I’m not all that familiar with the Goose Girl fairytale, so I’m not sure how well Little Thieves works as a retelling, but this was definitely an entertaining book.
I liked that the characters were on the morally grey side and the slow-burn romance.
The world building was well done.
Overall this was a fun book and I’m looking forward to reading more books by the author.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

When she was four years old, Vanja was given to the God's Death and Fortune as their goddaughter. She learnt how to rely on herself from a young age, and thought, when she was 13, that she had found her place as the friend and servant to the beautiful Princess Gisele. But soon that was disproved, and she discovered she was little more than a whipping post for Gisele, to take her punishments, and even abuses when Gisele is betrothed to the wicked Margrave. Vanja can't face that future, so takes fate into her own hands, stealing the magical necklace that makes Gisele so beautiful, and masquerading as the Princess by day, and the Pfennigeist thief by night. Just when she thinks she will have enough money to flee her godmothers - who are demanding she picks one to serve forever - the Margrave returns, the real Gisele comes out of the workwork, a junior Prefect starts to investigate the case, and a whole matter of magic beast appear. Vanja may have bitten off more than she can chew with her latest theft - and the stakes have never been higher.

I was immediately drawn in by the cover and synopsis for this book, and when I realised that it would be the November Illumicrate book, I couldn't wait for my finished copy to arrive to dive in - especially with how glowing the early reviews had been. I went in completely blind, and didn't even know this was a retelling (of The Goose Girl, I think) until I looked a GR when I was finished. From the very first sentence, I was hooked. Vanja was such a great heroine - who really wasn't a hero. She was dark and morally grey, who stole to survive - even stealing the life of her 'best friend'. She's never been able to rely on others, and learnt that lesson the hard way, so was extremely prickly when she met new people. But soon, her walls started cracking and it was a joy to see her open up to Ragne, Emeric, and Gisele, and allow herself to relax and be part of something, rather than be alone. It also helped that Ragne's mother, Eiswald, placed a curse on Vanja that she had to resolve in less than 2 weeks or she'd turn into the jewels that she often stole. Honestly, the plot line was so twisty and turny, I wasn't sure what to expect on the next page. And, how much of a slow burn was that romance?! It was one of the best written romances I've ever read, and I'm desperate to read Painted Devils, because I need more! My first book by this author, but definitely not my last!

A story about found family, trauma, survival, and the power of being believed, while also being a heist mystery with magic, curses, and political intrigue? Sounds impossible? Well, Margaret Owen pulls it off flawlessly in this epic fantasy tale inspired by The Goose Girl!

I loved the way the story is structured, with glimpses of Vanja's past that read like a fairy tale. Owen wields information and story structure as effortlessly as she does her beautiful and witty writing. This book truly does have it all and immediately became a 2021 favourite.

Vanja is strong because she's always had to be. She's angry and mean because in a world that keeps taking from her, vulnerability is not an option. She's cunning and smooth and a joy to read about and root for. In short: Vanja is the kind of character that stays with you long after you close the book.

The characters around her are equally as compelling and wonderfully complex, everyone has their own secrets to keep and lessons to learn. And "an encyclopedia who wished on a star to be a real boy" might just be the greatest character description I have ever read. So much love for soft boys with big brains and even bigger hearts.

Little Thieves has stolen my heart and I don't want it back, this ragtag group of characters can gladly keep it and do with it as they please. I have no regrets.

Well this lived up to the hype!!
I have never read or I can basically say I don’t have any knowledge of The Goose Girl fairytale!
Did this damper my enjoyment of this book?! Definitely not!
If anything it has made me want to read the original story that inspired this book!!
As a character driven reader and a massive fan of morally grey characters, this was a treat for me!
The characters were well fleshed out and we get to learn a lot about each of their stories in this first book. Owen did a great job in their development with their relationships and trust with each other that felt relatable!
I loved the writing style and the whimsical fairytale touches that are present in the story.
Very engrossing and clever. I just had a great time. I would have liked a little more world building when it came to the gods and maybe we will learn about that in the next book, which I will definitely be reading.
Highly recommend this to fans of fairytale retellings and flawed characters that you can’t help but love!

