Book Review: Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis
With twists, turns, and absolute betrayals, this novel had me reeling. Check out my full review for Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis below!
Book Information
Rosalyn Quest is tired of the same old heists. She wants to be normal and have friends, not just be a thief who only has her mother and aunt to talk to. So, she makes a plan to run away and start a new life without her mother, aunt, and their whole family’s thieving past. But when her mother gets kidnapped and held for a ransom Ross couldn’t possibly meet, she decides that she must join the Thieves’ Gambit, a competition among the brightest thieves. The winner gets to make a wish for anything and Ross already knows that she’s wishing for her mother’s ransom money. When Ross starts the gambit, though, and meets people who she ends up trusting, she doesn’t know if she can keep going in the game with the deception that’s required. Her mother’s life is on the line, but is Rosalyn willing to do whatever it takes to win the gambit? Even if it means her life or another’s life?
Review | Heidi Dischler
Can I just say, wow? Like, oh my gosh. I was reading reviews for this book on Goodreads, and it seems like people love to hate this book AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. I’m telling you now, I LOVE this book. I really really love it. It was everything that I want in and novel and honestly just so much dang fun to read. This book was likened to The Inheritance Games and I honestly couldn’t agree more. It’s a totally different vibe, but honestly a little more thrilling.
So, to start off, I think a lot of people don’t like the characters that much, but Devroe and Ross are my absolute favorites. I loved all of the side characters and I’m not sure why people found it so bland. Devroe, of course, with his cute puppy-ish-ness was my number one. Noelia is a close second. Ross would be next up in my line up. Each of these characters felt layered and complex. They had backstories and reasons for their actions and were so darn frustrating sometimes that I wanted to reach into the book and slap them. But here’s the thing: that’s what makes the characters great. They were frustrating and real.
With the plot, the only part I was actually bored during was probably the beginning. I wasn’t invested at all until Ross started the gambit. After that, though? All I wanted to do was read, which is sooo hard when you have a stage 5 clinger (aka my toddler). I read this book literally any time I had free time and probably shirked off on way too many chores just to finish this book. The gambit was so much fun to read about. All of the different heists and thieving that they have to do literally made me want to happy dance with how entertaining it was. When I got to the end? Mind blown. Yes, there were many parts that I was expecting. Yes, a lot of it wasn’t shocking. The parts that were shocking, though? Their shock value was up to a hundred. I was not expecting it one bit.
Okay, the one thing that I have to gripe about is probably the writing style. It took me a long time to get used to the short cutoff sentences that seemed very choppy. It annoyed me a lot of the time, but once I got used to it about a quarter of the way through, it didn’t impact my reading at all.
Overall, this novel was fun, sooo very binge-worthy, and an absolute thrill. I loved the characters and the plot, but the writing style was an acquired taste. There is very minimal romance and it is in no way spicy, so don’t go into this book hoping for that. 4.5/5 well deserved stars. I have already bought my book trophy on Amazon and pre-ordered the second one (Heist Royale) for my shelves. A huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Source: Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley
(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)
