Author: Ally Carter
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 287
Series: Heist Society #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
Description 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 expected.
Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has 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 history -- or at least her family's (very crooked) history.
Heist Society follows the story of Katarina "Kat" Bishop, a fifteen-year-old girl who comes from a family of thieves. She's been helping her dad with heists for as long as she can remember, but now, Kat is walking away from a life of crime. She's conned her way into one of the country's best boarding schools, and she's done with thievery. At least, that's what she thought.
When five valuable paintings go missing, Kat's dad is in danger. Interpol is watching him closely...and so is the man who the paintings belonged to, Arturo Taccone. Taccone is even more dangerous than Interpol, and if Kat is going to save her dad's life, she's going to have to do the craziest thing she's ever done. With a little help from her friends, she's going to have to steal the paintings back.
Kat is a wonderful character - as are Hale, Gabrielle, and the rest. (Hale may have a place in the lineup of Amazing Fictional Guys now.) And Taccone is one of the best YA villains I've read in a long time. All of them are so real, the story is just so engaging, bits and pieces are laugh-out-loud funny and other bits have you sitting on the edge of your seat thinking "AHH!"
The writing style of Heist Society is quite different from Ally Carter's (equally awesome) Gallagher Girls series; it's in third person, not first, and while the Gallagher Girls audience would certainly appreciate it just as much, I feel like it's aimed at and appeals to a wider and maybe a little bit older audience. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the second installment.
Links:
Ally Carter's website
