The ultimate competition between thieves tests friendships and family ties.
Seventeen-year-old Rosalyn “Ross” Quest, a member of a notorious Black Bahamian family of globe-trotting thieves, has spent her entire life honing her skills and following in her mother’s footsteps. But now she just wants to live a normal life, go to college, and make some friends her age. When her attempt to evade her family and secretly make it to a summer gymnastics camp goes awry, Ross’ mother is left in a life-threatening situation, and the only way Ross can save her is by competing in the Thieves’ Gambit, a potentially deadly heist competition that offers its winner one wish. Ross is up against the biggest names in the game from around the world, including Noelia, a Swiss girl who’s her childhood enemy. Hopping from country to country as she competes in increasingly dangerous challenges, Ross must discern whom she can trust, if anyone, while her feelings for fellow competitor Devroe, a Black British boy, grow. In a manner true to the genre, the pacing is fast, and readers will experience the best kind of whiplash as the story moves from one heist to the next. The characters are also fully realized, and it’s impossible not to root for Ross as she tries to figure out who she’s meant to be.
A fast-paced roller coaster of a read.
(Thriller. 13-18)