Friday for Funsies || Thieves That Totally Stole My Heart

Not that that’s hard to do given how much I love books about thieves? But here are some of my absolute favorites!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is where it started. Probably everyone I know has read this book, but man, it is so good. It never fails to make me cry when I read it, but it’s just so powerfully written that I don’t mind. And while I thought I loved Liesel because she steals books, I think this was when I began to love characters who were thieves, regardless of what they were stealing. It was an early love, even if I didn’t quite realize it.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

This, though, is where it STARTED. I mean, recognizably. I picked this up on a whim from my high school library almost seven years ago now, and I FELL IN LOVE. It’s set in magical Venice with thieves running all over, and the main characters are exactly the kind of fools to push the big red button they’re not supposed to push and somehow have a plan to escape their own consequences. They’re a bunch of fools and I adore them, plus Lynch makes these characters SO SNARKY and TOO CLEVER and there’s also angst send help. This is the first book of a series of seven, and the fourth book is (hopefully) coming sooner rather than later. For those interested, book one is thieves making very big mistakes as thieves, book two is thieves making very big mistakes as pirates, and book three is thieves making very big mistakes as actors and politicians. And I believe book four is thieves making very big mistakes as knights (which makes sense because the title character is literally renowned for his complete inability to do anything useful with a sword lmao).

Also, you know how people put stickies into Game of Thrones books to mark every death? Do that with this book, but tag all the curse words and sharks. SO MANY SWEARS. SO MANY SHARKS.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The most recent gem, of course! I couldn’t help but adore the cast of SoC because they really pulled together in that found family sort of way, and they had snark for days, AND there was magic. Just a little. But mostly cunning and guts and a little bit of “whoops gotta fix it on the fly because THAT didn’t work right” mixed into a HUGE and DEADLY heist. It was also SOOOOO atmospheric (give me an atmospheric book and I will just be over the moon), and I really adored how much time was given to developing every single main cast member. No one felt underdeveloped or weak by the time the book was over, and by the time the duology was over?

I was an emotional mess. Gosh.

Oh, and look at that GORGEOUS cover. WOW.

The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron

Okay, so I haven’t yet read this, but I’ve had a friend recommend it to me and she told me it literally opens with the main character trying to con his way out of prison by magically sweet talking the door, which means I sense sass and bad decisions IN SPADES ahead. It also helps that the Goodreads summary implies that our main character is not avoiding the bounty on his head, but INCREASING it for the funsies, so there have GOT to be harebrained schemes ahead, and I’m so ready for this one to become my next thieving love.

Which thieves are your favorites? Who’s run off with your bookish heart? Do you prefer successful but dramatic thieves, or chaos thieves who totally should not have succeeded but did by the skin of their teeth and want to dive back in for more? Tell me everything…