I must admit, I started this book and put it down. I found it hard to get into, however, a few weeks later I gave it another chance and really enjoyed it (this I must have been in a mood the first day!).

Also, I will say.. the twists in this, I just didn't see the twists coming! I really enjoyed this book!

A lush and gorgeous tale, Whale-Turner is a writing force to be reckoned with. I adored this book. She never fails to capture her reader and transport them.

I honestly don't know how to write a review for this book because did I like it? Yes.

But can I tell you what exactly I liked about it? Not really.

I finished this two weeks ago and I already can't remember any names except for our main character Gen. I also can't remember anything from the story except they were riding a lot and there was some kind of maze - that part I actually enjoyed the most - and then they were riding again. There just wasn't much going on in the book I think and the one thing that could have been a cool plot twist was pretty predictable I think but still - did I enjoy reading it? Yes, absolutely. I just really can't say why.

I think my main problem with this book was that it was hard to care for the characters or what was going on because it was told in such a… superficial way? I know that's not the right word I just don't know how to describe it. The story was about Gen and told by him and still it felt like he was very indifferent to most things that were happening and the other characters which made it hard to care about the story for me.

(Spoilers ahead. I tried to avoid anything explicit, but it’s impossible to review the book without them.)

The Thief (The Queen’s Thief 1) was originally published in 1996 and was well received with several awards and nominations. It’s now been reissued by a new publisher to reach a new generation of readers.

I belong to the generation that would’ve read the book when it originally came out, but I hadn’t. I think I would’ve loved it then. However, time has done its thing, and it hasn’t been altogether kind to it.

The book follows Gen, a thief who is made to join a mission to steal a piece out of mythology, located in an enemy kingdom. It’s either that or remain in the gaol, so off he goes with a nameless magus (if his name was ever given, it wasn’t used again), his two apprentices, and a man of arms.

They sneak into the enemy kingdom through mountains. It’s slow going and the narrative is slowed more by a bunch of completely unnecessary stories about gods. You can skip them all. With a great difficulty, they finally achieve their impossible task. And then things go wrong.

The book is narrated by Gen in the first-person point of view, and if I recall correctly, there weren’t many of those in fantasy back when the book first came out. It was a very odd choice for the story, and it wasn’t done very skilfully, especially when the story required other peoples’ point of view. The narrative was very impersonal, and in parts he just told what happened, even the dialogue. A brief sample of the next book at the end has a third person POV and it worked better.

Even though we spend the whole book with Gen, we learn absolutely nothing about him. I don’t know his age even. He has no inner monologue. He observes the others, but rarely comments and never in a meaningful way that would relate to him. Even when he is in charge, the reader isn’t with him, except for the brief part where he does the actual stealing.

The narrative is so impersonal, that for the entire book, I was convinced Gen is a woman. I know he was referred to as ‘he’ already at the beginning, but nothing about him made me believe it. He didn’t sound like a man inside his head. He didn’t even need to shave after having been in a gaol for a long time, even though a great show was made of washing him otherwise. I kept expecting the other shoe to drop, but it never did. Nevertheless, I think the story worked fine, if not better, with my version of him.

The reason for the odd narrative is revealed at the end when it turns out that the whole story is a lie. The reason Gen plays everything so close to his chest is because he lies not only to his companions but to the reader as well. And I hated it. It’s not the clever twist the author probably intended it to be. It’s just disgustingly lazy, aching to ‘it was just a dream’ ending. Nothing we learned about him is true (except the gender, apparently). So, in a way, it was good I wasn’t invested in him, and that I imagined him as a woman. My version was as true as what the readers got.

The stupid ending ruined the book, prompting me to give it two stars. However, since I was fairly entertained until that point, and liked most of the story, slow and old-fashioned though it was, I’m giving it three stars. But I won’t be reading the rest of the series.

The Thief is definitely a tricky book to get into. The beginning is very slow, however, if you persist it ends up being a complete whirlwind of a book with interesting characters and fantastic world-building. I actually think that the slow pace of the start allowed me to really grow to love the characters and it also allowed for more in-depth world-building that wasn't instant and info dump-y in order to make room for action. But the mid-point I really felt like I understood the world and the characters which allowed me to be shocked by the spectacular plot twists and action of the second half! Can't wait to read the next book.

This was book was really great!! I enjoyed it a lot, loved the characters and the world building. The cover is also so lovely.

I really enjoyed this book. It was gripping, funny in places, occasionally a little slow but overall a good, quick and easy read. Would definitely recommend.

Thank you for my earc of this book!
This was an engaging read by a new to me author. I was excited to get into this series and think it’s a strong start. A little slow in places but enjoyable.

