, Caitlin Schneiderhan’s illuminating historical mystery for young adult readers, that I wholly understood why.

In the early 16th century, cousins Giovanni and Giulio Medici return in triumph to the city that had shown them the door years earlier. They’ve used their political and military might to end the Republic of Florence and take what they view as their rightful place as its rulers:

QUOTE
It had not been a bloodless transition, though Florence itself had been spared the worst of it. The honor of setting a harsh and savage example for the city had fallen on…other luckless shoulders. Why, after all, would the Medici want to break the plaything they’d plotted so intricately to reclaim? And so Florence had been cowed into accepting their prodigal patriarchs back with open arms. Giovanni had shelved his Medici name in favor of the appropriately papal Pope Leo X, and Giulio had stepped into the cardinal role his cousin had vacated. But if the angry bills on the walls and the smear on the Pope’s carriage were anything to go by, the Medici’s return to power was far from universally welcome.
END QUOTE

Rosa Cellini is one of those angered by their return. She’s seen the terrible things they’ve done, and she won’t take their usurpation of power lying down. Having been raised as a con artist and grifter by her mother Lena, she knows that the best places to hit the Medicis are in their wallet and in their fearsome reputation. By emptying their vault in a daring heist, she’ll be able to damage both. She just needs a crew to help her do it.

Her childhood friend Sarra Nepi is ready to help. Though her father was a criminal just like Lena, he’d asked her on his deathbed to keep her studious brother in the dark about the rest of the family’s illicit activities. By day she acts like a respectable citizen; by night, she’s using her ingenious inventions to rob the houses of the rich.

The two young women have an easy time of recruiting Agata, an apothecarist with a talent for mixing all sorts of chemicals, but must track down the final two pieces they need to make their plan succeed. Master of disguise Giacomo is always up for a lark, and the perpetually combat-ready Khalid is desperate to escape his stultifying existence in Genoa, even if only for a little while. With the help of the famed artist Michelangelo himself, the team is ready to strike a blow for the Republic. But complications old and new have a way of turning up when they’re least needed, much less expected. Will our team of rogues be able to pull off the heist of a century? Failure, after all, leaves them at the mercy of a family already infamous for its ruthlessness.

This YA novel has a ripping first third, as Rosa assembles her crew and readers get to know the setting better. The structure of the book, switching between characters’ points of view and between time periods, can feel a bit dizzying, especially since much of the heist’s planning stages are kept vague in order to maximize suspense for the finale. I’m still honestly not sure how it all worked out, but I did love Ms Schneiderhan’s exploration of her characters’ feelings as they worked together towards their goal. Rosa, for example, has been so badly scarred by the Medicis that she refuses to open up to Sarra, who very much wants them to be as close as sisters once more. As Sarra comes to her own realization about the harm of shutting herself off from the people she loves, she tells Rosa:

QUOTE
“The secret was the thing that was hurtful,” she said. “Both ways. It was hurting me and it was hurting him.”

“And you’re glad it’s out.” Sarra could see Rosa’s brain whirring, picking apart her words in search of something.

Sarra took a breath. “If we shut each other out, then we evaporate. ‘We’–our family. Us. It evaporates. Does that make sense?” Rosa didn’t say anything, but there was emotion swimming in her eyes. “Anger passes,” Sarra said. “All the dark stuff. It passes. But only if you give it an escape. And then there’s an afterward.”
END QUOTE

Medici Heist brings the vibrancy of Michelangelo’s era to life, steeping itself firmly in history to tell a rollicking tale of found family committing crimes for the greater good. Ms Schneiderhan does excellent work highlighting the universality of many of our protagonists’ emotions, occasionally drawing parallels with modern-day affairs as well. This YA novel is a very accessible if mostly fictional look into what life was like in early 16th century Florence for the poor and desperate but unbroken and brave.

Although the novel contains many characters, it makes the story difficult to follow. Liked the novel, but i did not love it
I studied art,mainly the Republic.
Goliath “slain by David (...) slain by Eliahan
Thank you Medici Heist, Cailin Scnnerhan, Fiwel and Friends, and NetGalley for being honest.

https://www.caitlinschneiderhan.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C997N9KK/ref=x_gr_bb_kindle?caller=Goodreads&tag=x_gr_bb_kindle-20

Title: Medici Heist
Author: Caitlin Schneiderhan
Genre: Historical fiction, YA
Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Welcome to Florence, 1517, a world of intrigue, opulence, secrets, and murder. The Medici family rules the city from their seat of wealth, but the people of Florence remember the few decades they spent as a Republic, free from the Medicis and their puppet Pope, Leo X.

