Margaret Owen does it again! This book delivers a stunning, heart stopping finale to the Little Thieves trilogy. Like the first two books, this story has intricate worldbuilding, compelling characters, and a captivating plot. Vanja's journey is a whirlwind of emotion and she continues to be a force of nature in this book. I love the banter between Vanja and Emeric, it's so entertaining. And the themes! This book isn't just a fantasy; it's a profound exploration of humanity, justice, and the messy, glorious business of being alive. I loved this book and would highly recommend it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the digital arc.

I really enjoyed this one! Vanja is always one of my favorites. I was a little upset about the beginning of the book, but I was very happy by the conclusion. This one had a different feel than the others in the series and it got a little confusing towards the end, but I’m so glad I held out. I would absolutely recommend this!

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Henry Holt, for providing the ARC.

To begin my review, I want to state that I have loved this series in a way I had not thought possible. For so long, my favorite trilogy was The Folk of the Air, but this indie set has stolen my heart and I can't even fully articulate how. All I know is that Vanja feels too real. Her pain is my pain. Her relationship struggles are my relationship struggles (and in fact, they did call to mind memories of past hurdles I had to overcome with my partner). I have given Little Thieves and Painted Devils 5 star ratings. So why did Holy Terrors only get 4?

Holy Terrors does a good job establishing the stakes and the pace, just like the first two installments. We start the story with over a year having passed since the end of book 2, and the pain for both Vanja and the reader is tangible. It's clear that she isn't over what happened that year ago, but she tries to keep her distance anyway and continue on with her life. Except, she can't, because people are turning up dead and Vanja is the first suspect. Naturally, who ends up on the case, investigating her for murder? Emeric Conrad, who isn't very pleased to see her.

Their past and their present and their future is agonizing. It is delightful. Owen did so well drudging up all their memories, their pains, their complications, and their bickering that you expect a lengthy and satisfying resolution to their story. Why did I give this book 4 stars instead of 5? Because I didn't get what I wanted. Not completely.

Is the ending satisfying? Yes, it is. But at about 100 pages left, I had to stop and do something else for a few days because I was so frustrated with how particularly unsatisfying it was when we watch Miss Ros and Emeric take about a page to resolve what had been going on for 400+. They didn't even talk about everything the way they should have.

The plot is fast-paced, twisty, twirly, magical and a tad reality-bending too, and that still made it a fun read. The emotions in this book run high, and based on the smashing reviews from others, this is a buy if you enjoyed the first two installments in the series. But having read The Fallow Year beforehand and then Holy Terrors, my heartstrings were pulled for a full month and I came out of this story feeling less than replenished.

4/5 stars. The book is still pretty great.

4⭐️
I LOVE THIS SERIES AND I LOVE THESE CHARACTERS
was absolutely foaming at the mouth to start this after reading the end of painted devils and it delivered! vanja's battle with self worth, trauma, and just the meaning of life is so well done and i'm so glad my girl was able to find some peace
the romance plotline for this book was a bit rocky at times, and i didn't love some of the choices made-but these two will always have my heart! (emeric is just top tier)

so sad for this to be over

thank you netgalley for sending this book for my honest review

What a wonderful conclusion to this series, the growth of the characters from beginning to end is so real and organic it makes you reflect on things. The witty banter between vanja and emeric is fantastic. This is an emotional Rollercoaster of a book. There were twist and turns more world building. The coparenting of Jr is a delightful comic releaf. The reflection on the power belief has in the world is so good.

I read this book via audiobook purchased on Libro.fm, so this may have affected my ability to follow the story when it became most complicated. I was approved for the review copy before I read Books 1 and 2, so by the time I finished Little Thieves and Painted Devils, I no longer had access to the review copy. Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan/Henry Holt & Co, and the author for the review copy, nonetheless!

I have mixed feelings about this book. The first 75% had great emotional depth, and an exciting and compelling plot. Although other reviewers were daunted by the amount of new characters, I didn't find the introduction of new characters too off-putting. I mostly stuck to the "main idea" and that allowed me to enjoy the book much more. The angst and heartbreak that Vanja (protagonist) felt toward Emeric (main character & primary love interest) kept a strong tension going and it added an interesting energy throughout the book. The humor was spot on like the previous books, and I laughed aloud many times. I liked the whodunit aspect of the book and it kept me on edge, so I finished the book quickly to find out who was killing the royals.

However, in the last 25%, I felt very lost in terms of the magic system and the introduction of the new timelines concept was hard to grasp. I tried to think of it as the series' multiverse of madness, basically. It essentially ruined my original 5 star opinion of the book. While I commend the author for throwing a plot twist in there, I don't find the introduction of such new concepts appropriate for third & final book in the series. I was also confused about Oskar's characterization, motivations, and basically his whole involvement with the overall scheme.

The ending was anticlimactic but showed the emotional growth of the main character. Since the last 25% is not the majority of the book, I would rate it 4 stars all around, but in actuality, the first 75% is maybe 4.75 or a 5, while the ending 25% was more like 2 stars. I plan to reread this book and series again and I'm so happy that I was able to get a copy to review.

Obsessed. I love this series with my whole heart and this was the perfect book for the series. These characters are wonderful, the story is fast paced and I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s very unique and more people need to read this.

I looked and I know for a fact I’ve never rated every book in another YA book series five stars. There’s always one (or more) that loses a star or two. Not in the case of the Little Thieves series. This series is absolutely perfect, from start to finish.

The second book, Painted Devils, may have started with Vanja accidentally starting a cult, but Holy Terrors starts on a more low-key note, which just goes to show you should never believe the beginning of a book will set the tone for the rest of the book because this book will turn you inside-out and sideways with an absolutely devilish plot that will keep you guessing (and then becoming delightfully vexed when you are wrong) who the real villain is, frustrating but intriguing court politics, yearning/pining/longing/wanting/ohmygodjustkiss dynamics between Vanja and Emeric, interesting and complicated issues with Vanja’s Pfennigeist powers, and and incredibly complex and long-range game of Find the Queen.

Vanja has had so many questions, worries, and doubts on her journey (not to mention pain), and the central question that this book seems to want to answer is: Would she do it all over again?

There is a huge cast of characters in this book, but the plot definitely calls for it. A lot of them are colorful and some of them will endear themselves to you more than others. There is worldbuilding in new locations for the series and new magic to see. Even through all of that, it’s the dynamic between Vanja and Emeric that shines, blazing like fire. 5⭐️



I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Action-Adventure/Book Series/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/YA Book Series/YA Fantasy/YA Romantasy/YA Fiction

Giving 4 stars because ultimately I really enjoyed the book….but that’s mostly for the Vanja/Emeric storyline (come on yearning!) and the strength of the side characters. For me, in terms of actual plot, this is ALL over the place. I truly understood what was happening about 20% of them time and basically none of the last third. It’s so confusing and mystical and all that but in a way that I could not follow. It made it a little hard to understand the stakes at any point.
Ultimately, the first book of the series is the best by far. But I am glad this third book brought us back to the story and to the characters and finished some of the character arcs.
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

wow. wow wow wow wow wow.

I love this trilogy so much. I love all the characters and the banter and the representation and the magicalness. I love love love that this book got a little bit of complexity when it comes to our main character romance situation in terms of internal complexity. we all know that both of them have hoards of complicatedness happening outside of themselves individually.

I will say that this one of the three, was a little harder to follow for me. A lot of that comes down to how many characters there are and how many people there are to remember. I have a feeling that there's some sort of map situation or character chart in the physical books or at least I hope there is but for the audios that's not an option. A lot of the names also sound very similar and so I did struggle a little bit to kind of keep everybody straight (hehe) and organized.

That being said, My mind is blown by the ending of this and I absolutely finished this with a giddy little smile on my face. I cannot recommend this enough.

It's quite the dichotomy through this trilogy—the more main character Vanja respects herself and begins to believe she deserves kindness and pleasure, the darker these books get! The body count and the stakes all get seemingly exponentially higher with each novel. It's certainly exciting and hard to put down, but it's a very long way from the original Goose Girl fairy tale retold. I had the same issue with this book as with the previous one, in that I found the motivation and focus of the primary antagonist absolutely impossible to comprehend. I think to a big extent though that is the point, that it's not about why some people do terrible, cruel things, but about how the protagonists deal with these situations and with the fact that they too will never really understand why. At its heart this series is a love story, and a wonderful one because you really care about the characters involved, even beyond caring whether they end up together. I really enjoyed the AO3-published short story collection (The Fallow Year) bridging the previous book and this one, which really highlighted both main characters' growth over the intervening period and also had some cool detective stories.

