Publication: 26th September 2023 – Simon & Schuster Children’s Books UK
Challenge: Join the Thieves’ Gambit, a cut-throat competition to crown the world’s greatest thief
Rule 1: Never fall in love with your opponent
Rule 2: The only thief you can trust is yourself
Endgame: Win the heist to save your family – and yourself . . .
Seventeen-year-old Rosalyn Quest was raised by a legendary family of thieves with one rule: trust no one. When her mother is kidnapped, her only chance to save her is to win the Thieves’ Gambit – a deadly competition for the world’s best thieves, where the victor is granted one wish. To win, she must outwit all of her backstabbing competitors, including her childhood archnemesis. But can she take victory from the handsome, charming boy who makes a play for her heart and might be hiding the most dangerous secret of all?
When your family is one of the most powerful families of thieves in the world, you don’t grow up playing or going to the movies with your friends, but you spend all your time training to be the fastest and invisible so that you can enter any place you wish. This is Rosalyn Quest’s life, traveling the world with her mother to steal artifacts and fortune.
All her life Rosalyn has been told that her family is the most important thing and she can trust no one else, but she dreams of freedom and right about when she is about to achieve it her mother is kidnapped and the only way to free her is to enter the Thieves’ Gambit, an annual competition that sees the best and brighter young thieves in the world compete for one week. The winner can ask for one wish, anything they want. The competition is fierce and the challenges are ruthless and dangerous, but Rosalyn is determined to win, even if it means teaming up with her enemies.
The story is well-written and full of twists and turns and the author created a cast of engaging characters: a group of teenagers competing to win a prestigious competition, all of them with their own motives, some of them are hiding secrets, some of them are ready to kill to get to the end. The story is told from Rosalyn’s perspective. Raised by her mother and her aunt on an island, knowing that blood is everything and that she can’t trust anyone. How far is she willing to go to protect her mother?
Thieves’ Gambit is an intriguing and exciting read with an unexpected ending that makes me really looking forward to the sequel!
A huge thank you to Simon & Schuster Children’s Books UK and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this gripping novel.
Kayvion Lewis is a young adult author of all things escapist and high-octane. A former youth services librarian, she’s been working with young readers and kidlit since she was sixteen. When she’s not writing, she’s breaking out of escape rooms, jumping out of airplanes, and occasionally running away to mountain retreats to study kung fu. Though she’s originally from Louisiana, and often visits her family in The Bahamas, these days you can find her in New York – at least until she takes off on her next adventure.
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