Thursday, November 24, 2011

Heist Society by Ally Carter


        
Heist Society
(Heist Society #1)
by Ally Carter
Summary from Goodreads:

"When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way."

Rating:

I read this book because I wanted a break from all the dark, brooding, thick books I’ve been reading for the past weeks. Since I noticed that this book had only less than 300 pages, and the premise seemed really interesting, I gave it a shot. Who would’ve thought I’d come to enjoy it so much!

Ally Carter has mad writing skills! A great plot, charming characters and well execution made this book a real standout for me.

I kind of want to see more of the characters in this book since I feel like I didn’t get a lot more time to get to know them better. For instance, Kat is a character that I want to get to know even more. She’s cunning and one of the best thieves around but I like that despite how well she is on this; she wants something more of a normal and lawful life. And yet she’s the type of person who cares about her family very much. Even with all that, I feel like there’s got to be more to her that I’d appreciate greatly.

I also want to see more of the Hale/Kat relationship. I hated that I didn’t see anything more than them just holding each other’s hands when it’s obvious there’s chemistry between them.

I don’t know much of paintings and the artists behind them but I like the fact that I learned something new from this book. 

Heist Society was a really fun book to read. It was cute, light and engaging, not to mention witty! I also enjoyed the fact that Kat and the other thieves get to travel to and fro around the globe and I’d like to see more of what’s in store for Kat. I’m sure there are a lot more jet setting to go around, new plan-of-actions to come up with, and more priceless art to steal.