RATING: 
(Heist Society #1)
When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip 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—scamming 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 Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on 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 history–and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.
Literary Award: 2010 ALA Teen’s Top Ten
*****
CUNNING.
Is it just me or does reading this Heist Society felt like i’m watching The Thomas Crown Affair movie (Teen Edition, that is)? This is an enjoyable read!
From jetsetting to France, Italy, England (to name a few) and back to New York, Kat and her crew made it look like stealing is such a lucrative job! Not to mention she has billionaire Hale to back them up.
Kat wanted to leave her old life behind and start a new one that involves proper education. Unfortunately, her family (and their crooked work history) eventually catches up on her. Is it too much to want a normal, quiet, and legal life? – Kat asks. But family comes first to her, no matter how much she wanted a clean slate for herself. She’s smart, insecure, capable, unpredictable, and dependable. Kat is one h*ll of a thief!
Hale… what’s not to love? 😉 Gorgeous. Charming. Rich. Funny. He’s got me at first prank, I tell you. And his cockiness reminded me of Jace from TMI series. The thing that endeared him to me the most: his loyalty to Kat. not to the job. not to the heist. but to Kat.
I could’ve given this a 5, but i didn’t like the dancing around the bush of Kat and Hale. It is obvious they want each other, so why not let them hook up in the end? They have such chemistry and it was frustrating to just to leave it like that. Oh, well.
Carter came up with a street-smart book that thoroughly captured my taste for crime and adventure. Being introduced to the artists (Degas, Monet, Vermeer) of impressionist and neoclassic painting was very nice. The planning and conning were entertaining. But Heist Society as a whole is about family and how far Kat is willing to go, what lengths she is willing to cover, just to save the father she loves so much.
#6 Off-the-Shelf Reading Challenge 2011
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.: maria :.
“giving up is the ultimate tragedy.”
reading is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 