Thank you Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this incredible YA novel!
This book is marketed as inheritance games meets oceans 11 and that is exactly what it is.
This was an absolutely thrilling read, I was on the edge of my seat, frustrated and biting my nails the whole way through!
Thoroughly enjoyable and I cannot wait for a continuation of Ross’s story!
4.5 stars ⭐️

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.

I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book but I have to say I did very much. Ross has grown up in a family of thieves who steal as a living. Ross now needs to put these skills into action if she has any hope of saving her mum who has been kidnapped, the ransom 1 billion dollars. Struggling to absorb the situation with her mother, Verity is then offered an opportunity to try to win the game of the Thieves Gambit, where the participants are sent all over the world to complete complex tasks that will test the skills of all. The characters are great, they each have their own personality that brings something to the story. the pay off if you win the Thieves Gambit is incredible and Ross is relying on this so she has to act smart and work out who in the cast of characters she can trust, but it has been drummed into Ross all her life not to trust anyone.

An exciting ending to the game, but is anyone happy? Have they all achieved what they set out to do? There is definitely room here for a future book and I would definitely like to see that happen. Most enjoyable!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions are my own.

This was such a fun read, all of the characters were given there on personality, I did at times struggle to keep up with who was who, but I had a blast reading this. I will definitely be getting myself a copy when it is published.

I was offered the chance to review this book and I loved the cover straight away.

There were a few things straight away, immediately you can feel our FMC loneliness. And it makes her so relatable. And while its a dramatic version this would really resonate with anyone driven too hard to excel at the expense of 'living'.

We have:
• Dangerous game with All or nothing stakes - heist hunger games
• Desperate measure to save one's we love
• Immediate attraction no matter how hard she tries
• Childhood betrayal and reunion of now enemies
• Layers upon layers of manipulation go deceit
• Learning to trust, tentative friendships, blossoming romance and second chances
• Fucked up parenting 😬
• A dang doozy of a plot twist and cliff hanger!!!!

Got a quote I loved
"His kiss was a riptide threatening to pull me out to sea."

And a sudden desire to own a collection shoes with painted soles 😻

I enjoyed this so much more than I anticipated, so ya know what....

5 stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

In Thieves Gambit teen thieves from all round the world have been assembled for a competition where the prize is one wish. Ross comes from a family of thieves and desperately wants to win to save her mum.
I found this an entertaining light read and very definitely a young adult book. But (possibly because of this) I also found myself frustrated at times where we were fed information rather than being allowed to grow our own conclusions. IE we were told something where it works better to infer the same thing.

Overall most of the world building and character development was good with characters growing through the story arc but there were parts where the lessor characters had high impact but the connection felt forced.

The other area that I did struggle a bit with was the easy way the teens were able to travel around the world as required. While I'm all for a story where things are different from the current world this was set in modern day society and that left me feeling a bit odd at times where actions seemed out of sync with current reality.

It almost felt like the book had come after a movie rather than being written first. Or it was written with the idea that it could be turned into a movie.

Great plot. A really fast moving read. I read it in quite a short time.

It’s a very engaging read. You never know how it’s going to end.

Ross’ world is something else. She comes from a family of thieves. She’s living in the Bahamas. She yearns for a normal life. She disregards a message she gets about a thieving competition and is delighted when she's accepted into a summer camp on gymnastics.

Things later change when her mum is kidnapped with a billion dollar ransom being demanded. The only way to for Ross to get the money is to enter a competition, the Thieves' Gambit.

The phases of the contest take the competitors to different countries where they must work against each other to complete their missions. They can form teams. Ross doesn’t want to work with anyone as she needs all the money for her mum’s release.

There’s a guy she has feelings for who she is trying not to get involved with. There are lots of twists and turns in this high tension tale.

Each phase of the Gambit was engrossing. You never know what’s going to happen next. The ending was something else! I’m taking it there will be a book two.

I recommend this well written high tension tale to others.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Thieve's Gambit. A fun, page turning heist with twists and turns and some clues dropped along the way.
I had guessed a few of the plot points, but it still had me eager to see where the adventure would lead.

A couple of things were off for me - for example the way race was referenced with 'Black' and 'White'... it took me out of the story. And a couple of things I didn't understand or missed the context for something about an 'L' and '4C'...
I didn't mind the on the nose linkages to things like Ocean's 11 and "if this were a film..." lines.
One sentence was missing some quotation marks and editing to distinguish between speakers, and another appeared to have a couple of words in the wrong order.

But other than that it was a good time!
And I'd definitely read the next instalment to see what happens next.

Thieves Gambit is not my usual read, I’m a dedicated adult fantasy reader, but this book was absolutely fantastic and had me turning the pages as quickly as possible, desperate to know what was going to happen.

We have a thieving competition between world class teenage thieves where the challenges take them all around the world as they seek to become the winner of the Thieves Gambit. The competition is hot, full of action and throwing many twists that I did not see coming! The characters are presented with opportunities to form allegiances , to deceive one another, to outwit their opponents and to develop friendships, or ruin them!

The book begins by expertly explaining how our female main character Rossalyn Quest could indeed be a world renowned, highly talent thief at only 17 years old. This was such an important element as it made the action packed thievery scenes throughout the Thieves Gambit challenges believable allowing me to really immerse myself in the story.

There was just enough time spent setting the scene for Rossalyn’s motivation for winning the gambit. Not too much to make it slow and not too little to leave me wondering why.

As we are introduced to her opponents in the Thieves Gambit we meet some wonderfully different characters always wondering who should be trusted.

When we meet Devroe I wondered if it was going to be another cheesy boy convinces the untrusting girl to fall for him and she forgets how truly smart and capable she is, but thankfully this friendship takes a journey that is much more interesting.

I enjoyed the pacing of the book where there was a nice balance of fast action packed moments where I had to keep thinking about what the thieves were planning and where the twists were coming and slower more character connected moments to hear their thoughts and get to know their backstory.

Unfortunately the pacing went on hyper speed for the ending which, although a great ending, felt very rushed and didn’t let me really sit in the events or marvel at the cleverness of it all. I would have enjoyed a little bit more time to look back at the little clues left along the way as I read the final scenes.

This was such an enjoyable read which leads into what I hope to be another fantastic book.

Thank you Netgalley, Simon and Schuster and the author, Kayvion Lewis for the ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own and given voluntarily.