Thank you so much to Penguin and. NetGalley for this ARC of one of my most anticipated reads of the year! I heard anything being compared to The Inheritance Games and I'm immediately there. This book had a lot of promise with the premise, and because of that, I think I expected the pacing to be a lot better than it is. For a book that was marketed as being something thrilling, it moved awfully slow. It was nonstop later but I think it gave me a bit of whiplash. I think more consistency would have made the book a lot better but I will be tuning into the rest of the books!

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @penguinteen for an early copy of Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Release date: September 26th, 2023

Blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112974911-thieves-gambit?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=jIJrxahmu2&rank=1

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

Thieves’ Gambit is a fast-paced and exciting novel centered around Rosalyn who joins a secret thieving competition to win money to rescue her kidnapped mother. Competing with other teenagers from known significant thieving families worldwide, the challenges were exciting and thrilling as each competitor fought to win. There were lots of betrayals, twists, and amazingly crafted heists, which ended quite unrealistically.

It was fun seeing Ross make friends with her team as this has been her wish ever since, to make friends as she feels so alone with only her family to count on, regardless of what her mom says – “Trust no one”. This, by the way also applies to her with how the ending came to be.

I found Devroe sketchy from the very beginning, and I was actually pleased that I was right not to trust his character (all these betrayals in the novel got me having trust issues too 😅). I felt that regardless of how hard he pursues Ross with all is charm and flirting, their chemistry was way off.

But I enjoyed the ride. The ending was a revelation although quite disappointing and a cliffhanger. A good beginning to a series of books.
Looking forward to the next one!

Fantastic. Kept me on my toes. First 5 star book in a few months. I can’t wait for the next one! Thank you for sending me an ARC.

This book has a very interesting premise. I was initially interested based on that; however, the beginning of the book moved too slow for me. By the end it was clear this would become a series. It's just one of those times when I didn't feel like that was necessary. The book could have easy gotten by with less set up in the beginning in order to hook readers faster.

I would likely still recommend for readers interested in competition books that are willing to commit to a series. Sadly, I am not right now.

3.75 stars This tale of a hair-raising heist game was filled with twists and turns. The beginning was slow to pick up but when it did it was nonstop. I will look forward to the next in this series.

Finally a heist story with an actual heist! I was pleasantly surprised by Thieves' Gambit to the point where I wanna read The Half Class which is Kayvion's now out of print debut novel that's been sitting on my Kindle for awhile. I wish people would've rushed to read this one more. It's got great pacing which is hard to find in YA lately.

Ross Quest comes from a family of thieves and just when she's thinking of leaving and getting out of the business, a job gone wrong leads to her mother being held captive. In order to get the money to save her she must enter the Thieves’ Gambit, an international heist competition.

It actually feels like a book written for teen readers which is a plus and though this is the type of story we've seen before it brings a strong voice to the table.

This is a fast-paced, fun book as long as you can suspend a little disbelief at some of the twists and turns along the way. I really enjoyed the competition aspect, although I wish there had been more actual competing. I liked most of the characters, and found Ross a good MC. I enjoyed her back and forth with Devore and Noelia in particular.
To be quite honest, I went into this book expecting a standalone so I didn’t love the ending that obviously points to a sequel and doesn’t wrap everything up. I will, however, read said sequel because I enjoyed the book quite a bit.
I’ll be recommending this one to my students and the librarian at my school!

This was a book I could definitely see myself liking 10 or so years ago when I was big into the Heist Society books. But I think I’m just too old for this type of book now.

Some of my problems have to do with how rushed the whole thing felt. It also was pretty predictable from the beginning.

With that being said I do feel like teens & young adults will enjoy this book.

This book was such a good heist book! I cant wait for more of this series and I am itching to find out what happens with our fatal lovers. The schemes were so elaborate with so many twists that you can’t help but be on the edge of your seat for.

I started reading this one because I loved the description but unfortunately it did not keep my interest. I didn’t connect with the characters and I found the beginning boring.

The comps between this and Inheritance Games feel really accurate, as this has a lot of the same positive attributes and also a lot of the same problems.

This is a great premise for a series, though one that, like Inheritance Games, is almost guaranteed to set itself up to fail because if we learned anything from The Westing Game and other ancestors of this type of story, it’s that there’s no good way to end it.

As in the Inheritance Games series, you can see the devolution of the plot already at the end of the first book, and the cliffhanger ending just postpones the inevitable problems. Where this book has it over most series like it is that regardless of the likely doomed conclusion, it’s a lot more fun to get there.

The pacing in these is excellent, as are the tasks that comprise the game. These feel more like real heists than the kinds of goofy riddles typically used for books like this. And the characters are terrific, equal parts likable and intriguing and with the kind of well thought out backstories that help drive their actions in the broader narrative than the story.

In all this is a much more well written version of something we see frequently in YA books, and though it appears to have some of the same narrative and structural problems as it’s brethren, it’s a fun read and should appeal to most age groups.

