My Rating: 4.5 Stars


Vanja was going through many issues. She was traded from one parent to another and then left alone in Castle Falbirg. She hated being a servant, not because of the workload but because of the way Falbirgs treated their servants was cruel and severe. She was 13 when she was whipped for a theft she didn’t commit. It haunts her in her dreams and she was never able to forgive the Falbirgs for that.
In the book, nobody actually knows the real Vanja until the second act. Though she stole Gisele’s life, she never really wanted to be someone else. She wanted to be accepted by her godmothers as a daughter and not as a servant and wanted to be seen.
Vanja was wronged by the Falbirgs.
Vanja wanted justice. She wanted a friend, and a mother who never abandoned her.
She never escaped her fears and saw them reflected in the mirror. As much as she hated to be subservient, she was inevitably finding herself playing the part of the perfect maid to Gisele or others. She has trust issues, and I don’t blame her for that. But her past shaped her into a strong, independent person and she wanted to never owe anyone a single penny again. That’s when she became a real thief and started to collect money to pay her debt.
She was often called selfish, greedy, and unpleasant. But I understood where that was coming from. She was looking for herself when almost everybody in her life left her and made her feel like a burden in their lives.
She fought everyone who stood in her way and resort to questionable choices but was unapologetic about it.
I liked her stubbornness and humor. It spoke about her character. But though she sounded obnoxious, I liked her as a character. She showed growth and remained herself throughout.
The romance was an unexpected bonus and a good depiction of enemie-to-lovers trope that I rarely see in Fantasy these days.
Besides the ending feeling rushed, this is one brilliant Fantasy.
Little Thieves reads the story of a character who fights against all odds (from mortals and Low Gods) to find her ticket to freedom.I thoroughly loved reading this book and recommend it.
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I can't believe Vanja pulled out a trick that outdid the margrave's year-long plans. If you love heists and enemies-to-lovers in YA fanatsy, then this should be on your TBR.

(Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC)

OMG!! Such a well written, brilliant book!! Vanja is a terrific protagonist. Her relationship with everyone is GREAT, especially her godmothers. Such a fun book (of course, it is. The protagonist is a thief!) This is a very loose retelling of goose girl where the villain is the protagonist and she SHINES in it. She is chased by a Junior prefect for her crimes and their dynamic is hilarious!! Of course, there's more to this story - a problem larger than Vanja's thievery, intensifying mysteries, gteat friendships and heartbreaks.

Little Thieves is not a little book - over 500 pages - but I read it pretty much in a single sitting because I just couldn't put it down. It starts off as what seems like a fun fantasy romp, with the MC wonderfully morally grey, verging on anti-hero. She's competent, driven and smart, and the first person narration style fits her perfectly; it took me a little while to get used to her irreverent commentary on pretty much everyone and everything she encounters, but once I did it added a nice layer of cynical humour.

Then the plot doesn't so much twist as it evolves and before you know it you're caught up in a mesh of intrigue, magic and danger with consequences that are still very personal for the MC but have much wider ramifications and start dragging in people she cares about - no matter how little she actually WANTS to care about them! What I particularly loved about both the plot evolution and the MC's character growth was that they didn't feel forced, or sudden. Vanja remained completely true to herself throughout, and while her motives and actions got a bit less anti- and a bit more hero, she never lost that vein of snark and drive and confidence. It's a tough balance to pull off and I don't often see it done as well as it was here.

The side characters were all complex and compelling, the wordlbuilding was subtle and immersive, but really, this is Vanja's book and she sold it completely.

DNF'd at 20% due to Kindle formatt being difficult to read.
What I did read of the book I really enjoyed, I loved the Gods, Germanic lore and atmosphere and was intrigued by the story.
Will buy a finished copy when released.

Once upon a time, on the coldest night of midwinter, in the darkest heart of the forest, Death and Fortune came to a crossroads.’

Sometimes you finish a book and are immediately hungry for more - Little Thieves is one of those books. Vanya is a thief. Her otherworldly mothers demand payment for their care, and Vanya decides to steal her future back. By stealing Princess Gisele’s life.

Vanya is hilarious. Sassy and strong, she’s everything you want in a female lead. Throughout the book we learn a lot about her character and why she is the way she is. We watch her grow and change. And maybe we cry a little with her or scream at the pages because she is missing what’s right in front of her.

