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. (From Goodreads)

Right Up My Alley…

I absolutely love movies like the Ocean’s Eleven series, and TV shows like Leverage, so I can’t believe that I hadn’t read this book before now.  But I’m so glad that I finally got around to it!  Heist Society has mystery, crime, humor, quirky thieves and my new favorite love interest.  I started reading this while reading another book, so I didn’t finish it as fast as I could have, but otherwise I would have been able to sit down and gobble it up in one sitting!

A Family Affair…

Kat’s family is in the business of crime – theft to be exact.  She’s grown up with it.  And when a mobster’s paintings go missing, Kat’s father is the one the mobster decides to blame.  But Kat’s dad claims to be innocent, and Kat has to round up a team to steal the paintings back to save him.  A lot of YA books kind of dispose of the parents in the story – and I totally understand why.  Young Adult books deal with teens being faced with adversity – whether it be supernatural or biological or criminal – and often they need to be able to overcome this adversity without the help of their parents, and sometimes with no help at all.  

But I love how Carter has turned this around and used it to her advantage. Kat lost her mom a long time ago, so there’s no help there.  And her father has a 24/7 Interpol tail, so he can’t even be a part of the mission to prove his innocence.  But even though her parents aren’t a part of the story in that way, Kat constantly has memories and dreams of her mother, and the entire plot is based on the fact that she is trying to clear her father’s name and keep him safe.  This story is truly about family (and you also see that with Kat’s team – they don’t always get along but they completely have each other’s backs no matter what), and what lengths someone will go to to protect their loved ones.

More, Please…

One thing that happens in a lot of these kinds of books/movies/TV shows that I have a love/hate relationship with, is that they vaguely mention other cons.  You know what I’m talking about:  when trying to decide exactly which con to use for a job, they go through tons of funny titles, and give us only a little hint as to what these cons entail.  For example, in Heist Society, they are in this very situation while trying to decide what con would be best to steal back the paintings.  One suggestion was the “Princess Bride” con, and one of the others in the team replies, “Do you know where we can find a six-fingered man on such short notice?”  I love these references to other cons, but it annoys me a bit because I want to see these cons in action!  But I still find it funny.

My New Book Boyfriend…

I don’t often find myself going gaga over boys in books.  I usually like the male love interest enough, and I want the relationship to work out for him and the female protagonist, but that’s about it.  I mean, if there’s a love triangle I usually prefer one over the other, but there have only been a few male characters in books that I’ve really fawned over.  But now I have another one to add to that short list:  Hale.  Ah, Hale…  He’s a bad boy but yet not a bad boy.  And I love how he told Kat, “Either way, I’m in, Kat.  I’m all in,” really early on in the book, before there was much of a hint of a love story.  Later he said, “You should always count me in,” and then later, when she asked him why he chose this life of crime, he said, “…I didn’t choose it, Kat.  I chose you.”  We really don’t get much more of a love story than that, but that’s all I need.  I’ve found my new book boyfriend.

I really just loved this story.  I loved all the characters, the plot, the mystery, and, of course, the heist.  My rating for Heist Society by Ally Carter:

I don’t really do half ratings, but this totally deserves 4 1/2 stars.  I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, Uncommon Criminals, and I definitely want to check out Ally Carter’s other series!  

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