I requested Thieves’ Gambit from Netgalley because the synopsis was interesting. What is not to like about Inheritance Games meeting Ocean’s Eleven where all the players seem to be too young to vote? The cover from Netgalley is also different from the one on Amazon, but which is better? The redness describes the anger of the main character or red warning not to trust anyone who is in it to win. Like all good heist stories, Thieves’ Gambit starts with someone stealing. Our main character, Rosslyn Quest, is doing the taking while making introductions.
The Thieves
Rosslyn is not a happy girl. She has plans for the future, but her family is in the way. If you are a frequent YA genre reader, we have a girl who is ready to grow wings, but the noose on her is pretty tight. We can see Ross has dreams and hiding them from her own mother. Casually explaining her family life like it is normal to have a whole family of thieves. She has no superpowers, relying on her training and experience to pull off successful thieving.
Her universe comes crashing down when one error resulted in her own mother in danger. Ross enters the elusive, invite-only Thieves’ Gambit, where the winner gets to have a wish fulfilled. Yes, the premise is not exactly screaming cool and surprising,; but it allows us to know more about Ross and Quest family.
Her Competitors
Ross comes head to head with her ex-best-friend/ new rival, Noelia Boschert, who is also at the Gambit. Apparently, every region has a chief thieving family, so everyone gets a slice of pie. Aside from rival, she meets a British thief name Devroe Kenzie, whom she was kind of attracted to from the start. I mean, she labelled him as Handsome Brit, while someone else was Perfect Hair. Perfect Hair’s name is Taiyo from Japan. Other notable players who passed the first test are Kyung-Soon Shin from Korea, Lucus Taylor from Australia (not a spelling error), Adra from India, Yeriel (can’t remember where she ruled) and Mylo from America.
While everyone has their own skills, they are all pretty much below the legal voting age. Everyone also has an agenda and trust issues in the book. Not that I want to complain, but you can’t expect a normal person to trust a stranger who is out to win.
The Fun
Running around famous places and learning about antique stuffs is exciting, because the rules are strangely vague. Ross struggles to make friends as she feels alone in her struggles, but realizes that to win, she has to learn how to trust. The real fun? Realizing the error of her naivete and then finds out that she is missing a huge chunk of information… The author has left somewhat of a cliffhanger, so I can’t spoil it.
Verdict for Thieves’ Gambit
Predictable is one thing, the running around pretty places to steal things gets old. Ross is not a character I enjoy following around because she is stubborn. For a person of her caliber, her judge of the situation is basic. There is a lot of room to grow for our heroine, so hopefully there is a 2nd book for me to know her better.
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