I'm obsessed, OBSESSED with this series. The voice/style is so unique and so fitting to the character. The interludes with alternate choices had my heart in my throat. The kitten! The multi-murder mystery! The worldbuilding is woven into everything from the clothes and coins to the names and architecture. It feels like it absolutely could have happened in quasi-medieval Germany.

And also, I think Vanja would be thrilled that her third book came out on April 1.

Such a great book loved the series I love it so much! 5/5 great ending. Would recommend and continue reading her work

A fitting end to an excellent YA series, though some of the different genre elements used in the final 120ish pages may put some readers off, Owen finishes her series triumphantly.

Wow. I absolutely ADORED the ending of this trilogy. Margaret Owen really knows how to not only keep you engaged as a reader but to really play with your emotions!!! I gasped and giggled along with the book, and loved every second of it. I am hoping we get some more AO3 additions to Emeric and Vanja's story, but I think that this may truly be the end. I cannot wait to pick this series up again and again. And I love a happily ever after.

Thanks to NetGalley, Margaret Owen, and Henry Holt and Co for the eARC of Holy Terrors in exchange for an honest review.

This book was everything I’d hoped it would be and it took me on a wild ride the whole time! Everything about the conclusion of Vanya’s story kept me hooked, I didn’t want it to end but I couldn’t put it down. There were points where I wanted to scream at the characters and times I wanted to cry with them, so so good. I hope readers get more novellas from this world because I’m not ready to let it go!

Vanja has finished serving Brunne, & is now fighting against injustice where she can. But then someone starts murdering royalty & leaving her calling card. & she has to clear her name.

I have adored this whole series, and this was a worthy ending to this trilogy! We had amazing character growth, and so much folklore woven in. And the action was non stop! My heartstrings were pulled so much, but I did have to take breaks as I was too stressed. And I would highly recommend rereading the first two of the series, as there were lots of references and returning characters that I found it a little difficult to keep track of.

Thanks to both NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the opportunity to review this arc!

This was a phenomenal ending to the trilogy! And, it sets up more adventures for Vanya and Emeric and friends. I do hope we get more of them

It does start with quite a bit of angst for Vanya and Emeric, but they quickly settle back into their investigating partnership (and annoying one another). The plot twists and turns and is a little hard to keep track of towards the conclusion, so that I never knew what was really going on. It made for a very satisfying read, especially when it all clicked into place and all the hints and tidbits from the other books made sense.

Even in the midst of the confusion and plot twists and angst it was a satisfying read because of Margaret Owen's command of her writing. She is absolutely one of the best YA writers out there and by rights should be a household name alongside Leigh Bardugo and Sarah J Maas. (To be clear, her writing is much better than either of those, but they're the names people always think of.)

Vanya and Emeric also show quite a lot of personal growth in this book which was also very satisfying to read.

The audiobook narrator did a wonderful job bringing the characters and situations to life. I absolutely loved listening to her.

Absolutely phenomenal and I will be reading these books again and again.

*Thanks to Henry Holt & Co and Macmillan Young Listeners for providing an early copy for review.

Holy Terrors has been one of my most anticipated reads since Little Thieves came out. Vanja's journey is at times painful and sad, but there is a lot of joy in it too. While we left her in a very insecure place at the end of Painted Devils, she is exhibiting more confidence in Holy Terrors. The year has left her time to come into her own, as the Pfennigeist, and as a daughter, sister & lover? And while she is initially, obviously wrong about why she left Emeric... she figures it out and works through it, with Emeric. Love them.

In a fantastic new setting, with nobles dying all around them, Vanja and Emeric, and crew will learn that the best way to work through a problem is: together. The finale of this series brings all our favourite characters back to the narrative: Ragne & Gisele, Fortune & Death, as well as newcomers: Lilja & Benno. There are hijinks, there are terrible decisions, and villains we love to hate. While I am sad there is no more of this series to read, it was a very satisfying ending. I will be rereading this series over & over for years to come.

Also - the illustrations are BEAUTIFUL, and a wonderful addition to the sections describing the facets of who Vanja could've been had she made different decisions.

There was one chapter in this novel that went off the rails at the end and was so action packed that I did feel like the plot went wayward, and didn't really understand the timeline convergence or divergence, but I do love these characters and needed to know what happened to them, and I love how inclusive the author is of every person and acknowledges all identities. It may be subtle to other readers, but this is what makes this series a must read, must purchase and highlighted series for the youth and school library collections.