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

A really fun, magical and fast-paced middle grade fantasy read.

I found this such an addictive story with really well-developed characters, intriguing and clever world building. I found the politics, mythologies and religions really intriguing and well written. The world that Megan Whalen Turner has created in this book is brilliant and fully immerses her readers in the story. She has built such a strong relationship amongst her characters who will stay with you long after putting down the final book.

This is the sort of book that requires you to accept that the pace is slow, the first half is a non-event, but you'll get to know your characters like they were your closest friends. I'm sadly not that type of reader - I'm greedy; I want all of those things.

It takes about 20% for you to realise that this book isn't going anywhere fast, but until that penny drops it's actually quite a fun read. You're getting to know the characters, you're exploring the land with them and their personalities are really coming through because there's quite a lot of dialogue to work with.

After that however, you begin to realise why this book hasn't sky-rocketed in the market. It just isn't as good as similar books - it has a bit of Graceling about it, but it isn't as compelling, and that's sort of the problem. The book does nothing wrong, it just hasn't been competitive enough or imaginative enough to level up from the fantasy we had to read in the early 2000's.

Having said that, Gen is a likeable thief - the premise of the story requires him to steal something alongside the magus and his colleagues in a quest style adventure - and he has the arrogance of a certain blonde assassin many readers love. But because the plot is quite simple, for a fantasy at least, it's never high enough stakes to believe he's as badass as he proclaims.

A good book, but not special enough for me to revisit it.

ARC provided from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's always a good thing when you read a book and discover there's an entire series that you can read.
This book aged well and it's a good introduction to a series I didn't read but i discover it's quite popular.
That said I liked it and found it enjoyable even if a bit slow at the beginning.
There's a lot going in the second part and I can't wait to read the rest of the series as I liked world building and storytelling.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

If a book has even a whisper of Greek Mythology inspo, I'm guaranteed to love it. This book is no exception.
The world building is stellar and the pacing is a little slow to add to atmosphere. Think classic fantasy techniques.

I had a fun time with this, in the end, but it took me a bit of getting into… the book opens with Gen already in the king’s prison, hopeless and in a very bad way. I did warm to him right away, this strange young man who got caught out as a thief because he had to show off stealing the King’s seal. He is proud, but knows his faults, and he is clever, and has reason to boast of his skill, which is why he finds himself forced onto a dangerous, and very secret, mission for the king.

Thus begins the part of the book I wrestled with. Gen is offered the opportunity to earn his freedom by stealing something of value for the king, and this something is across the border in enemy territory, which means that Gen and his watchful companions set off on a long journey, just as classic fantasy dictates! This part almost lost me, and the dynamics between Gen, the clever magus, his apprentices, and the wry old soldier weren’t enough to keep me interested the whole way through. I know, I’m being vague, but I don’t want to give away too much, because the second half of the story really got going and had a delightful number of twists! There were certain moments that, as they happened, blew the story wide open and shed a different light on everything that had come before. It’s very good story telling.

The world is also an interesting one, and seems to be almost an alternate history of the Hellenic world, as I got a very Greek feel from everything. It packs a lot of mythology and politics into it as well, with the area having a history of foreign invaders and the conflict between the old gods and the new. I am also very glad to see that the gods were present in the story, causing mischief as usual! Overall, despite a slightly boring interval, this was a really fun story and I’ll probably pick the rest of the series up when I get a chance!