This book is a really good start to the queens thief series, although slightly slow at times it was a really interesting and easy read. I loved the twists and turns and the whole idea of a heist as it was beautifully written in a lot of detail. I would definitely read the next book in the series!

Where do I start?

I have mixed feelings about ‘The Thief’. The opening chapters were entertaining and somewhat humorous considering the setting. We are introduced to Gen, a thief who can steal anything and get away with it. Except, we meet Gen in the King’s dungeon. Despite his current situation his character looks on the bright side, and when the King’s Magus offers an opportunity to escape prison, he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is steal an object of political power from another kingdom.

This is when the book started to spiral downhill for me. I was so looking forward to the adventure our characters would be on but, it was painful slow and I hate to say it, boring. It is the longest horse ride I have ever read and nothing happens but squalling between Gen and his fellow travellers who are pretentious and awful towards him.

The only thing I enjoyed was the stories told of the worlds legends and myths. They were extremely compelling and detailed and is what kept me reading.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I was 60% into the book and it just wasn’t happening for me. I have heard that the second part is we’re all the action is at. So if you are the type of person who has to finish a book once you’ve started, then hopefully this will be the satisfying ending you need.

Rating: 2.5 stars

The Thief was such a quick and easy read. An enjoyable read too. A book I certainly would have loved to have read in my teens.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an earc.

This is the first book in the Queen's Thief series. I found this to be an enjoyable read, although the middle got a little slow for me. There was also some repetitiveness throughout. Overall though I enjoyed this book and would recommend checking it out.

I greatly enjoyed this story. The characters, the worldbuilding, the plot- all of it was phenomenal. My one complaint was that it could be quite slowly-paced, and the length felt longer than it needed to be. Nevertheless, I genuinely had a very fun time reading this and I was inspired by the story. It had the same style as other authors I’ve really loved and reminded me a little of Madeline Miller.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc!

This was definitely more YA in nature, but I liked it! It was a quick and easy read.

Thank you to Net galley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I'm very much in two minds about this book, the premise itself was really interesting, Gen the thief being tasked by the king to steal a precious gift to unite kingdoms. However the story itself was unfortunately too much of the journey and not enough of the characters. I would have loved to have learnt more about Pol, the Magus and Gen etc but the character development never really went far enough for me to really fall in love with them. This being said I will definitely be reading the other books in this series to delve deeper into this world.

This is one of those books where I wondered why I sat on it or so long. I love a good heist novel and this one is a great heist novel. I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to jump into book 2. This had so many twists and turns I just didn’t see coming. It had great elements of a road trip book at the start then merged in a really well paced heist novel with amazing reveals of how it all came together.

At first Gen was utterly detestable as a character in the best possible way, in fact all the characters were pretty unlikable but by the end I adored them. the all had such great story arcs as they got to know each other on the road we got to see different sides to them and they developed in such detail that you just wanted to know more. This gave the plot a really good pace. I loved the use of the campfire stories to give us lore about the world. The world building was really detailed and we got to learn so much from ancient gods to the political power between realms.

The Ending was fantastic, it had both bitter sweet moments, a great twist and a little bit of a happy ending too. It made me really want to continue. While it was a fantastic self contained story it also seeded so much for the continuation of the story.

**I was provided with a copy of the book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

You know those moments when you feel like you’ve read a different book to everyone else… this is one of those for me. After seeing so many raving reviews for this series over the years I was really excited to finally get a chance to read it but it was such a disappointment.

To put it short this book is SO SLOW!

The characters are travelling for half of the book but alongside the leading protagonist getting dragged along on this quest he doesn’t do much else other than eating and sleeping. Some history of the world and a couple of folk tales are shared between the characters every now and again but other than that nothing happens?

It took me way over a month to get to the half way point - keep in mind this book is less than 250 pages - and then I took to skim reading the rest even when the slightly better parts kicked in.
I did start to find myself a bit more fond of the protagonist in the second half of the book but I had got to the point where I just wanted to see the end that even the big reveal didn’t wow me. In fact I feel like I half guessed it would be the case.

Debating on whether I should still give the next book a chance so if you’ve read it and would say it’s better than book 1 feel free to convince me.
Final Rating – 2.5/5 Stars

A really great example of a classic style fantasy. Beautifully written with interesting twists and turns that grip you page after page.

loved this! - thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC in exchange for an early review.

The first half of this book was so long and literally nothing happened i was so bored that i couldnt bring myself to continue. I wanted to love it but i just didnt. I need action in my books to keep me gripped