The romance is everything. Kind of enemies-to-lovers, except they’re the type of enemies that from the BEGINNING have sass with ✨spicy✨undertones. The way their relationship evolves is so realistic.

The LGBTQ+ diversity is on point. We have a mentioned gay couple, a prominent sapphic couple and a genderfluid character. All of these representations are so wonderfully dropped in - they’re not plot points or made into big discussions, just a simple my husband and I. The genderfluid rep was my fave, though only small, I loved how the characters dealt with it.

I adored this book! This is definitely one of my favourites this month - it’s a beautifully crafted book. Despite being over 500 pages I devoured this in two days because I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend for fans of fantasy, heists, magic and enemies to lovers 👀

Thank you for an advanced copy of the book in return for a honest review.

Little Thieves.

Where to begin. I loved it from start to finish... To begin with the cover is beautiful and I cannot wait to buy a physical copy.

The story is set in a Germanic fantasy inspired world - something I have not come across much and something that I absolutely loved. It’s quite fast paced and makes you want to read more and more. I couldn’t put it down.

Definitely could be read in one sitting in you have time - something I would recommend as you won’t be able to put it down!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First things first, I cannot get over the VOICE in this book. It is so beautifully done and so incredibly unique. It's actual writing goals.

Whilst I loved a lot of things about this book, it is definitely Vanja's voice that will stick with me. Normally it's a quote or a character or a romance, but Owen's use of voice just made me love this book in a way I didn't expect at all.

The worldbuilding was so unique compared to my usual reads, and I loved the way the low-gods interacted with mortals. The magic system was brilliantly crafted and simply explained without ever talking down to the reader. I absolutely love how this world was built and all the little details that were woven into it.

I love the low gods. Death is my favourite; she is a badass. I'm forever obsessed with the descriptions of them all and how not-quite-human they are, whilst still being so much like us.

Both the primary and secondary romances were wonderful, and I would happily read a book just about the secondary couple. They are an adorable couple and I love them.

Overall, a brilliant book and I will happily reread in the future. I also would love for someone to make a card deck inspired by this book!

“Little Thieves” was my first book by Margarete Owen and since the blurb and the great cover appealed to me, I really wanted to read the book. I really liked the idea behind the story and it was something different.The world building was really great and the idea of a retelling was super amazing but the downside of all this was Margaret Owens writing style.

From the first page on, I had some problems with her particular writing style and that meant I just couldn’t get into the book properly. For me, the book was not an easy read and therefore i couldn’t read more than a few chapters at a time. Even if I had a few problems, I really liked the plot itself.

I really liked Vanja and she was my favorite Character. She was brave, she didn’t let herself get down and I liked her approach in all the tough sitiuations. I really understood her actions and decisions through the whole book.

I had my problems with the other characters. Just how they treated Vanja sometimes was definitely not okay. Gisele couldn’t inspire me at all with her manner and she is the character I liked the least. Emeric Conrad … it took me a long time to warm up to him and even until the end i really don’t know what i should think about him.

Whoever liked her other books will also love her new book as the plot itself was really great and exciting. But unfortunately it was not for me, because I just can’t get along with Margarete Owen’s writing style.

"In the world I knew, there were three reasons a person would be wanted: for profit, pleasure, or power. If you could satisfy only one, they used you. Two, they saw you. Three, they served you"

This book was amazing, I couldn't put it down. The plot, the heists, the characters, the romance ✨ chef's kiss ✨. Overall "Little Thieves" was surprising and wonderful book, just go and read it. 7/5⭐

"Did you know a skull with lanterns for eyes can still roll her eyes? I didn't"

Thank you NetGalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

Little Thieves is a book I couldn’t put down from start to finish. A rich fantasy world filled with loveable characters that had me cheering along with their successes and fearing the consequences of their failure.

The story centres around our main protagonist, Vanja, sometimes known by other names, such as Princess Giselle or Greta, but I’ll stick to Vanja for this. In short, she’s a bloody awesome character that I loved reading about for 500 pages. It didn’t seem like 500 pages because this whole book was a delight.

Vanja, though, is really the star of the show. For me, good stories are about good characters. And I don’t mean the characters are necessarily morally good, but well-built, in-depth characters with strengths and flaws and backstories that make them real. Vanja has all of this and more. And honestly? Reading from her point of view was a joy.

"The principle is: I’ve already met my emotional availability quota for the day."

This quote happens pretty early in the book, and it’s what sealed my love for this character. Every sarcastic comment or scathing remark had me grinning and nodding along.