I ended up having a little mixed feelings about Margaret Owen’s ‘Little Thieves’. It took me a way longer to read this book then expected, considering I really loved the premise of it. The initial pages didn’t hold my attention and I didn’t feel particularly drawn to the story, however, the action picked up afterwards and I became more invested in the characters after a while. So I definitely enjoyed the latter half of ‘Little Thieves’ way more.

Vanja, our main character, is definitely an interesting character in her own right. Definitely morally grey, and with a complicated and engaging back story. Once I got drawn into ‘Little Thieves’, I ended up enjoying following Vanja’s story and the overall atmosphere of the book. While I had mixed feeling about the whole book overall, I’m still thinking about it, so it definitely stays on your mind!

Sorry this review is so late, I forgot and never got round it it.

This was an amazing retelling of the goose girl, I loved each of the characters personalities and how well the author wrote them. Having never actually read the original tale I had nothing to compare it to but this book definitely does it justice in my opinion.

I love retellings and can't wait for the next one that comes along.

There’s only one word to describe this book: awesome.
My expectations were high, but I wasn’t disappointed. I really liked mostly anything.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book.

I don't feel like I have too much to say other than I found this a lot of fun and really enjoyable.

Little Thieves is based on The Goose Girl. Growing up I loved Shannon Hales reimagining of this tale and reread her book (The Goose Girl) multiple times. Upon finding out about this new take on the tale which follows the "villain" I just had to read it.

I grew to really like our main character and liked how the book explored the topic of poverty and how in society those in poverty are sometimes forced to make difficult decisions that are not the most moral but are necessary for survival. I liked our cast of characters and the friendships explored; however I wasn't totally won over by the romance and I think I would have preferred if there was no romantic subplot.

Overall, I think I would have absolutely loved this if I had read this as a teenager at the same time as Shannon Hale's version. I would definitely recommend if you enjoy reading books written for the YA demographic as I think this is a very solid fantasy standalone.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this!

I’m honestly kicking myself for sleeping on this book! It gets you from the very start! The writing is also magical!

What a nice reading, I always love a good retteling and I didn't know anything about the Goose Girl so I was just ready to be immerse in this book.

I like a smart girl, and let me tell you Vanja is a good one, she is resourceful and fun. She know what she want and is ready to do a lot to obtain it. Sadly when she is curse she need to think about everything she has done in the past and change some stuffs. I think I really like her growth through the book. She realise that being alone and free is not really what she want and change bit by bit througth the book.

For the universe and mythologie, I really like it, we are in some kind of german empire and I like the mix between 18th century and big castle. I had a great time reading about the gods, curses and mythology of this world.

So in the end, this book is a nice one, I had a really great time, I love the character, the plot and universe.

Lately I've found myself growing tired with all those generic YA fantasy series being tossed into the market, so I was delighted to find something as refreshing as Little Thieves that surprised me with its lush fairytale world combined with fast-paced heist action.

I loved all the complex, morally grey characters just as much as the original world it is set in. It was a quick and fun read for me. I will definitely read the second book, but this one can stand by itself just as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillian Children’s Publishing Group for providing me with an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

A sharp clever little book. It hooked me from the first line and didn’t let me go! Absolutely love Vanja and the world the author creates and I can’t wait for the next one.

Really enjoyed this one. Love Margaret Owen's writing it was really clever and I loved the characters. Plot was solid and the magic system/gods was a really interesting aspect. Fabulous.

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen was an absolutely deligthful surprise of a novel for me and is the first YA book in ages that completely enraptured me, and kept my attention and sympathies for the characters from the beginning to the end despite falling back on common YA tropes. In fact, this story proves that tropes do work if they’re executed well.

Told from a first person perspective, Little Thieves boasts - and rests on the shoulders of - Owen’s witty, lively and engaging prose, which paints a vivid picture of a lived in kingdom, and its plucky (anti)heroine, thief and con artist extraordinaire, Vanja, who hasn’t been dealt an easy hand in life, but with whom her misdeeds catch up after she ‘swaps‘ life with the princess she had been serving most of her life.