Sharp-witted seventeen-year-old con-woman Rosa Cellini has plans for the Pope and the Medicis - and, more specifically, the mountain of indulgence money they've been extorting from the people of Tuscany. To pull off the Renaissance's greatest robbery, she'll recruit a team of capable Sarra the tinkerer, Khalid the fighter, and Giacomo, the irrepressible master of disguise. To top it all off, and to smooth their entrance into the fortress-like Palazzo Medici, Rosa even enlists the reluctant help of famed artist and local misanthrope, Michelangelo.

Old secrets resurface and tensions in the gang flare as the authorities draw closer and the Medicis' noose pulls tighter around Tuscany itself. What began as a robbery becomes a bid to save Florence from certain destruction - if Rosa and company don't destroy each other first.

This was an interesting read! I enjoyed the historical aspect of this a lot, and the complex relationships between the group of them. I thought the action was entertaining and I was invested in if they managed to pull off the heist off or not. I loved that the whole ending was a surprise and I didn’t see it coming at all.

Caitlin Schneiderhan lives in L.A. Medici Heist is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Macmillan Children’s Publishing in exchange for an honest review.)

I had a lot of fun with this historical heist novel set in Florence, Italy. The characters were all so lovable, and the plot to steal from the POPE was pretty wild. The chapters bounce between POVs and are pretty short and quick, keeping the novel moving forward constantly and unveiling how the heist is going down as it seems everything is unraveling. There are a couple of little romances happening on the side that I loved, and the crew has a found family vibe, a bit like "Six of Crows," which I loved, as well. I would love to read more about these characters, but to my knowledge this is not planned to be a series—but I guess we'll see!

The Medici Heist is set in 1517 Florence when Pope Leo X and the Medici family return to take up the reins of power. Con artist Rosa Cellini, in an effort to gain revenge, plans a heist to steal the indulgence money the Pope has been extorting from people. She enlists the help of master of disguise Giacomo, prize fighter Khalid, Sara the Tinkerer, and Agata an alchemist. Each member of the team has complications of their own that motive them, but also threaten to derail the plan. Rosa also enlists the help of Michelangelo and his assistant to gain access to the palace. Information about the politics surrounding the preunification of the Italian city-states is neatly woven into the narrative. As Rosa and the crew infiltrate the family guard, disarm Leonardo da Vinci's traps and deftly evade capture, they execute the meticulously planned financial ruin of the papacy.

I love anything to do with the Medicis so it's like this book was made for me. I love a heist, and this was suuuuuch a good take on the regular story.

A tinker, an alchemist, a master, and an apprentice plan the heist of all heists each for their reasons and each with their own set of risks and rewards.

Let me start by saying I love books with cons, thefts, and heists. I love it all, and this book didn't disappoint. Intrigue and mystery abound in this book steeped in history and imagination.

If you're looking for a good book to sink into and wonder if they will or won't they, this is a perfect choice.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing a copy of this e-book; I have voluntarily read and reviewed it, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

This is a great heist book that has a lot of Italian history, whether it was fiction or real you can feel that time period while reading the book. In this book you will see Rosa who is trying to get a team together for the best heist, to take from the Medici and shame him in front of everyone. You have Sarra the tinkerer, Agata the apothecary, Khalid the fighter and Giacomo the master of disguises. Together they come up with a plan to rob the Medici and take off with their money and start a better life and to put shame upon the Medici. Oh, and Rosa does have a secret weapon as well, Michelangelo. Can this team of misfits come together and make this happen?

I thought the book was good, it does start out a little slow and for me it did feel like I was missing a few things. I even found myself going back a few pages to see if I missed something, but the book just starts off right away. I liked the plot and found it to be different from the normal books I read. I liked that it was fast paced once you got over the hump and it didn’t slow down until the end. I thought the characters were well developed, but I would have liked to connect with the characters a little more. The story is told through multiple POV’s, and it did work for me, I just wanted to know them a little bit more and to be able to relate/connect with them. I thought each character’s backstory was heartbreaking and you can surely feel the reasons why each of them wants to do this even knowing what might happen if they get caught.

I liked that there was some romance entwined in the book but not enough that it ruined the plot.

I thought the book was wrapped up nicely, but I do have a question. I would have liked to know more about how the heist was completed, that’s all.

Overall, it was a fun read and I would recommend it.