"There’s only room in this town for one smug bastard. That smug bastard is me."

For a first point of view story to really work, the character has to be ridiculously strong-voiced, and Vanja is that, and so much more.

And there’s more than that. There’s Emeric, and Gisele, Ragne, Joniza and this whole cast. I could write thousands of words about each character, about their arc, their flaws, the progression of each individual story that all comes into one. I won’t, just suffice it to say, the character’s in this story are perfect.

But, it’s not just Vanja. And it’s not just the characters. The whole story soars well above my expectations. We’re introduced to the world and I was immediately intrigued. There’s talk of gods, of magic, theft and politics. But I also started mildly concerned that I’d have to come back to it later because there’d be too much information for my half-asleep brain to process when I started the book. I persisted, and didn’t regret a single bit of that sleepless night. Margaret Owen does an awesome job at introducing all of this world in a way that doesn’t seem like overload, that isn’t exposition, it just works. Spoiler Alert below, but it kind-of sums up the first few chapters and was why I was at first concerned about information overload.

"I’ve stolen a small fortune, temporarily evaded a prefect, been cursed by a god, and been lectured by my godmothers."

So yeah, a lot happened at the start, but the story truly grows into its own from there and those few events at the start seem small compared to the rest of the story to come. Underneath the fantasy and myth, Little Thieves is a bit of a mystery. The big question, “How does Vanja break the curse?” We begin to see snippets of both the consequences of the curse, and the cure for it, as the story progresses, but the real answer is left to be discovered throughout.

And resolved it was. I loved almost everything about the ending of this book. The bit I didn’t love? That it had to end at all! Yes, the characters had all had their arcs, and it was a satisfying conclusion to the story. I just wasn’t ready to leave these characters and this world.

"My name is Vanja. And this is the story of how I am caught."

I'm...genuinely speechless. This story was a thrilling and fun ride from the very start. Vanja is a flawed character who is cunning, snarky and intelligent - not to mention very ambitious. Her plan is simple: steal enough money to escape the clutches of her ghastly fiance and her 2 mothers - both of whom want her to chose a vocation and serve her. Not the most ideal family unit, in my opinion.

When Vanja is cursed to slowly turn into her greed (think pearls and rubies), she quickly changes gears and tries to right some wrongs. We get to meet an incredible ensemble of characters, all of whom are either angry or in the case of Emeric, very determined to put the Pfennigiest behind bars. Vanja, on the other hand, just wants to leave the whole mess behind without dying.

She's ruthless when she has to be but also grows to become a more compassionate and caring friend - while still remaining true to her self. Her tricks are plenty, her voice is incredibly unique and fresh in YA fantasy and she's a character who will stay with you. Vanja shows how trauma and abuse can impact an individual, with both her and Gisele being primary examples of the different ways a survivor can cope. Vanja is a direct result of being given up by her birth mother, whose belief in superstition led to her youngest daughter navigating life alone.

My favourite thing about this book besides the friendship between Vanja and Ragne, as well as her bond and history with Gisele and Joniza and her budding relationship with Emeric (think: disgruntled, law abiding detective and snarky, cunning criminal), HAD to be the WRITING. Owen has captured the voice and mannerisms of a ruthless, yet young girl, displaying the inner thoughts one might have as well as the funny, embarassing moments that arise when Vanja is thrust into romantic situations prior to her own relationship. It's something most young teens can relate to, not to mention the sheer amount of sarcasm littered in - which, by the way, a lot of young adults are fond of, in case you weren't too sure.

Owen illustrates a believable story about growth, hurt and friendship while still weaving in the original Goose Girl. I love the little nod we get to Falada, the loveable horse companion as well as the bit about the barrel spiked in nails (not fun).

I could go on about my love for this book, but I will be reviewing it closer to the publication date on my blog: www.deeslibrary.wordpress.com

Little Thieves has quite possibly jumped and landed in the ranks of one of my favourite books ever and it has certainly taken a place as one of my favourite reads of the year!

The narrative of this story was brilliant and captivating. I loved that the beginning of each part was written as if it was a fairy tale. And I loved how parts were told in a way that almost felt like listening to a voice over from the MC over a movie scene.

The characters were all well written and well fleshed out, you rooted for them or hated them or simply loved them. I especially loved Vanjas broken, bent but beautiful character and Ragnes naive and unwaveringly loyal character. Hell I loved them all really. I was thoroughly invested in their stories.

