Thank you to Little, Brown Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

𝘛𝘰 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘴 is an atmospheric historical YA fantasy featuring a heist of an alchemical necklace displayed at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Victorian London. Full of banter, deception, and betrayal, this dual-POV novel is sure to entertain until the last page!

Kane Durante, a crafty con man, has been tasked with stealing a priceless necklace to save his best friend from an early grave. His attempts to complete the heist become more complicated when he is unsuccessful in nabbing the artifact in transit, forcing him to involve alchemologist Zaria Mendoza in the scheme. Zaria, drowning in orders and debt from her late father's black market business, reluctantly agrees to the partnership. As the pair prepare for the ultimate heist, complicated feelings begin to emerge, causing them both to doubt their early plans to betray each other.

I was quickly immersed in the story, eating up the historical setting and beautiful prose. The characters have complex emotions and motivations, leading to a web of decisions and betrayals. I really enjoyed the rather complicated reluctant allies to lovers to enemies relationship between Kane and Zaria. I'm left wounded from the ending and desperate for the next book!

tl;dr
Reluctant partners pulling a heist while backstabbing each other make for some high drama stakes. Big cliffhanger promises more to come.

Thoughts
A quick peek at my recent reading shows I've been in the mood for adversarial relationships lately. Rivals? Absolutely! Enemies? Let's go! Thankfully, this book serves up a heaping helping of conflict in the leads Zaria and Kane, so it hit my mood perfectly. You've probably heard this setup before: Boy is a criminal who needs specialized skills to steal something important. Girl is a specialist down on luck and in need of money. They'd be a perfect match if they didn't hate each other so much. But in a town as rough as this, who can afford to love? Certainly not these two! And this is where the story takes a turn from the expected. While there are definitely hints of slow burn romance, don't expect this to be about them falling in love. Rather, it's a story about two desperate people trying to extract as much use as they can out of the other while the clock ticks down. It's messy, and ugly, and very human. Our leads aren't necessarily likable, but you can't help but want to see what happens next. (Also, two extremely likable supporting cast members really help keep the leads from getting too frustrating.)

This books is ostensibly historical fiction, based on The Crystal Palace, but with alchemy in the forefront (and the author's own admission), historical accuracy is minimal at best. I would recommend approaching it as the fantasy that it is. Also, this books ends on a cliffhanger, and dang if it didn't make everything leading up to it feel even more satisfying. I look forward to the next installment.

Mixed feelings about this one. The beginning is slooooooow, I debated DNFing for a bit, but it does finally pick up around the 40% mark. Kane and Zaria’s relationship was what finally got me a little invested, and I did enjoy their banter. The last half was much more entertaining, but I don’t know how I feel about the ending. I could be persuaded to pick up the next book but not sure if I will yet.

To Steal from Thieves was such an atmospheric, gripping, sharp historical fantasy—it exceeded my expectations, and I was already VERY SOLD. Lobb has clearly done her research on the Crystal Palace and the Grand Exhibition: the world is fully-realized, full of depth and detail and easter eggs for those who are knowledgeable about the time period, but there are lots of fun adjustments to create a fresh fantasy world. The heist is tightly-plotted and the will-they-won't-they, can-I-trust-them., KISS-ALREADY relationship between Kane and Zaria is chef's kiss. The ending is cruel but delicious, and I cannot WAIT for book two!

I really enjoyed this - I love a good heist story and the characters were engaging and the plot kept me turning pages.

That ending though... Dying to get my hands on book 2!

thank you for the opportunity to read this one early :)

Thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for sending me an eARC!
This was a highly anticipated read for me and it did not disappoint!! To Steal from Thieves was an absolute blast from beginning to end. Kane and Zaria are great examples of TRUE morally grey characters and I really loved the way Lobb gave them such real and meaningful motives that any reader could understand. Zaria's ADHD rep was very refreshing and I loved the honesty Zaria had about her own actions. The push and pull between the characters was very fun and the ending was not predictable and was very exciting! I really hope there will be a book two!

I really enjoyed this as a heist novel, it had that feel that I was looking for and enjoyed the feel of this novel. I was invested in what was happening and enjoyed the action-adventure element that I was looking for. I enjoyed the way the characters were written and enjoyed the overall package. M.K. Lobb wrote this perfectly and enjoyed how it worked with the previous books that I read from M.K. Lobb.

Big big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! This quickly turned into a DNF for me. I just wasn’t engaged with anything or anyone to hold any enjoyment. It quickly became too laborious to pick up. Also, I’m not a fan of novels that shove modern characters into historical settings.

I once wrote a single paper on the Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition so yes, I was in fact fully prepared for this heist.

I think the day MK Lobb writes a book I don't like will be the day I give up reading for good. Because this is her third book and the third I have absolutely adored. The Seven Faceless Saints duo was good but this is already shaping up to be even better. I mean, a historical fantasy with magical weapons, a unique and clever heist, a cruel and shady villain, and two main characters who are always fighting but you're begging them to kiss mid-argument anyway? It's everything I wanted. And that ENDING?! I am hurt, wounded, in eternal agony. How I am supposed to wait so long to see what happens next, I do not know. Just pray for me that I survive until then.

This was so GOOD and also so stressful, I could not stop reading once I started!! Zaria and Kane's relationship is so fun to read about, and without spoiling anything (OMG) I cannot wait to see where they wind up in book 2. I liked that we got both their POVs as well. Kane especially has my heart, he has been through the absolute ringer and he deserves to behave badly (in my professional opinion). The magic system and the heist were both very cool and worked well together. Finally, the historical setting was so well done: I love the Victorian era and you could tell a ton of research went into this, but there was also enough of a fantasy element that it didn't feel loaded down with information. Thanks to the publisher for the early review copy!

no one is more disappointed in this rating than me. a historical fiction book and a fantasy book AND a heist book sounded like the perfect book for me. WRONG! this book is not historical fiction. yes, it does have a historical setting, but the characters are not historical. the main characters feel like modern people randomly thrown into a historical setting. you can’t just write modern feeling characters and slap them into a historical setting and call it done. that is just sloppy world building. why spend all this time researching the time period to make it historically accurate to then to not make your characters match?? just go make up your own world if you’re going to pull bullshit like this! don’t play fucking games with me.