I really wish publishers would stop comparing new books to Six of Crows. Honestly, I can count on zero fingers the number of books that have lived up to that hype.

Until now.

This book has it all. Mystery, intrigue, a rag tag group of criminals and ruffians, an impossible heist, hidden identities, betrayal, love, a sinister ruler, and a mercenary called the Butcher make this book difficult to put down. I loved every minute of it!

Among Thieves is the story of several members of the crime sindicate The Saints. The gang has fallen on some hard times so when they stumble upon the impossible opportunity to steal an artifact from the Guildmaster of Thamorr for an insane sum, they jump at the chance. Unfortunately, everywhere things can go wrong, they do go wrong. And every member of the heist has ulterior motives or plans that the rest of the team knows nothing about. The story is told in multiple perspectives so the reader gets the inside look at every plan going on within the bigger plan. But, there are still some surprises! The plot is well done, the story engaging.

Each of the main characters are interesting and pretty well developed. I love Ryia, Nash, Ivan and Evelyn.

The only downside for me was the world building. There are so very many different regions within Thamorr and I had a really hard time keeping them straight or even caring about most of the locations. A lot of it felt superfluous. There are also a lot of names, especially early in the book. Once you get deeper into the story the number of supporting and minor characters becomes much more manageable. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoyed the magical elements and the overall setting. It just was confusing especially early in the story.

The ending left room for a second installment and I would love to enjoy another adventure with these characters!

5/5 stars

I really wanted to like this book, but it was a rough start going in because there was a lot of characters being dumped at the beginning. I understand that it’s a fantasy book, so there will be world building (and that was done beautifully) but it was just difficult to hold my attention at the beginning of the book. On a more positive note: I love the lgbt rep and the multiple POVs because they offer different perspectives without seeming like the characters have the same personality, which is something that some authors struggle with - though clearly not seen here. I think the discord is in the sense that the book was marketed as similar to Six of Crows, which it is in regard to the heist; however, it is more plot driven instead of character driven. So if you’re like me, who picked it up because of the comparison, you’ll be a little disappointed in that aspect.

It is in the Name … the story is about a band of thieves (anti-heroes), each with their own secrets and ambiguous moral stance, that team up for a heist against the most powerful man in their world. The story is awash with conflicts, both external and internal, and the main characters align with and betray each other as well as other parties … and the author does a good job at informing the reader as to the internal motivations that drive that.

The world building is interesting for the most part, but some of the word choices for people, places and things were a miss for me … they just didn’t quite connect, but at least they were fairly obvious in context (such as referring to the slums as “The Lottery”). The magic system of Adepts was a solid implementation of mental abilities (aka psionics … kinetics and sensory) that did not over power the plot and was fairly consistent through out. The “seedy” part of the city was pretty generic through and a bit of a disappointment … you have the required gangs competing for control but no real sense of them outside of the typical tropes. Then you have the systemic corruption of power within the government/nobility that tries to help establish some empathy with the main character “thieves.” … the problem is that those characters are just not very relatable (interesting, yes, but definitely more caricature the believable).

The Team ...
You have a merc with a mysterious past and abilities almost inline with a Mary Sue … that gets explained a little as the story moves along. Props are due for evolving from what was fairly selfish character to one a little more altruistic by the end.
You have a young man with his own secret who is also on the run and has landed in the same ‘gang’ as a means to survive and stay hidden; you can guess how well that works right?
You have a mysterious “Northman” forger with his own conflicting agenda that may play a role in future installments
You have a smuggler captain who can sail a plank of wood with her small clothes as sails. …
You have a disgraced guardsman who compromises her integrity for a chance as redemption and the betrayal of a ream member
You have a completely odious gang boss that for some reason isn’t top dog in the slums … but acts like he is and survives just fine thank you very much.

The Mark
The most power man in the world … who also happens to be the gate keeper of virtually all magic (by controller access to practicing adepts).
An artifact used by the original gatekeeper to facilitate his rise to power

The Client
A King … who wants the power of the artifact to rule the world … but can’t be trusted to actually honor any deal? Yeah … they story really does hammer home the idea that you can’t trust anybody :-)
Each individual team member has their own, often conflicting, agenda … all hidden under an apparent motivation for cash … see above.
A competing gang boss that really is in it for the money … and just doesn’t see of doesn’t care about the danger of selling it to the above mentioned King.

Note for Author … frankly the Epilogue had too much story spoilage in it and should have probably been the Prologue of the sequel.

Over all … it was a fun read that moves fairly well and I am looking forward to the next installment.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
# AmongThieves #NetGalley

I received an ARC from the publisher and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Among Thieves is the first book from MJ Kuhn, and it’s a solid debut. It’s billed as a heist-fantasy with morally gray characters, and it definitely delivers.

