Justine's Thoughts: Heist Society by Ally Carter

Heist Society
[Heist Society Book 2]
By Ally Carter

Source: Library
Pages: 287
Book Description:

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her 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--scanning 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 her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster’s priceless art collection has been stolen and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled off this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just 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 (very crooked) history--and with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

A quote:

It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth.

Any thoughts:

The only book I’ve read by Ally Carter is the first book in the Gallagher Series. I still haven’t read the second book due to some library issues so it has been an awful while. Now that I had the chance to read Heist Society, I must say that I was a bit disappointed; I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.

The plot overall is enjoyable. The only trouble I faced was the beginning. It starts off with Kat being interrogated by The Colgan School Honour Board. It took me some time to adjust and get into it but when the suspense comes in, I couldn’t help but turn the pages. The writing was smooth and in third person and the pacing was quick. While I felt that some aspects were repetitive, I believe it gave a mysterious atmosphere but the connection between me as a reader and the story was lacking. Character-wise, Carter has created a team of great, interesting, and talented teens. Kat is a strong, petite girl who I can admire and Hale, her best friend, is charming (which I love). Add to that a quirky pair of brothers, a super intelligent boy, and a girl who has the ultimate potential to be a model, then what you’ve got is the perfect set of characters. I only wish we had the chance to see more into them and their background.

While Heist Society didn’t live up to my expectations, I did quite enjoy it and am definitely going to check out the sequel.