PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
Aces Wild: A Heist
– Amanda DeWitt –
Peachtree Teen
Published 13 September 2022
♥♥♥♥♥
What a fantastic novel. Aces Wild combines heists and all the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas, plus behind the scenes of what makes a casino run. You’d be right to think Ocean’s 11, but we also get a fantastic diverse cast and strong friendship themes.
The Girls I’ve Been – Tess Sharpe – G.P. Putman’s Sons Books for Young Readers – Published 26 January 2021
♥♥♥♥♥
Nora O’Malley’s been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother’s protégé. But when mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape.
For five years Nora’s been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:
#1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they’re all friends, Wes didn’t know about her and Iris.
#2: The morning after Wes finds them kissing, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised at the bank. It’s a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly, because:
#3: Right after they enter bank, two guys start robbing it.
The bank robbers may be trouble, but Nora’s something else entirely. They have no idea who they’re really holding hostage…
Looking for a thriller novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat? The Girls I’ve Been is an exciting novel that is part heist novel, part mystery. It is unique, romantic (lgbt+), and will have you desperate to uncover the truth about the girls Nora has been (and what that even means).
I adore mystery/thriller novels. And sometimes, it is a little hard to find good YA mystery/thriller novels. Books that justify why the teenager is involved in the crime/crime fighting. The Girls I’ve Been does that and so much more. Two main mystery threads run through the story and are told in alternating chapters that span the past and present. It kept me hooked to the pages and eager to learn what had transpired to make Nora the girl she is today (kind of scary, totally cool, wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley, but also totally in awe of her).
The Infamous Frankie Lorde: Stealing Greenwich – Brittany Geragotelis – Pixel+ink – Published 6 October 2020
♥♥♥♥/♥
Frankie Lorde and her dad have been a team for as long as Frankie can remember. Being a tutor under the man responsible for some of the world’s biggest heists has given Frankie a unique perspective on the world. And a special set of life skills. Frankie can spot an FBI agent in a second. Pick a lock in two seconds. Steal a Bugatti in three. Then dad is arrested.
Frankie is sent to live with her uncle, her dad’s brother who she barely knows, and is, ironically a cop. Now Frankie has to go to middle school, learn what suburban kids wear and eat. But also ironically, Frankie is in Greenwich, CT, one of the richest towns in America. Seeing the starkness of super rich and the super not rich who support the community gives Frankie an idea. How to use her skills for doing good, to even the score…
Looking for a middle grade heist novel? Stealing Greenwich is a whole lot of fun and Frankie Lorde might just be the heroine you are looking for. She’s smart, clever, very good at disguises and knows how to run a con. This is the first book in a new and exciting series. With a good moral understory to justify the heists, this is a fun story for middle-grade readers, perfect for fans of Ally Carter’s Heist Society and heist novels.
Frankie Lorde and her dad are a team, taking on heists all around the world. When her father is captured and jailed, Frankie is sent to live with her uncle. Her uncle who is a cop. He has just a few house rules, one of which is no illegal activity. For Frankie, the plan is to stay off everyone’s radar, survive middle school and wait until her dad is released. But when her uncle takes a case that seems horribly unfair, Frankie decides to do a bit of investigating. Maybe she can turn her skills to a good cause?
I really enjoyed this novel. It is clearly the first in a series and sets up what we need to know about Frankie. The heist action doesn’t start until much later in the story. I did like that, while Frankie and her dad steal for profit, the case Frankie takes on in Greenwich is for the greater good, with no personal gain for herself. It raises a point about morals – stealing from the rich to benefit the poor, stealing from someone who is corrupt, opens up some great points that would be perfect for discussion.
The Con Code – Shana Silver – Swoon Reads – Published 25 August 2020
♥♥♥
By day, seventeen-year-old Fiona Spangler runs small cons for her ritzy prep-school classmates: getting them out of tests and forging fake hall passes. But by night, Fiona joins her dad on riskier heists: stealing back the clue-filled forgeries her mom scattered across the country before she disappeared. Fiona desperately hopes that her mother will be waiting at the end of the scavenger hunt she left behind.
And they are SO close. Just three more heists remain, but then disaster strikes when Fiona’s dad is captured by the FBI. Desperate to finish the job and save what’s left of her family, Fiona assembles of crew of teen criminals: a master of disguise who can transform into anyone, a talented hacker who only communicates in glares, and a rival con artist with a vendetta against—and possible crush on—Fiona.
The Con Code brings together mystery and action in a fast-paced race to find and solve the clues while trying to outrun the FBI. How do you do that? Recruit your enemy of course and try not to fall for him. The Con Code will be great for YA mystery fans looking for a light read with lots of disguises, romance and heist hijinks.
Fiona Spangler knows how to run a con. Her parents trained her well. Now she and her father are trying to track down and steal forgeries her mother left scattered around the country before her disappearance. If Fiona and her dad can piece together the clues, they have a chance to find her mother before the FBI. But when the FBI Director’s son joins Fiona’s high school and her father is arrested, Fiona has no choice but to finish the mission herself – recruiting both her friends and her number one enemy. Continue reading
Keystone – Katie Delahanty – Entangled: Teen – Published 7 January 2020
♥♥♥♥
When Ella Karman debuts on the Social Stock Exchange, she finds out life as a high-profile “Influencer” isn’t what she expected. Everyone around her is consumed by their rankings, in creating the smoke and mirrors that make them the envy of the world.
But then Ella’s best friend betrays her, her rankings tank, and she loses—everything.
Leaving her old life behind, she joins Keystone, a secret school for thieves, where students are being trained to steal everything analog and original because something—or someone—is changing history to suit their needs.
Partnered with the annoyingly hot—and utterly impossible—Garrett Alexander, who has plenty of his own secrets, Ella is forced to return to the Influencer world, while unraveling a conspiracy that began decades ago.
One wrong move and she could lose everything—again.
I went through a whole range of reactions while reading Keystone. I couldn’t have hated the beginning more. I was disconnected, confused and ready to put the book down and never pick it back up. However, I reasoned I was very busy at work and was only reading the book in short fits and I really should give it a better chance to capture my attention. I’m glad I did. One week into my holiday, I picked it up again. There were sections in the middle that made me cringe, but the story comes together and I was intrigued by the mix of social commentary, dystopian story and heist novel. By the end, I was hooked. What a fabulous turn around. The end reads like a thrilling action movie. I’m intrigued about where the series is going to go next.
Keystone dumps the reader right into the middle of the plot and action. So much so, that I actually stopped reading and went to check if this was a second book in a series. The story starts in the middle of big events for Elisha, the main character, and readers must just go along for the ride, picking up details about who she is, why she’s just jumped off an exploding yacht, who and what the Disconnects are, the slightly futuristic world, and what on earth is going on, along the way. This sudden start makes it hard to connect or care about Elisha’s trauma (because we are not sure what really happened anyway) or grief (how can we mourn characters we never met?). It only gets more confusing from there, as she somehow joins (or has already joined??) a group of spies. After reading on a bit and some backstory is provided via journaled flashbacks, it made a lot of sense for the book to start after Elisha (or Ella) has left her Influencer life as she is rather unlikeable before and that is more palatable as she reflects on her mistakes and how she wants to change. I would have liked a few more details about what she knew of the Disconnects and Keystone as she started there, but I did eventually figure out the essential details.
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