This amazing tale was full of lessons on learning to trust, friendships and love of all kinds.

I highly, highly recommend picking this up on October 19th! I already can't wait for my copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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 while 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 fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja's tail, she'll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.

The sass levels Vanja possesses instantly makes her an easy character to love. She’s hard as nails and ever so canny, living various lives in one to achieve her goals. I did like seeing such a strong female lead, but I also appreciated the rare vulnerable moments where everything became too much. I liked seeing the tears, the frustration, the loneliness and the self-loathing. It helped to create not just a character that makes me laugh and roll my eyes in exasperation, but one who was real and has her own demons lurking in her head.
It took me a little while to warm up to Emeric, I must admit. As endearing as the bumbling fool act is, I knew there were other layers to him - but I didn’t know what to expect and that made me sceptical. But I did gradually grow to like him and toward the end of the story, found myself eager to see how he would participate in the events and how far he’d go.

This story isn’t a light one. It gets into the nitty gritty and has dark themes - like mentions/memories of sexual assault. I think it’s so important to include such difficult topics because these things do happen all the time, but it needs to be done with care and respect. Owen did a brilliant job of finding the balance between showing the emotions of the moment and not revealing too much that it could become disrespectful. I really appreciated also that it wasn’t something that came up once and was forgotten about, we saw snippets pop up throughout. Similar to this is also the mention of abuse, both physical and mental. Again, Owen handled this with care and respect and whilst it was hard to read at times, I was grateful that light was shown on such difficult subjects.

Overall, Little Thieves is a wonderful story of hope, of greed and of finding your place in the world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you again to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of this book. Review will be live on my blog on release day.

Thank you so much Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

This is an immensely captivating story, I loved and enjoyed it very much.

It is a retelling of "The Goose Girl" set in a German inspired world. Although, I am not familiar with the original fairytale but I really liked this one. The world building is brilliant. The creatures inspired from German mythology are quite fascinating to read about. I had a little problem with the pronunciation and meanings of some of the German words used, aside from that the storytelling is brilliant.

Coming to the characters, Vanja, the female protagonist is sassy, witty, hilarious and a genius in the art of thieving. Her thoughts and actions made me laugh so much. She is an amazing character. In the beginning, she is portrayed as a greedy thief but as the story progresses we find that there is more to her character than just greed. Vanja is definitely my favourite character in this book. But, all the other characters are also very likeable. I loved the characterization in this book. Ragne is my favourite after Vanja.

With a cute demi god, a proud princess, a junior prefect, and a very sassy thief this book is a treat for fantasy lovers. Highly recommended.

I’ll admit, I requested LITTLE THIEVES based almost entirely on the gorgeous cover (and also a little because I remember Margaret Owen’s first duology getting a lot of love). Full points for me though, because it turned out to be a lot of things I really, really love.

LITTLE THIEVES is a really rich, developed standalone fantasy. I felt like we really got a lot of plot, worldbuilding and character development, to the level I’d expect from a duology, but bundled neatly into a single, well-rounded novel that was the perfect length for the story it was telling.

The plot itself is a (very) loose retelling of The Goose Girl but told from the POV of the ‘evil maid’ who steals the princess’s identity. Apart from THORN, I don’t think I’ve ever read a Goose Girl retelling, as it’s not one that particularly interests me, but Owen really made this work and picked just the right angle to make this a great story. If you don’t like retellings, I don’t think you’d even notice though, and could enjoy this as a completely original and unique tale.

What I adored about LITTLE THIEVES is that it doesn’t try to redeem the fairy tale’s ‘villain’ too much.

Obviously, Vanya does have good qualities (she’s a complex protagonist with plenty of strengths as well as weaknesses) but the story gives makes you understand her motives — WHY she’s done the things she has — rather than making it so she’s not the selfish, unrepentant thief that she is.

And I loved her for it.

You know I’m a sucker for a morally questionable protagonist and a potentially unlikeable female character, and Vanya just appealed to me perfectly. I loved the cat-and-mouse, push-and-pull relationship with the bookwormy, morally upright love interest, Conrad, and her awkward, evolving relationships with the ‘real’ Gisele and half-demon companion Ragne.