I wasn’t familiar with The Goose Girl tale this story is based on, hence the narrative felt wondefully original, whimsical and innovative. After looking up the fairytale, I love the spin Owen put on the story, and how she endowed the main folktale antagonist with a backstory and agency. I loved everything about Little Thieves: the intriguing magic system which combined curses, charms, gods and monsters; cosy, lived in setting of a German-like village, a loveable, diverse cast, adorable slow-burn romance, despicable villain, cheeky double innuendos, clever twists and turns, and effortlessly interwoven folklore elements and customs which endeared this book to me even further. It was fast-paced, funny and should satisfy readers craving heists, magic, fairytales, dorky love interests, feisty heroines with endless supply of quips and retorts, and fluffy reads with a surprising amount of heart.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the e-ARC!

This e arc was super badly formatted, which deterred me from reading it, but I preordered a physical copy which should be with me next week, so I’m looking forward to that, as the premise of the story still interests me

I really enjoyed reading this, the plot and storyline are excellent The characters , especially Death were fantastic and made for such addictive reading. The world building is absolutely wonderfully done, there’s so much to love about story. An absolutely beautiful, emotional and gripping read, one I will be buying a hardback copy of so I can return to this again and again.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Little Thieves is a loose Goose Girl retelling that takes the elements of the maid taking the noble's face and life. But where the real story follows the life of the stolen here we follow the life of the one that does the taking. And steps very far away from the one dimensional take of it all.

While the synopsis and this book start with that there once was a horrible girl, there is absolutely nothing horrible about Vanja in my eyes. She is just trying to survive in a world that does not protect her at all. Being given away as a small child to two gods who leave her at the steps of a household where she is abused throughout her childhood, there has been no real security for her. And if she wants anything she has to do it all herself. Eat or get Eaten. So she takes Giselle's life as her own and tries to steal as much money as she can so she can dissapear before her so called fiancee returns. Unfortunately her fiancee returns too soon with a detective dipping his toe in the thefts.

ittle Thieves is greatly crafted plot wise. While it is a bit on the long side, that sits in the conclusion that gets somewhat dragged out and then sped through too fast, before that there are so many twists and turns that worked so well to keep your attention going. I read this 500+ page book in a day.

And it helps that I cared about the characters. Like I said, I never saw Vanja as a horrible person but as someone who needs to do whatever she can to surive. Ragna, the shapeshifting daughter of a god, was a great asset to Vanja to show that kindness is something that does exist, for her too. Not everything comes with a price. Our lovely detective keeps offseting Vanja with his smarts which is not something she is used to. And then adding in characters from her past like Gisele and a friend maid from previous years, it tugs at your heart strings it does.

The only downside for me was the ending. I felt like the build up to the wrap up was a bit too long and then there was the actual ending where I felt we fast forwarded to. It just jolted me out a bit.

Full review available on my blog 25/11/2021

Content Warnings: discussed child abuse, neglect, attempted sexual assault.

I actually knew nothing about The Goose Girl when I started reading this book, and despite reading several summaries I still know basically nothing about The Goose Girl now. I recognise one fairytale and that’s the story of Vanja Schmidt. I did love the Germanic folklore-ish setting though. Vanja is sarcastic and sharp-tongued and a little (a lot) bitter about her lot in life. After being adopted by Death and Fortune, two goddesses she’s now indebted to, and then cursed by another god for her greed, she’s disenfranchised by pretty much the whole world (mood, Vanja) and she’s willing to do just about anything to get herself out of her life and into a future where she’s completely free. She’s so vibrant that she just seemed to leap off of the page. Honestly, all of the characters are this vibrant but I will not deny that Vanja and Emeric completely own me.

I loved the way that this book felt kind of like I was being told a story. It made it spectacularly easy to read and I marathoned it so quickly. It also makes for a great audiobook, as it kind of feels like you’re being told Vanja’s tale by some kind of bard – she’s definitely the hero that nobody wanted. The character relationships are the real heart of this book. It had a weird opposite-to-found-family thing going on, that I actually really liked. Vanja’s kind of been forcibly adopted into her found family against her will, even as she tries to stay a heartless and independent thief. There’s a lot happening in this book, but Owen does a good job at keeping it from getting overwhelming and overcomplicated and manages to bring everything to a really satisfying conclusion.

