Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl...
Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love―and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility whole emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.
Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele's sinister fiance, and an over eager junior detective on Vanja's tail, she'll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.
Margaret Owen, author of the Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of "The Goose Girl" about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.
As a fan of fairy tales retellings I was eager to dive into Margaret Owen's Little Thieves. I vaguely remember reading The Goose Girl some time ago, but it's been awhile since then. I feel like I have vague recollections of the story and it plays a general role in this one that fits in very well. Even without the fairy tale knowledge, this was a story that kept me pretty entertained with its enchantment and magic.
Vanja was once a maid to princess Gisele and life was what it was. She always did what the princess told her to do and for awhile they were almost friends, but then things changed and the princess become a bit too snobby and so when the two were off to meet the princess's husband-to-be, Vanja stole the magic necklace that made the princess be perfectly pretty and it gave Vanja Gisele's appearance. Gisele was left to the streets and Vanja lived a life of luxury for the most part.
Vanja's godmothers are actually gods themselves, Death and Fortune. They have given Vanja an ultimatum, that she must one day choose to serve one of them for all eternity and have given her plenty of time to make her choice. Should she ever call on one of them for help, she will become beholden to them and thus "have chosen" them as her god of choice. So Vanja made sure she never needed anyone's help.
Vanja has become a bit of a jewel thief so that she may escape the husband she doesn't want and live a life away from her godmothers. But when she steals a jewel belonging to another god, she becomes cursed to turn into what she steals, which is jewels. She must now find a way to break her curse in two weeks time or else she'll be nothing but a pile of gems.
This was a rather interesting story. I'll admit that sometimes it became hard to follow. I belatedly discovered the glossary in back which could have help shed some light on the things that made it confusing. Mainly terms and such that I got a vague idea of what they were. There's a whole magical system going on here that I feel like would've been easier to understand if there was a family tree almost of all these low gods and other magical creatures that exist within this world. But for the most part, I grasped what they were and something of their role in the story. Sometimes it was hard to comprehend who was enemy, friend, or pest!
But otherwise I really did enjoy this story. The pacing was a bit of an up and down kind of rate. Sometimes things picked up, other times they were slow and things dragged out. It's a bit of a mixed bag with this one. But still, I felt invested in Vanja's story and wanted to see how things would end for her. I wouldn't exactly call her a villain at the start of this thing. There were varying circumstances to her situation and how she came to take the princess's place. We eventually see that part of the story unfold and it helped to humanize her some.
There was a bit of romance in the story as well with a certain character who becomes a bit of an annoyance for Vanja. I highly expected there to be a bit of romance sparking between them when he showed up on the page. It was definitely a gradual thing and didn't spark any insta-love vibes at all.
All in all, Little Thieves was a bit of a mixed bag. There were high points, there was the occasional low point where I wish things could've sped up just a wee bit. But I never found myself skimming things as there was always just enough to keep me invested. I am definitely eager to check out the rest of the trilogy which concludes in a few more weeks! So it should be an interesting kind of read that's for sure!
If you're a fan of fairy tale retellings--especially ones that take their own liberty to tell the story in a different way--than this will be the story for you! It's a big one, the pacing is a bit of a rollercoaster, but all in all, it becomes an enjoyable read!
Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars
