I had started reading this author's Veil series some time ago, but put it on the side because I didn't really care for it. So when I saw this was by her too, I was a little hesitant. But it sounded good, and I have found so few books that have a male lead that I figured why not. I'm very glad that I did because I really enjoyed this. There's magic, myths, and dragons. How can you go wrong?

Curtis is a young thief that has already endured numerous horrors in his life. He lives each day like it could be his last, enjoying whatever pleasures he can with the money he earns. He's good at what he does though, some might even say the best. Even so, Curtis has little self worth and can only ever see himself as a coward. What he never expected was that his most recent commission would make him grow in ways he didn't think possible, but would also leave a trail of bodies in his wake.

Shaianna is an unknown existence, and a very dangerous one. Last of all of her kind, she has devastating power and unmatched skill at killing as well as magic. But because she has been sealed away for so long, she also interacts with the world in such a different way. Curtis first encounters Shaianna one night when he is completely drunk and she corners him in an ally. Forced to drink out of the cup that he was paid to steal, he has no idea that he just bound himself to her. He finds out soon enough the next morning though. Already the dead start to pile up, he's chased by disturbing and violent creatures, and when he gets too far away from Shaianna the pain becomes debilitating. He wants nothing to do with her, but he really has no choice anymore.

Shaianna is on a mission to get to the dragon eye before anyone else. She also tells Curtis that it is needed to break the bond between them. He goes along with her on this trip planning to steal this gem as soon as he's free of her. But he's captivated by this beautiful and mysterious woman. Especially when she shows him sides of her that are happiness and light, not just the masked calm concealing a swift death. So much so that when they finally find the gem, but end up being separated, he spends every day thinking about her and every night hoping she would find him again.

Unfortunately when she does come to him, only more troubles follow. Now Curtis needs to decide if he's really a coward, or if he will fight to protect as many people as he can. While his desires put him at odds with Shaianna, he also wants to find a way to save her as well. The whole book had a very good pace to it, so I was a little upset with how fast the ending went. It began and was done with in just such a short amount of time. Even so, it was still pretty awesome. And that ending was just so absolutely perfect. So much so that I was not happy to get an epilogue for once.

But all in all, this was a pretty great book

The Heartstone Thief is introduced like a book, which Scott LynchScott Lynch’s fans would like. For me it was also very V.E. SchwabSchwab like and also Chandler J. BirchBirch like.
It wasn’t a bad story, true sometimes it was too jumpy and not very logical, and maybe there were too much death just for death sake without anybody benefiting from it and without giving anything to the story – there just was too much of everything and same time it was full of nothing.

Maybe, if I have not been familiar with Lynch and Schwab books, I would have liked it, but as I had something to compare it to … Readable.

This novel was not what I expected, but I am so happy about it!

The characters in this novel were so well written and enjoyable to read - plus the romance was to die for. It was the perfect fantasy novel with loads of action - it made you never want to put the novel down, which I never did.

If you're looking for a action packed, romance filled novel then I highly recommend this novel to all of you fantasy lovers!

A really remarkable story that was entrancing. How Curtis wound up stumbling upon the sorcerous and the action that followed had me wondering what would happen next. The details DaCosta incorporated into her story made it flow together wonderfully and didn't lag along.

Most people believed magic was nothing but a fairy tale. Those who used it were killed. Curtis Vance wanted to forget about magic and those who control it. After meeting a sorceress with some special skills, he was forced to face his past. She convinced him to help her find something rare. He didn’t help her out of the goodness of his heart; he was a thief after all.

The world building was great! There was a constant stream of new things to learn about it. I didn’t want to put it down because I wanted to find out more. It was action packed with one crazy thing happening after another. The characters were deceptive, so it hard to gauge who Vance could trust.

The reason I didn’t rate this book higher was because of the characters. Vance and the sorceress were the main ones. I liked Vance. He was intelligent and could manipulate others to save himself. It was kinda hard to believe the guy had lived so long because he couldn’t do much to save himself when physical skills were required. The sorceress was fascinating because I never knew what her ultimate goal was. She did enough good things that I wanted to trust her, but she had too many secrets. My biggest issue with her was her lack of personality.

The plot was entertaining, and I liked the direction the story went in at the end. It’s unfortunate this is a standalone. The plot was wrapped up, but it’s a shame to develop such an interesting world and only get one story about it.

This was a dnf for me

To be honest I just wasn't interested in reading from the main characters perspective. I think it would have been such a better story if it was from the sorceress's point of view she had such secrets and you could tell she was a deep character I just didn't see any of that from the thief's view he bored me and seemed like such a whinny male character.

This is all just my weird reading preferences though so I'm sure a lot of other people may like this story, it does seem interesting. I only read a chunk just lost interest in it.

<i>I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

Wow, so it looks like I'm the only reviewer on here [so far] that isn't absolutely in love with this book. Oops? This was my first book by this particular author, although I do have one of her other series on my TBR list, so I was excited to give this book a try. And it wasn't bad, it just wasn't what I was looking for. It just happened to contain a few tropes that I don't really like, and the rest of it was okay but not really enough to make up for it / make me love it.

Like, you start of with your standard fantasy-world-thief [orphaned, raised in a brothel, etc, etc] and your standard fantasy-world-sorceress [beautiful, mysterious, possibly evil, etc etc]. And I'm fine with that, I really am. Not every book has to reinvent the wheel and sometimes it's fine to just do some light reading with some familiar tropes. They aren't even necessarily tropes I dislike. It's just that it gives you the sense of 'I've been here before' and not really in a good way. She made up for the two-dimensional characters with a very interesting magic system and some good world building though.

But the overall plot just did not grab me. I started off being really into it and then by the middle my attention was really wandering. I think overall I would have liked it a lot better if it would have just focused on the mystery / magic angle and skipped the whole awkward-romance thing. And the whole 'is she evil or not' thing constantly. I mean it felt like every other page Curtis is like 'oh she's evil, no she's not, no she's definitely evil, [randomly sleeps with her] oh yeah how could she POSSIBLY be evil now?' I just found the entire thing to be exhausting. Also, and this is just a personal preference, but I hate when we're told 'X character will die if this happens' the entire book and then the thing happens and X character just magically survives. I know she did it because she wants to leave it open for sequels and I get it, it's a smart move, but it's just one of my pet peeves. So like I said, not a bad book by any means, but just not one that I could get that into.

<b>I received this book from Netgalley for my honest review. </b>

<img src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTaGj-fOVatJNrej14ucce1aWhCOsdd5mgtNhVkH0CtvLCdBMBrwQ"/>
<b><i>Why, Pippa, why???</i></b>

It's so not fair...

When I started reading this book I was swept away by all the action! It was amazing!

Usually I don't like very much the first person narrative, and here it's a male voice, but, boy, oh boy, was it good!

Vance was such a great character! He's a thief, he irreverent, he's caustic, he's lying, he's cheating, he's running away fro everything and evrybody, but mostly from himself...

I loved him!

What to say about Shaianna? She's bad-ass-kicking heroine if ever there was one! WOW!
A cold-blooded knife-wielding killer!!! She doesn't feel, she doesn't yield, she doesn't forget, she doesn't forgive... NEVER!

But who is she? Where does she come from? <b>What</b> is she?

Well, I realy, really don't want to spil the book for you, so I will not say anything more. But is you like fantasy, different than kings and knight one, you <b>MUST</b> read this book - it's sooooo <b>GOOD</b>!

And for you who are not into love-lost damisels in distress, do not fear: there's love here, but not as you may think!!!

... and don't ask me why the gif at the biginning: do read the book and you'll understand!!!!

What do we have here? Fantasy romance involving a dark, dangerous yet alluring love interest, shrouded in mystery and black leather. That would normally be the most common description for a paranormal heartthrob in this genre. The dagger-wielding, throat-slitting, permanently brooding type.

Only, in The Heartstone Thief, it's a woman!

Told from the point of view of swashbuckling thief Curtis Vance - and I can't remember the last time I read from the perspective of a male first-person narrator - The Heartstone Thief starts right with the "bonding" between the unsuspecting protagonist and arcane sorceress Shaianna, after she's been awakened from the artefact he has been paid to steal. In a world where magic is nonexistent, or rather persecuted, he's still not convinced of her powers and only reluctantly heads off to retrieve the gem she's after, if only for his own ulterior motives.

Now, supernaturally binding two characters to eachother is always a nice way of a) preventing them from being separated for too long, thus pushing on the plot, b) forcing them to work together, and c) building up romance. And, I mean, the blurb is pretty obvious about it.

The gender-reversal in this novel is amazing though. I chuckled to myself whenever Vance is absolutely terrified of, yet feels drawn to Shaianna, or every time he mentions her flawless, gloomy looks and deadly fighting skills in the same sentence. While he's not incapable of surviving by himself, most of the time he is the damsel in distress, and Shaianna rushes to his rescue. Once reading this book, I became painfully aware of the foreignness of this role allocation. The way the male protagonist refers to and is wary of the love interest, the inequality of power and even physical strength between them, the overall inversion of tropes, is just not the norm, and I loved it. I'd read a thousand books like this one.

[full review on goodreads.com]