I love the format of this book and it’s sits beautifully on the shelf of our store. The fans of inheritance games and good girls guide to murder will eat this one up.

4 / 5 ⭐️'ˢ

“Thieves’ Gambit” By Kayvion Lewis

📕 Edition: ebook & Audiobook

This was a fast paced fun read with a fun concept. Ross Quest, a young master thief, finds herself in a high-stakes competition to save her mother's life.

The characters, including Ross, her childhood nemesis, and a charming competitor, are well-developed in the story.

The vivid descriptions of the heists and the suspenseful atmosphere had me fully immersed in the story.

Thank you @NetGalley, @kayvionclewis , @penguinteen for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me an arch of this thrilling novel in exchange for my honest review!

Rating: 3.75 stars

Let me start by saying that my expectations for this vibe of the book were incredibly high because I love action-packed stories. One of my favorite series of the year was actually The Inheritance Games and while they are not very similar in my opinion, this book gave me that same thrill and I really enjoyed it from start to finish. I love how fast-paced it was and would absolutely read more from this author.

Love love loved this book! It was so fun and enjoyable and I loved all the settings, the writing, the pacing, and the plot. I already can’t wait for book 2! If you love ya books movies like Italian Job and Oceans Eleven then I definitely recommend this one.

Ross is a master thief, and she has to prove it to save her mother's life when she enters the Thieves' Gambit. The Gambit is a vicious test for the best of the best thieves where killing isn't off the table and the prize is anything in the world. Her competitors are just as cunning as vicious as she is, and she's willing to prove it when her lifelong nemesis and a handsome boy in the competition are potential distractions. As long as she remembers not to trust anybody, winning the competition should be as simple as committing a few intentional heists. Right?

Thieves' Gambit follows in a series of fun heist and mystery YA books like The Inheritance Game and movies like Knives Out and Oceans Eleven. There are even some elements of Hunger Games in the cutthroat nature of the competition.

The plot keeps you guessing, and the challenges the competitors are set are unpredictable in nature and just as unpredictable in how they unfold. Some of the events that happen are a little too convenient, but the book has enough detail, suspense, and character development for the most part that it's easy to forgive if some things happen a little too easily on occasion. Some of the events happen so quickly that it can be hard to follow exactly what's happening, particularly at the end. The characters could use some more development, but they are developed enough that it's interesting to see how they all come up with different approaches to the challenges they are presented.

My biggest complaint is that this book ends in the same way it feels like most books of this type end. When a character spends a huge amount of the plot obsessing over not trusting anyone, the story almost always ends the same way. The very predictable "plot twist" didn't feel like a twist at all. Instead, I wanted to roll my eyes because the twist is so common in this genre now. The twist is also supposed to set up the reader to be excited about what's to come in the sequel, but I was so annoyed by the not-at-all-shocking twist that it killed my excitement about the next one. I'll probably still read it because I enjoyed the book a lot up until that point, but I hope the future books don't end as predictably as this one does.

Overall, this book makes for a fun read, and it draws you in enough that most of its faults are easy to ignore while you're enjoying the adventure.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are my own.

Thanks so much to Penguin Teen for sending me a copy of this book to read and review! This was another top pick from my roster of thrilling summer reads that will be just as fun for fall.

If you're aware of my obsession with Six of Crows then you won't be surprised to hear that I love a good heist novel. It's so entertaining to be outsmarted by an author and their cunning characters! I loved the concept of a teen who was raised by a legendary family of Bahamian thieves and Lewis did a great job with the opening scenes of Ross and the legacy of training and heists she was born into. The competition aspect of the story was equally well done and the pacing of the various challenges kept me turning pages nonstop.

Ross' competitors were highly skilled, cutthroat, and gave you no hint as to who she should trust. And when she did (reluctantly) let her guard down, it was so sweet to see her form her first real friendships outside the bounds of her overprotective family. The only relationship aspect that I wasn't as invested in was the one between Ross and her love interest, where their interactions felt kind of forced and predictable.

If the rest of my review doesn't convince you, I read this book in a single day and there's already a movie adaptation on the way. I recommend grabbing this one soon!

This is a fast-paced, thrilling time. I loved the diversity of characters, the multiple settings and challenges. The story telling was great and nothing felt wasted. I think a lot of teenagers are going to enjoy this book.

Excellent read for fans of Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Lewis weaves familial duties and conflicts with an excellent, Hunger Games-style heist competition. Though the plot twist and betrayals felt like a bit of a forgone conclusion, it still set up the characters for an interesting follow-up. Overall, a fun, twisty read with interesting characters.

The only life that Ross and her family has ever known is the world of thievery, trained from a young age to commit professional heists, she desires to live a normal life but her mom stands in the way of it. When a heist goes wrong, Ross enters a competition, thieves’ gambit, to save her family. Ross finds along the way that her family’s ways aren’t always the best ways and never trust a thief applies to her family as well. This story was action-packed and engaging throughout, ready for book two!