I want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you to Caitlin Schneiderhan, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, & Feiwel & Friends for the eARC of this novel. As much as I really wanted to love this book, it just wasn't my cup of tea. It a good story, but just not what I was expecting.

A really interesting concept that ended with a let down. I just could not bring myself to care about these characters. 25% in and still didn't really have a good grasp on what was meant to be happening. The characters blended together and offered almost nothing that made me want to care about them. It read too much like a rough draft and I got bored very early on.

I was so excited to read this novel when I first read the title and synopsis. Historical Italy-inspired heist on the famous Medici family? I was sold, expecting lots of action, suspense, and historical intrigue.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough of either the heist or the historical aspects. Most of the book blurred together for me, and looking back, there are only one or two scenes that stood out in the heist preparations. I prefer heists to have lots of moving parts, packed with preparations that all come together in the end. Instead, I got the sense that this story is more centered around the characters than the heist itself. There’s more personal interactions and drama between characters, some of which felt forced into the story. For instance, certain characters' dislike for each other felt superficial. It wasn’t explored enough to substitute for the suspense I was anticipating to get from the heist.

Regarding characters, I didn’t feel super connected to them (personally). I’m sure some readers may love them, but I wasn’t very invested in their stories or personal stakes. In fact, I’d say Rosa alone had the most staked on the heist. Giacomo and Khalid blurred together. Though they both were POV characters, their chapters didn’t hold my interest. Rosa and Sarra felt more fleshed out in my opinion, though maybe it’s just because they held my interest a little more. Rosa also had a nice character arc at the end. I almost wish there were two main POV characters, the two spunky and street-smart females, who give us a lens for the rest of the heist. I think the intent of the extra characters was to give a fuller view of the moving parts to the heist, but honestly, I think the additional POVs weighed the story down too much. And as I noted before, I didn’t get the sense that there were a lot of steps getting to the heist, at least not ones warranting two extra POVs.

The most engaging part of the book was several chapters at the end when they were actually pulling the heist. Though there were some cliches, some of their tricks were quite clever. And there are a couple plot twists thrown in, so it ended on a fairly good note. It just took way too long to get there.

For this book, I think the key is to connect with the characters. If you like them/ their dynamic, you’ll probably like this book.

3.75 ⭐️

Medici Heist was a good read. I enjoyed the characters, but it could be a bit dense at times. There was just a lot of information presented to the reader. I really loved the setting and the entire premise of the book though. I love a good heist, and having it set during the Renaissance really added to the atmosphere. This was like a historical fiction version of Six of Crows, where the characters are all pretty young but managing to pull off these insane jobs.

I enjoyed it for sure, and I think others that enjoy historical fiction and heists would probably like it as well.

Thank you Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advance copy of Medici Heist. All opinions are my own.

2.5 Rounding up.

I unfortunately don’t have very strong feelings about this one. I enjoyed the “historical” period but felt the tone contrasted a bit with the time period. I think the idea was good but don’t know how well it worked in novel format. This would definitely be a cool movie or mini series, but as a novel it felt quite surface level.

There were portions where I found myself enjoying the story, but the time I was not feeling particularly interested outweighed the other.

If you’re going to run a heist with a large payout, going against the Pope and the Medicis is the obvious target. The Medicis have been extorting money from the people of Tuscany for years, and the people in Florence remember a time before the family’s rule began. Rosa is a seventeen-year-old con artist who is determined to pull off the ultimate heist. She recruits Giacomo a master of disguise, Sarra a tinkerer, Khalid a fighter and Michelangelo the famous artist. With the background of the unrest in Florence, the small group tries to pull off the impossible.

While I wouldn’t consider this a particularly accurate work of historical fiction, the setting and historical details (accurate or not) make a vibrant backdrop for the book. The historical setting add interesting color to the world, even if a reader familiar with the historical time period may have to occasionally suspend disbelief. It might not have been accurate, but it had the right feeling.

The characters have some shining introductory moments but don’t shine as much beyond that. The two girl characters are very similar. They both have “I am a strong, sassy woman who doesn’t need gender roles.” I think Sarra and Rosa would have been more interesting as one character isn’t of having two characters being average. Unfortunately, there’s not that much beyond that. Giacomo was my favorite and seemed to have the most characterization. Khalid I felt like I never got to know.

