First impressions:I loved this fun, delightful book and I hope to high heaven we get to spend more time with these characters.
This new book from Ally Carter is centered on Katerina, a young girl born into a family of thieves, raised to be a thief, but who decided she wanted out of the life and so cons her way into a prestigious European boarding school. That lasts all of three months, which is how long it takes until her dad is framed for the theft of some paintings from a dangerous man, Arturo Taccone. Now it is up to Kat and her friend Hale, her gorgeous cousin Gabrielle, as well as some family members and friends, to save her dad, resteal the paintings from the thief and maybe right some very old wrongs along the way.
I like how Carter captures that quality of friendship, of family, of these impossible, but all-important relationships that exist between us. Uncle Eddie actually reminded, in ways, of my maternal grandmother. That same sense of walking into her home, that instant feeling of
home, knowing you are among family.
Kat is a sympathetic character. Only time she ever grated was some of her scenes with Nick. Hale was done well, but too lightly. Often there is this light touch, effective, of hearing one person or another's thoughts, but then I wanted to hear just a bit more. That is one reason that I hope Ally has more stories to tell us about Kat, Hale, Uncle Eddie, Gabrielle and the whole crew. Also, we do have a number of unanswered questions. Who has taken on the name of Visily Romani? Why did he use Kat/ why would he want to frame her dad? Was it coincidence or purposeful? Abiram Stein warns Kat that she has made an enemy of Arturo Taccone - does that cause trouble for her? Is she able to reconcile her desire to do good with her criminal talents? What about Hale? Who is his family? Why are they never around? I for one would love to see (and would pay to read) a short story on Kat and Hale's first meeting when she tried to steal from him! Please?
Final impression: Overall, very satisfying, but at every turn leaving me with an even stronger desire to know these characters better, to be able to understand them more. So, I scurried over to Ally's website. The good news is that Ally Carter is working on a sequel and there may be more after that! The downside is that it is not here
right now.