Serena’s Review: “Among Thieves”

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Book: “Among Thieves” by M. J. Kuhn

Publishing Info: Gallery / Saga Press, September 2021

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org |Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: In just over a year’s time, Ryia Cautella has already earned herself a reputation as the quickest, deadliest blade in the dockside city of Carrowwick—not to mention the sharpest tongue. But Ryia Cautella is not her real name.

For the past six years, a deadly secret has kept her in hiding, running from town to town, doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the formidable Guildmaster—the sovereign ruler of the five kingdoms of Thamorr. No matter how far or fast she travels, his servants never fail to track her down…but even the most powerful men can be defeated.

Ryia’s path now leads directly into the heart of the Guildmaster’s stronghold, and against every instinct she has, it’s not a path she can walk alone. Forced to team up with a crew of assorted miscreants, smugglers, and thieves, Ryia must plan her next moves very carefully. If she succeeds, her freedom is won once and for all…but unfortunately for Ryia, her new allies are nearly as selfish as she is, and they all have plans of their own.

Review: Here’s another book that’s been languishing on my TBR list until I saw that the sequel was coming out this summer and…oops! Better read the first one quick! One of the reasons I probably hadn’t gotten to this one right away is that I was feeling fairly burned out on these multi-POV heist books. I swear there was a year there where I read 5-6 books with different variations on this concept. But it’s been a bit now since I’ve read one, and, overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

One thing I appreciated right off the bat about this book was the fact that it is an adult fantasy novel rather than YA. I’ve found I’ve been struggling more and more with YA books that feature assassins as one of their main leads. For one thing, I struggle with the idea that a young teenager has somehow managed to develop the skills necessary in the short lives they’ve had, but then the story itself always tends to be extremely bloodless which just sits awkwardly with the entire concept. Here, while all of our characters read as young, in their twenties, they also have clearly lived dangerous and morally grey lives. They’ve killed, they’ve stolen, and they are willing to betray those they must to further their own life stories.

The story bounces back and forth between five different characters, but the focus is largely on the assassin, Ryia, and, to lesser extents each, the fallen soldier, Evelyn, and the smuggler/ship’s captain, Nash. All three are excellent characters, but Ryia by far is given the most story arch in this book. As the plot progresses, we learn more about her personal history and how this particular heist hits so close to home for her. However, I did have a soft spot in my heart for Nash. In many ways, she was maybe the most simple character in the entire book, being the only one not actively plotting to betray the others at any given moment. Like Ron in “Harry Potter” and Rachel in the “Animorphs” series (both favorites of mine), she was largely the heart of the little group, the brave one, the brash one, the sometimes foolishly straight-forward one. And I love her so much!

The writing and pacing of the story is quite fast paced. There were very few moments between action sequences, which I think worked in the book’s favor. Whenever the story slowed down too much, I did find myself getting stuck on the obviousness of a few supposed “reveals” in the story. There is one character in particular whose past is supposed to be a big mystery, but whose identity was fairly obvious quite early in the story. A certain artifact was also rather obvious in its powers, but our characters were fairly obtuse about this throughout much of the book. And then the romances, such as they were, felt very shallow and popping up out of not much of anything.

Still, it was a fun, fast read. I didn’t actively hate any of the character POVs (high praise indeed for me, as I’m definitely not typically a fan of this writing style), and I was able to finish it up in only a few sit-downs. If you’re a fan of heist stories, action-packed fantasy, and large casts of characters, this is definitely a good book for you!

Rating 8: While lacking in depth as far as characters and world-building, this was still a fun, fast read that I’d recommend as a good “beach read” type of fantasy novel.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Among Thieves” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Fantasy books with heists and Nautical Fantasy.