Their backstories are all tragic, but they don’t do much to establish the characters and either feel like they come too late or take too much time. There wasn’t enough time to develop the characters as individuals, and by the time we get more character details, the plot seems to get in the way. We also get almost nothing about Michelangelo, and I was confused the whole time why he was bothering to help them at all. It would have been enough character development for a movie, but for a book, it never felt developed enough. The lack of character depth also took away from the found family aspect that I would have loved otherwise. Not having the motivations for why they wanted to do this particular heist for so long also made it harder to care about that plot.

The plot was exciting at some points but frustrating at others. It started slow, and sometimes, the way things were described was hard to follow. It’s unclear sometimes how the different characters are needed or how the plan was developed. Switching POV characters every chapter also made it difficult to follow the main threads of what was going on. The last part was especially difficult to follow, and I had to reread parts to understand how they did the heist in the end. Needing to backtrack to figure out what happened took away from the momentum a heist story should have.

I think this is the kind of book that would make an excellent movie but didn’t quite make the book medium work. However, it’s a fun, historical-themed heist that I don’t regret reading.

I would probably describe this book as a combination of a Robin Hood tale with Ocean’s Eleven vibes set in Renaissance Florence. It definitely has the makings of an exciting swashbuckling story. Having been to Florence, I did really enjoy the descriptions of the city - the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio and the David. I could really picture the characters in the Medici home and imagined them in the secret passages with all the opulence around them. And I think the history around this family was accurately described by the author. So, the descriptions in the book were the fun part for me. At first, I didn’t like the idea that Michelangelo was involved in the heist because it seemed unrealistic but this just added more fun to the story.
The parts of the book that I didn’t enjoy were lack of character development and unlikable characters. Even though each character had skills and their plan was creative, I found that I just couldn’t get behind them. And the worst part for me was that the book was just too long - I think a shorter would have been more appealing.

Many thanks to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group—Feiwel & Friends, author Caitlin Schneiderhan, and NetGalley for providing me the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: August 6, 2024

Set in Renaissance-era Florence, Medici Heist follows an ensemble cast of thieves as they prepare to raid the Palazzo de Medici. Meanwhile, political tension is boiling as Florentines buck against the Medici occupation of power and end of the Republic.

PROS: The setting is lush and grand. The author seems quite capable of imbuing atmosphere and history, along with delivering competent writing. The author draws out the historical fantasy by making Michelangelo a side character!

CONS: I struggled at first to fully immerse because the POV shifts every chapter, as we swing from one heist crew member to another. My only other nitpick is the tone. I admit to being picky regarding heist books. Heist books by nature should have plenty of action if not be altogether described as action/adventure novels. The tone should be buoyant for the most part, with a steady pacing. I fear that Medici Heist’s tone and pace both got bogged down by the baggage-laden relationship drama and political dialogue. The madcap antics and dazzling surprises and pay-offs—which I expect from heist stories—were shortchanged.

Very slick and superficial, too much like a novelization of a film. If this were to be a film, I'd gladly pay to see it, especially the sumptuous setting, but in a book I want more complexity of character development, which just was not the case here. Also in films I don't mind predictability--filmmakers only have an hour and a half for their story--but it takes longer to read a book, and I want more payoff for my reading time.

Thank you to Feiwel & Friends and Macmillan Children's for my advance electronic copy via NetGalley. My thoughts are my own.

It's Florence, 1517, and the Pope has returned to Florence. His arrival, on the tail of a bloody war to gain him entry, signals what may be the end of the fragile Florentine Republic. Rosa Cellini has also returned to Florence. She is gathering a group of other teenage misfits to pull off the heist of the 16th Century: rob from Pope Leo X his ill-begotten (in their eyes) gain and disgrace him in the process. But the question is: can they do it? And can they do it without betraying and destroying each other first?

I was sucked into this story from the first. It has real Ocean's 11 heist inspo vibes, and an absolutely fantastic set of characters, all fleshed out and multi-dimensional. I can easily see that Schneiderhan is a screenwriter--each character is an individual but fits into the overall whole, and the whole shines vividly. The set of events that this story is based in is real, and there are even some real people involved (think: Michelangelo!). This was an extremely satisfying read

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan! (I rated this 3.5 stars on storygraph).

This book was a little disappointing because I wanted to enjoy it. It had a great premise and I really enjoyed the writing style, however, the plot was so confusing. Between the main plot and then the storylines for each character (6 POVs), it got confusing fast while also not moving fast enough. Additionally, this meant that they glossed over some of the major points (such as motivation for each character). However, there was a lot of action involved, which was good. There was a lot of potential here, unfortunately, I don't think it was executed well.