Another nail-biting instalment in the series, introducing new characters and impossible heists, but staying true to most of the original characters and the unique thrill that belongs to the first book.

This is a hugely enjoyable and absorbing crime novel. It’s aimed at a YA audience, but should appeal to a large slice of the adult audience too. It’s a sequel to “Thieves’ Gambit”, but can be read as a stand-alone.

Having said that, you’ll get more out of it if you read “Thieves’ Gambit” first. That also is a wonderfully entertaining novel, and it provides background information that isn’t always repeated in “Heist Royale”.

Rosalyn “Ross” Quest and Devroe Kenzie are serving the year they’ve promised to the Organisation behind the Gambit. They’re notching up daring crime after daring crime. Ross has tentatively begun to believe in the friendship offered by some of the other competitors in the Gambit, but she can’t let her guard down with Devroe.

Despite his frequent protestations of love, his mother is at the heart of a plot to kill Ross and her entire family. Ross and Devroe find themselves drawn into another thieves’ competition, one which will assuredly turn deadly. Both teens will have to decide where their loyalties lie.
This is a fantastically absorbing novel that works on many levels. There’s the daring heists, and the creative plots to pull them off. There’s the scheming and plotting within the organization. There’s similar scheming and plotting in both Ross and Devroe’s families.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are the relationships between the teenagers. In “Thieves’ Gambit” we were introduced to Ross’ family motto: trust no-one. But trust is an integral part of relationships, and a particularly scarce commodity in a world of double dealing. This is an interesting exploration of what it means to trust, and how to build it (and betray it).

I enjoyed that the novel wasn’t focused solely on a romantic relationship (although there are some), but substantially on friendship. This gives Lewis the opportunity to explore different aspects of multiple relationships. Her strong characterisation makes each come to life, and consequently readers will care a lot about what happens to each.

Although there are a few tentative threads that could be picked up for another novel, this largely brings the story to a satisfying conclusion, both in terms of the plot and the emotional journey Ross has been on.

This is a highly entertaining novel, with an intelligent plot adorned by cleverly planned heists, and a strong emotional element. I just plain enjoyed reading it.

I loved this sequel to the Thieves gambit. Somehow it seemed to fall into place more easily than the first book, possibly because I already knew most of the main characters and it was great to see how their relationships changed and progressed. With suspense, romance, frenemies and regular heists there is plenty of action on every page and it’s hard to put the book down! While we do thankfully see more of Ross and Davroe and their enemies to lovers story; it is also the friendships Ross has with others including Noelia and Kyung-soon that I particularly enjoyed reading. Ross frequently learns and experiences more about the value of friends and loyalty including in several life and death situations, and learns she doesn’t have to follow her mums lead with trusting nobody. Clever writing with several scary moments and nice twists along the way! Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for my ARC copy in exchange for this review.

I enjoyed this one! I love a good heist and Lewis did a good job to make the second book different to the first (it did not feel repetitive). I loved getting more dynamics between already met characters and I did quite like the conclusion to this duology.