The relationship between Vanja and Emeric is just so, so good. I absolutely love that we have this very proper and procedural investigator trying to catch our fierce antiheroine out and ending up falling head over heels for her during their chase. It’s incredible and you can see them growing closer and then fighting their feelings for each other over and over again in such a satisfying way. I loved how real and authentic their relationship felt and that we’re once again being gifted with gorgeous fantasy settings that are completely queernorm worlds.

Not long after I finished this, there was an announcement that we’ll be getting another book in this world and I’m so pleased because while I usually prefer standalone novels (and this wraps up perfectly) I just love these characters so much that I can’t wait to read more about them.

One of the best books I’ve read this year, and possible one of my favourites ever.

Little Thieves is based on The Goose Girl, and it’s an incredible book about Vanja, the adopted daughter of Death and Fortune. Cursed by a local Low God, Vanja must make up for all she has stolen before the full moon, or become her greed by literally transforming into rubies and pearls.

I found it to be a fairly slow start, but it quickly ramps up and the ending is phenomenal. I’m thrilled to hear this isn’t going to be a standalone, and I can’t wait to dive back into Vanja’s story.

I thank NetGalley and publisher for allowing me to read and review this book

The Goose Girl is a German fairytale. It's not that well known as the other fairytales
from the collection of Brother Grimm's fairy tales. Little Thieves is a retelling of The Goose Girl.

To get a better grasp at the plot of the story I had to do some research about The Goose Girl before I started reading the book. Like all the Fairytales collected by Brother Grimm, The Goose Girl is a dark one. I like the fact that the Grimm brothers didn't sugar coat the stories. They're all dark and twisted in some way or the other.

Margaret Owen has masterfully reimagined the fairytale and has given it her very own quirk.
Undoubtedly, Little Thieves encompasses many different tropes like morally grey main character, villain is the main character, enemies to lovers, hidden identities, royalty and many more. The best one I think that describes this book well is the "catch me if you can" trope. There aren't a lot of books that use this trope and it is really fun to read one.

We should get on with the story now, shall we?

Vanja Schmidt, our main character, was adopted by the Goddesses Death and Fortune, after being abandoned by her mother when she was little. She grew up being the goddaughter of Death and Fortune.

Up until a year ago, Vanja worked as Princess Gisele's servant. That was when, suddenly her godmothers demanded a heavy price for the support and care they bestowed upon her throughout the years. Having no other choice and wanting to protect her future, Vanja stole the life of the princess she worked for, Princess Gisele.

With the help of a magical, pearl necklace she could alter her appearance and look just like Gisele and take her place as Princess, leaving the real Gisele in a destitute state.

Vanja continues to live her double life as Princess and jewel thief. When she accidentally offends the wrong god by stealing one of her trinkets. She is now cursed and will turn into a jewel in two weeks if she doesn't give back what she stole.

It was clear that Vanja had a really tough life and wanted so much more than what was given to her. She is clever, calculated, and conniving. There were times when I wanted to hate her but every time I tried to she grew even more and I just felt more compassion towards her. It's her flaws, her malevolence that make her feel so real and absolute. At the end it is also her wholeheartedness, her hope to have something more that gives her character the edge. Vanja's development throughout the book was gripping. Witnessing her growth and rise was something that you don't always get to see in books.

The world building is really dense and it is quite similar to most worlds in the fantasy genre. It has some German flair that adds a little sparkle to it. The plot is fast paced, action packed and has a bit of romance, which is really sweet actually. Even though I could predict a couple of the twists in the book, they were still good.

The other characters in the book were interesting and had their own kind of story and happily ever after. I especially loved Vanja and Ragne's friendship and of course Emric, the detective assigned to capture Vanja, had caught my attention from the very beginning and clumsily fell into the one of the sweetest beings alive category.

Overall, Little Thieves is an amazing book. I enjoyed reading it very much. I loved how the ending turned the book into a heartfelt story.