The story follows a band of thieves, and all are pretty well drawn. Ryia, a mercenary, is suggested by the blurb to be the protagonist, and she does have a pretty big role, with her fleeing from the Guildmaster, who has been trying to capture her for years. But the fellow thieves she joins up with play equally important roles as POV characters, and I appreciate how well balanced it was in fleshing them all out, as at first, I was worried that having so many POVs would mean some would be better drawn than others. Each of them have secrets and their own motivations that make each of them interesting to follow.

The world building does leave something to be desired. There’s names of locations thrown at you, but there isn’t a super strong sense of the time or place to ground you in this setting. There is a vague sense of grittiness to the atmosphere that I appreciated, however.

The plot is engaging and kept me flipping pages with every twist and turn. While there’s a lot of darkness and intensity, I appreciate that it was balanced by some soft, fluffy moments as well.

This is a promising first book from an author I’m excited to see more from. If you love fantasy heist books (it has been compared to Six of Crows, which I haven’t read), you might enjoy this one.

In this quick-paced twist on vigilantes, Among Thieves gives you a rag-tag team bound to make mistakes on a high-stakes mission. This review is possible thanks to the publisher and @NetGalley for providing an e-arc for an honest review.
While this book comes off very Y-A, the language is not, making it not roll off the tongue well for me. The reference to being similar to Six of Crows had me intrigued, however, the similarities were a bit too strong. I was comparing the two the entire time, which brought my rating down.
There were many things that were positive that would stand out for me if I thought I was the target audience. The story line was a standout. The characters didn't get lost in the action and still kept the criminal vibe through the hints of relationships between them.
Though this was not rated high for me, I don't think this was a bad book, just not exactly my type.
Three stars.

Kuhn's debut novel relies heavily on a trope that has been featured already in so many YA fantasy books before, which means readers who are tired of heists are either likely to stay away from Among Thieves, or desperately wait for the novel's release date. What helps AT stand out from other books, though, is its refreshingly diverse and realistic cast of characters whose journey the reader is bound to be thrilled to follow, making this debut well worth the wait.

This cover is truly eye catching. As the title suggests, this debut LGBTQ friendly fantasy by M.J. Kuhn has a fair amount of morally ambiguous characters, gritty underworld betrayal, scheming, blood splattered twists and humor enough to be charming.

Now for the salty part. The characters are fun but not very believable. The world building was generic and should've been expanded upon more but the pacing was fast. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed in the storyline. The writing itself was good but tried too hard. Some of the descriptions got into 'over the top' anime territory. Frankly after Leigh Bardugo (and the like) along with an Assassin's Creed-like setting, this plotline needed to be something really special to stand out.

I just wanted it to be more original. Undoubtedly fans of similar literature will still enjoy this but I don't know if it's buy-worthy. That's just my personal opinion. Thank you Gallery Books and Saga Press, Among Thieves by M.J. Kuhn (352 pgs) releases Sept 7th.

this book was a phenomenal debut! Lots of lovely characters, etc. My review in BookPage will be up later in September; really good stuff.

When I saw this book being compared to Six of Crows, I of course had high expectations. After finishing I find that although it didn’t meet all of my expectations, it still managed to satisfy most of them.
We have a proper criminal underbelly of a city setting , a bunch of colourful characters ranging from a con artist, a disguise master, a pirate, an assassin to even a strait laced honour upholding soldier all with one goal. To steal the writing instrument of the Guild master that might or might not have some serious powers that can change the course of history. All of them have ulterior motives of their own and nobody is afraid to double cross the others to get what they need.
The book follows a fast pace full of action and a lot of twists and turns that keeps the reader entertained from start to finish. The heist part of the story was brilliantly executed and did meet mu high expectations. Now the part which didn’t mert my SoC level expectations were all concerned with the characters. Although they sounded really interesting in the beginning, none of them were explored in depth through the course of the story which led to them being a bit flat and superficial on paper. I also didn’t get the found family vibe from this motley crew of criminals. So those two were my main complaints about the story. But as I found out at the end, the story doesn’t end with this book. It ended on a bit of cliffhanger with a lot of unfinished storylines which leads me to believe that this will be turned into a series, in which case I hope my complaints with this instalment gets rectified in the sequels.
I would definitely recommend this if you are looking for an action packed heist story but I feel the comparison to SoC might be a bit unfair, so go in with limited expectations. You might just end up with a new favourite heist story.
Rating: 3.5

This was fun. A band of scoundrels needs to steal an artifact. Each has their own motivation and of course is it honor among thieves or no honor among thieves… the title is well chosen.
This seems to be a debut novel and it was a fast entertaining read. I look forward to seeing what the author writes next.

Among Thieves is fast-paced with a lot of twists and an exciting magic system. It blurs the lines between good and bad, and you end up rooting for every single character.

