Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter (Heist Society #3)

When Hale's grandmother dies and leaves him the family business, he is stunned as is his family. But something is not quite right with her will and Kat is asked by Marcus, the butler, to look into it. Soon Kat and her crew are in deep as they go up against someone who has it in for the Hale family. But by taking on this task, will it mean Kat will lose her Hale?

This has to be one of my favorite series. I guess I just like a good heist story. Though this book features less of a heist story and more of a long con. Love it. It's also amazing that we still don't know Hale's first name despite this being a book about him and his family. Instead we get his family nickname which is ridiculous.

Perfect Scoundrels deals a lot with grief and the loss of a loved one. It also deals with the evolving nature of families and how no one lives forever. It also moves along Kat and Hale's relationship which felt very real. I enjoyed watching Kat and her crew work and she is one of the most brilliant thieves in the business even if she is only 15. I forgot she is only 15 actually. She and her friends just seem much older.

Heist Society
Heist Socity
Uncommon Criminals

Friends in High Places by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick Keswick is enjoying her life in France with her husband.  But an old foe is back at Ballantine and Company, threatening to expose Kick's old life.  While her husband is away on assignment, Kick goes back to London to set right some of the consequences of her old thieving ways.

I was apparently in the mood for heist stories because I followed Uncommon Criminals with Friend in High Places.  Two very different protagonists, however.  Kick is a reformed thief but still the very best at it.  And she loves the good life, fancy parties, luxurious meals, and beautiful jewels.  When it comes out that somethings are not on the up and up at Ballantine and Company,  Kick feels compelled to help out.  And Kick is very clever so she manages to help out her old company, make some new friends, and help out some nuns.  And she does it with a lot of style.  I love reading about her adventures and the clothes and the food, but I am getting a little tired of reading the same thing about her background.  It's redundant.  But still these are good books, worth reading especially if you like a good heist story.

Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

Katarina Bishop is now the girl that robbed the Henley. Following her successful heist of that museum, Kat has dedicated herself to recovering art stolen from its rightful owner.  When Kat is contacted to steal the Cleopatra Emerald, one of the largest every discovered, she concocts a scheme to steal it even though it is the one thing Uncle Eddie has forbidden.  But the emerald comes with a curse and all is not what it seems for Kat.

This was a great second installment of the Heist Society.  I really like Kat and her crew.  She is so clever that even when she is conned she still manages to come out ahead and in the simplest manner too!  I love a good heist story and this one has it all.  I love Kat's relationship with Hale.  They have the best chemistry.  And the rest of Kat's friends are pretty awesome too.  Gabriel is pretty amazing. 

The plot moved at a good pace.  It was nice not knowing how Kat was going to pull it off until the very end.  I liked how she got the better of her antagonist.  I am intrigued though by the lady's relationship with Uncle Eddie and I hope she makes another appearance.  She was a great foe for Kat. 

6 hours, 43 minutes

Angela Dawe is the narrator and she does an excellent job.  Her tone was just right for the story.  She doesn't really do voices but she does try to distinguish each character.  I liked her pace and her voice is appropriate for the story.

Priceless (Kick Keswick #2) by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick Keswick is enjoying her retirement both from the auction house she previously worked in and from her life as the Shamrock Burglar, the world's best jewelry thief.  But when an impostor Shamrock Burglar begins to steal from wealthy ladies, Kick returns to the glamorous world of the rich and famous to clear her reputation.

She didn't know it, but time was up and she was out of the running.  She'd picked the wrong brand name to plagiarize and she wasn't ready for the big leagues anyway.  p.244

Another fun adventure with Kick Keswick!  This time she travel to Italy to find the impostor Shamrock Burglar and she does it with style, class, and a whole lot of jewels.  It's fun watching Kick work and how smooth she really is, despite the fact that she is often smug.  But the decadent life that she lives might make anyone smug, especially considering she is a great jewel thief .  She is an expert at manipulating situations and figuring out people.  The only thing is that I never feel like she is in any danger.  Of course, she is going to come through the whole thing ok, she is Kick Keswick, after all!

