I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis Series: Thieves' Gambit #1
Published by Nancy Paulsen Books on 2023 September 26
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery
Pages: 383
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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The Inheritance Games meets Ocean's Eleven in this cinematic heist thriller where a cutthroat competition brings together the world's best thieves and one thief is playing for the highest stakes of all: her mother's life.
At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother's life hanging in the balance.
In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves' Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn't exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world--a wish that could save her mom. When she learns two of her competitors include her childhood nemesis and a handsome, smooth-talking guy who might also want to steal her heart, winning the Gambit becomes trickier than she imagined.
Ross tries her best to stick to the family creed: trust no one whose last name isn't Quest. But with the stakes this high, Ross will have to decide who to con and who to trust before time runs out. After all, only one of them can win.
The Thieves’ Gambit definitely surprised me because I tempered my expectations for it given the average ratings it got from Goodreads. The novel definitely matched my mood when I was reading it; no dilly-dallying, straightforward, and packed with action.
The story immediately introduces us to our narrator, Ms Rosalyn Quest, thief extraordinaire and a member of a large thieving family in the North American Continent. She is very close to her likewise thief extraordinaire Mom and Aunt who seemingly had retired from thieving. While Rosalyn definitely has all the material things her illustrious can afford her, her deepest desire is just to live life like an ordinary person: go to school, attend gymnastics class, and have friends. Unfortunately for her, that is not going to happen as she was forced to participate in a game called The Thieves’ Gambit, hence, the title of our novel and the start of our series.
Right off the bat, we already know how the game’s gonna go. It’s either go big or go home. And Rosalyn could only afford to go big as a beloved’s life is at stake should she fail the game. And thus the starts the adventures of our feisty heroine clashing and fighting with the other participants whose thieving credentials are also as stellar as hers.
If one is really to scrutinize the Thieves’ Gambit, one could not say that it’s an outstanding masterpiece of a heist story because there are better heist reads out there like Leigh Bardugo’s Six Of Crows series or Benedict Jacka’s Alex Verus series. But I enjoyed this novel nonetheless. The writing is simplistic but not juvenile making me breeze through the pages faster, the characters were easily relatable and easy to remember, and there was just balance to everything. The romance, although a bit instant, was cute and not suffocating, the conflict between the participants was nothing too melodramatic (although I did wish for some slapping and hair grabbing) and the twist in the end was actually surprising. Well, I hope that Rosalyn would finally be her own person now that everything has been revealed to her.
My only gripe about the Thieves’ Gambit is how little character development does Rosalyn undergo all throughout the book. But anyway, books 2 and 3 are still coming so there’s a lot of room for her to grow. As much as she is an excellent thief, it’s kind of hard for me to believe that she lives in a shell instead of being someone who could just fly free.
With the way this book end, I cannot wait for how the second book will develop. That ending did put my mind at ease but on the other hand, I can’t wait to get my hands on book 2 because OMG, Rosalyn is not yet free from the game. Hahahaha.