Gorgeous and smart and snarky, LITTLE THIEVES is a book I’ll definitely read again and again.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I devoured the book. It was a really wild ride. But I loved it. From the moment I opened the book (well the eARC). Vanja Schmidt, the main character's an unlikely main character. She's funny, sarcastic and brave.
But she is the daughter of Death and Fortune after her biological mother gave her away thirteen years ago. Vanja's a thief, impersonating the Prinzessin Gisele. When the stoty starta Vanja's been pretending to be the Prinzessin for nearly a year. While Gisele lives somewhere in the town.
There are multiple things happening.
Vanja gets herself cursed. Her godmothers want her to serve one of them. The Pfennigeist (a invisible thief) attracts a young junior prefect (Emeric Conrad) who seems to only slightly annoys Vanja. (Emeric's awesome & the best). And at the same time there's Gisele's fiancé who seems to have something sinister going on. Oh and there's Rage, the daughter of the God who cursed Vanja...
Oh and they only have two weeks to solve every problem

The story is a retelling of The Goose Girl with Vanja as the main character.
Also she breaks the 4th wall several times which I really like. It was an interesting story device.
And I loved that in this world queer, nonbinary and Trans people are accepted. (As they should).
And although Vanja's an anti-hero I was able to connect with her.

Little Thieves is such a lovely written book. It is lyrical and whimsical and just all-rounded intriguing.
The fact that the main character isn't perfect, sometimes gets things wrong and is sarcastic witty was very refreshing to read.
In terms of plot and pacing, I had no issue with either - everything felt like it was in the right place in the storyline.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Loosely inspired by Germanic fantasy, this book follows Vanja, who decides she wants to be the princess (because her family sees her as nothing but a potential servant; girl I feel ya), uses her powers to powwow Princess Gisele and takes her place unnoticed. Now a princess and ALSO a jewel thief, she seduces nobility while stealing their riches.

All is good until she accidentally does something stupid and is cursed for her greed and now, she's trying to commit the final heist which will enable her to secure enough cash to flee the country, all while Gisele's fiancé is at her heels along with the dashing man, Emeric Conrad. Quite the adventure, right?

The writing was lyrical and enthralling, the characters were wonderfully written (we all know how much I adore anti-heroes), everything was absolutely stunning. GO READ IT WHEN IT COMES OUT ON THE OCTOBER 5TH 2021 :3

Little Thieves was the first book by Margaret Owen that I have read, I was excited to read this having heard good things about the Merciful Crow series. Having now read it, I have been left feeling a tad underwhelmed. but also happy that I have read it and had the chance to experience this book.

The plot itself wasn't bad, far from it. It had so much potential and for me, it just wasn't quite pulled off in terms of keeping the reader captivated. I'll be honest, for me personally, it took me until I reach 50% of the way through to finally start to enjoy it properly. That being said, there were parts before that point that I enjoyed, I just wish it had pulled me in from the start.

A little background. Little Thieves follows 16-year-old Vanja Schmidt. She's the goddaughter of two gods, Death and Fortune. She was taken in by the gods when she was left abandoned by her mother when she was a young child. Vanja sees herself as the daughter of Fortune and Death but they do not, she's a servant to them and she must choose who to serve. In order to escape this conundrum, she has to raise funds to enable her to escape and leave the realm as it were. In her quest to raise said funds, she becomes a thief and takes on the appearance of a wealthy friend through the aid of an enchanted pearl necklace. In becoming someone else and mixing with the upper class, she is in a prime position to steal from the wealthy. During her spout of thievery, she steals from another god unbeknown to her, upon doing so, she becomes cursed, forever to become a statue made up of gems unless she can correct all the wrongdoing she has bestowed upon others.

I loved the witty character of Vanja I have to say, her sarcasm and blunt dialogue was quirky and refreshing to read. She wasn't perfect, she made mistakes and some of the decisions she made were very much questionable, however, I couldn't help but root for her and hope that everything turned out in the end.

The romance in this was ok, nothing particularly exciting though and it was rather predictable. It had the usual trope of enemies to lovers which let's face it, we all kind of love deep down. I wish it had been more exciting, that being said I did encourage this in my mind and hoped that through their indifferences that they would come together in the end.

I won't give much more away other than to say it is a bit of a slow burner, it gets much better as you get halfway into the book. I do recommend sticking with it, I'm glad to have read it and I am tempted to read more from Margaret Owen in the future.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the digital ARC in return for an honest review

This was so brilliant!!! I adored the characters and characterisation of death and fortune. The storyline itself is brilliant. I couldn’t have asked for more.