Hogwarts: Hide and Seek mini-challenge

Brilliant (Kick Keswick #1) by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick works as an executive assistant at an upscale auction house, but she is also a highly skilled jewel thief called the Shamrock Burglar.  When a new owner buys the auction house, Kick falls for his charming ways and begins to contemplate a new life.  But all is not on the up and up as she soon discovers.

I would become like Doris Day.  I made a solemn pledge that as soon as I got out of the reformatory, I'd work smarter.
Incredibly, it never occurred to me to reform.  p.16

I accidentally read the third Kick Keswick book first so I wanted to go back to the beginning.  The interesting thing about this book is that Kick is at the end of her career and most of her heists are glossed over.  There is one featured in this book though and I like seeing Kick in action. I like Kick and don't mind spending the time with her, but I wanted to shake her and make her open her eyes to Own, her new boss, and his obvious charm and obvious motivate.

I found that the plot moved a bit too slowly and I was waiting for the shoe to drop the whole time.  It certainly is not action packed, but it moves at a methodical pace and eventually we get the pay off.  But I enjoyed it and I will be reading the rest of the series.  This is not really a mystery per se, but it is still a fun and delicious crime book.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
350 Page
ABC

Perfect (Kick Keswick Mysteries #3) by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick Keswick is the world's best jewel thief.  But she is retired.  That is until the Queen's jewels are stolen and Kick is recruited to steal them back.  Kick enters the world of the beyond wealthy to find the thief and get back the jewels and it will take all her wits and skill to do just that.

If I were going to commit to using my highly developed skills and signature techniques, I wouldn't dream of putting myself in jeopardy or making myself vulnerable to capture by letting him, or anyone, seeing into my secret world. My secret world of Swiss bank vaults packed with stones and currency and identities.  I could vanish in seconds.
In fact, I just had.  p.31

I love heist stories.  And this one is an inverted heist story because Kick is a thief stealing from a thief at the behest of Scotland Yard.  Kick is very good at what she does and she knows a lot about jewels and jewelry and all the finest things in life.  I liked her and her descriptions of all these things.  And food.  OMG the food in this book is described in such detail.  I went around hungry the entire time I read it.

It turns out, though, that this is third in the series.  It wasn't a problem, prior knowledge isn't really necessary to read this one.  There is some summing up of past adventures but it's not blow-by-blow or anything.  But now I want to start at the beginning and read some of her adventures when she was an actual jewel thief and not just "coming out of retirement" for this caper.  Because Kick is very clever and really knows her stuff.  The plan is so simple yet so elaborate and I loved reading how it played out.  This is definitely a fun series if you like mysteries or heists or food or all of the above.

Hogwarts: Perfect Mini-challenge

Heist Society

Three months ago, Katrina Bishop pulled off her greatest con and got herself a new life at a boarding school.  But her old life has tracked her down.  It seems her father is the number one suspect at the top of a one name list who is accused of stealing the priceless art collection of a very dangerous man.  It's up to Kat and her band of light fingered friends to find painting and save her dad.  Even if the job is next to impossible.

The assembly of a crew is a monumental event in a young thief's life.  There are meetings and phone call.  Plans, and occasionally, a celebratory cake.  p.132

Ally Carter has style.  I'll give her that.  Her writing style is so distinct to me that the minute I opened this book, I knew it was going to be great.  Kat is like a reverse Cammie, having lived her whole life on the wrong side of the law.  Her family is a family of the greatest thieves in the world and Kat was following along until she decided she wanted to be normal.  The book picks up at the start of the action (thank God) when Kat is being expelled from the boarding school she conned her way into.  From there, it's like Ocean's 11 with teenagers and it is awesome. I know that it was optioned for a movie, but it would make a great TV show too.  I like crime shows where the criminal is sympathetic and I had to feel sorry for Kat.  Stuck with doing an impossible job to save her father from a very bad man, she really does an awesome job.  There was a bigger mystery set up too that wasn't really resolved and I can't wait to see what Carter has in store next for Kat and her crew.