Among Thieves follows a team of criminals- Ryia, Tristan, Nash, and Ivan- plus a disgraced Captain of the Guard- Evelyn. The group belongs to the Saints syndicate, where they are given the task of stealing the Quill, a powerful relic.

Each character is distinct, and they all have their own secrets, which leads them to betray one another. Though they’re all callous and indifferent to one another, they manage to bond during their journey, even if they don’t want to admit it. They start as mere acquaintances working for the same crime lord, but they do eventually bond.

Each character has ulterior motives for finding this Quill, and we find out the reasons throughout the book. We see hints on characters' backstories during the P.O.V.'s of other characters, making it more interesting than if the characters themselves revealed it.

The relationships were developed great, and though there is no romance, there’s some tension between some of the characters- Ryia/Evelyn and Nash/Ivan.

The writing skips many unnecessary scenes, making the plot move forward faster than it would otherwise, and even then, there is a lot of setup for the heist. The plot itself starts picking up around the 50% mark.

Among Thieves ends in some big cliffhangers, and as this is advertised as a stand-alone, I hope that there are plans to write more books in the future. I had a lot of fun reading this book, and I’d love it if there were a sequel!

If you love heist stories set in fantasy worlds, check this book out!

I'm SO GLAD I requested this ARC from fellow debuter @mjkuhnbooks

I literally requested based on her personality and posts cause I never read fantasy. (PNR like Nalini Singh Suleikha Snyder is my outside limit usually) and I wasn't disappointed.

I'm so happy and it didn't put me in depression like some early fantasy reads I tied in the genre years ago. Ryia is snappy Evelyn Ivan Nash and even Tristan bring wit and depth. Clem is so mysterious. the worldbuilding rich but not overcomplicated. And the book moves fast ! The action is vivid I could feel the axes and the disguises and the fights with jumps all like a visual movie going on.

Full disclosure I watch fantasy rather than read, in fact this might be my 1st ever true genre read that I finished.

I'd 100% imagined all sorts of axes that's a important character in the story too especially as Ryia is interestingly connected with them. Shiny cool looking and or decorative. Enjoy the read!

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Actual rating: 3.5

MJ Kuhn presents an ambitious heist fantasy debut with Among Thieves. Readers follow the perspectives of the various members of the crew: Ryia the mercenary, Nash the smuggler, Tristan the pickpocket, Ivan the disguise master, and Evelyn the disgraced guard. All under the direction of Callum Clem, leader of the Saints street gang.

Every heist fantasy is compared to Six of Crows, which really does these novels a disservice since the plot point existed long before Bardugo's work and will continue to be used. Do not pick up this work expecting Six of Crows.

Kuhn has developed a world of her own complete with political scheming and a magic system of its own. The world, to me, is actually the strongest part of Among Thieves. Kuhn has clearly developed further than what readers are privy to, but Kuhn does share enough that readers are able to keep up with new terms and places without confusion.

One of the areas where I felt a bit of struggle was in the character work. We learn more about each of the characters gradually throughout the book, but I didn't start to actually care about any of the characters until more than two thirds of the way through. While so much effort was expended in plot and world building, the characters and why we should care about them kind of fell to the wayside. Especially since these characters are really not friends from the beginning, so the characters don't really care or know about each other either which means readers don't have that lens through which to form attachments. Instead, each character has their own internal motivation and secrets for joining in the heist, which is fine but doesn't really make me invest in them as individuals but more as pieces in a game. This piece can fulfill this skill but has this drawback and this advantage sort of vibe.

The character work combined with pacing that seemed determined to fit everything in for world building and keep a rapid action, obstacle driven narrative. This resulted in a novel with a lot of potential, but also plenty of room for improvement.

I would still recommend this book to readers who are more plot motivated than character driven. I do look forward to seeing what Kuhn puts out in the future and would be interested in more works in this world.

See this review and more on my blog, The Scribe Owl!

Thank you to Saga Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5/5 stars

If I was rating Among Thieves for enjoyment alone, it would almost be a five-star. Unfortunately, what dragged it down was how messy the mechanics of it were. While it was an incredibly fun read, some elements bugged me to no end.

The plot was fantastic. It was fast-paced the whole way through, and it keeps the reader on the edge of their seat! There was also a touch of fluff and fun found family moments to brighten up the relatively dark book, which is greatly appreciated.

I loved nearly everything about the characters. They were all unique and interesting in their own ways, which is always a good thing to have in a multi-POV book. I also loved the found family trope in there! But the backstories weren't explained enough for how much of a focal point they were in the story. The characters, especially Ivan and Riya, have their backstories as a huge part of their motivation/goal. But it was explained in maybe a paragraph or two and I'm still not completely sure what happened!

