Heist Society by Ally Carter

Synopsis:

For as long as she can remember, Katarina has been a part of the family business-thieving. When Kat tries to leave "the life" for a normal life, her old friend Hale conspires to bring her back into the fold. Why? A mobster's art collection has been stolen, and Kat's father is the only suspect. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat's dad needs her help.

The only solution is to find the paintings and steal them back. Kat's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history-and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

Review by Patrick:

My first review is of a new book series I have started: Heist Society by Ally Carter. I started this series because I have read the Gallagher Girl series, and liked the author's writing, and this series is about thieves instead of spies so it seemed like it would be a good series for me. I think I was right.

First off, a little background. I listened to this book in audio book format, performed by Angela Dawe. Checked this one out at the library, and took me about two weeks to listen to it on my way to and from work.

I'll be the first to admit, I read more "teenage girl" books than the average mid-20's male, but when the books are good, I don't think it really matters. Most of these types of books come from recommendations from my wife though.

To the review: Heist Society is a fun, light book, that mixes Ocean's Eleven with Hostage. Every chapter you read, you want to read more and find out what happens. The book developed as if I were in their shoes, and I had their skill set; very realistic. In the middle of the book, I was already starting to guess who the mystery character was, and I'm pretty sure I got it wrong a couple of times by the end of the book. And the ending! I was ready for the heist and could see where the plot was going and how something might go wrong, but then a surprise I totally wasn't expecting caught me off guard.

This book was teenagery, but not as boy crazy as Gallagher Girl's were, although she did describe one of the main (male) characters as "hot" in the first chapter. The comic relief throughout was good, especially the quirky nerdy characters. The characters were all well defined (maybe too well) and had very individualistic traits. But the way she describes aspects of the security features of a school, or which technique to do a job, made it feel like the characters really knew what they were doing.  

Overall, I liked it. I can't wait to read the next book. I will give it a rating of 4, and begin the next book immediately.

Think you will like this book? Go buy it. Here's a Google search that might help you: www.google.com.

Reviewed by Patrick. 

Up next: Uncommon Criminals, and The Silmarillion.