The worldbuilding was a dumpster fire. There were a bunch of countries, and then maybe a continent? Or it could have been just another country. And one of them was mostly Russian-inspired (going off the language) but randomly dropped some German in there? I have so many questions about this world, but I don't think any of them will be answered.

Despite the harsh review (sorry!!) I really did enjoy this read. I always looked forwards to picking it up, and the characters and their relationships were so much fun! If we could just fix up the backstories and worldbuilding, you have a solid 4.5-5 star story in there.

This is a rough book to read.

While there are characters, and while there is a quest/heist/motive, there is just a messy way of going about explaining it to the reader. I felt this book tried too hard to be Six of Crows than actually try not to be Six of Crows.

I don't understand the layout of the world, and the magic and it's various levels within society was not helping.

Among Thieves is an adult standalone heist fantasy story. And while I don't think Among Thieves is going above and beyond with a new approach to the heist story, I did find it to be quite a solid entry into this fantasy "subgenre".

In Among Thieves, we follow several members of a down on its luck gang from the streets brought together to form a team to pull of a big, life changing heist. And while these characters are all working together, they each have their own selfish motivations that they are battling during the book. The characters is what I found to be one of the weaker elements of the book. While I did enjoy our characters, I felt Ryia was the only character we really got to know, and given that we had rotating POVs from several characters, I wish we had gotten to know more of the other's backstories a little more. In some ways this reminded me of a D&D campaign in which at the beginning of the campaign you likely know only a defining fact or two about the other characters and as you play through different campaign arcs you spotlight a character and really get to know that one because going onto the next arc. Or at least this is how the campaign I'm playing in has been going. This is something that I wouldn't even bring up as a criticism had this been the first in a planned series as I would have assumed the next book would delve into a different character. However, this book is being published as a standalone and as such left me wanting more from the characters.

Plot wise I found this book to be excellent. While it does admittedly take a bit into the book to get to the actual main heist, I still found the set up plot to be very engaging. It was a faster paced read for me and the heist definitely kept me on my toes.

If you're looking for a book with deep world building, I would definitely steer away from this one. Kuhn does a great job crafting the setting, but the world building doesn't go very deep into the wider world. However I didn't find this to be a bad thing. The more surface level approach to the world fit well in my opinion with the fun romp of a story this book was trying to be. In contrast, I did find the concept of the Adept and their powers to be more well developed and quite an intriguing concept. I definitely wish we could get more books in this world to explore that magic more.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun fantasy read to throw in amidst longer series and heavier tomes.

You know that feeling when you're 60% into a book, and there is way too much book left for the amount of story you think is left? Or when you're 90% in and you're like there's no way this can get wrapped up? I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book and I had both those feelings during this book. The best comparison I can make for it is that it's like Six of Crows, but instead of being a team or family where everyone is working together, in Among Thieves everyone is out for themselves. The characters are so much fun, the plot is a fantastic heist where everything seems to go wrong constantly, and while I was able to predict a few key plot points, there were some spots where I was surprised. My one complaint is that we don't get enough of the characters' backstories, but hopefully those will be filled out more by future books! Nash is probably my favorite, Ryia is also amazing, and Ivan was awesome as well. I also got a little lost in the beginning, there are a lot of place names and nationalities thrown out, and a map definitely would've helped, but it wasn't so much to really pull me out of the story. If you're a fan of Six of Crows or Lies of Locke Lamora, I would definitely recommend for you to check out this book!

A fun and emotionally rewarding heist novel with morally...grey?...protagonists who, nonetheless are still fun to root for. At first I thought one of the characters was a little ridiculously overpowered but that is explained as the book goes on. It is well set-up to be the first book in a series. There were twists that I didn't see coming but that seemed obvious in retrospect - this is always harder to do than it looks! I'm interested to see where Kuhn goes with this. Looking forward to the next book.

I enjoyed this book immensely! This was a solid fantasy heist story featuring an excellent cast of characters. The pacing was a bit slow but by the end, I was fully invested in the characters and the storyline. This would be a great book for fans of Six of Crows.

I was very excited to read Among Thieves and it did not disappoint. A heist story mixed with a bit of fantasy, what more could you want? Ryia, known as the “Butcher”, has been on the run for years. She is trying to stay one step ahead of those who want her dead. When an opportunity to steal a powerful item from the Guildmaster presents itself, she seizes it. The item will finally set her free and she will do whatever it takes to get it. She joins a group of criminals who each have their own motives for wanting the item. Together they embark on a journey full of adventure, misfortune, and betrayal.

Among Thieves was a bit sluggish at the beginning and character development was slow BUT by the end I was fully invested, and it left me wanting more. The chapters change between different character’s points of view. Each character had a unique voice and I enjoyed getting to know them and their motives. It was a fresh read for me which is sometimes hard to find. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action, adventure, a good heist, and a little bit of fantasy. I’m looking forward to the next book!