“I’m a business man,” he’d told her. “No more, no less.”
“You’re a thief, Kaz.”
“Isn’t that what I just said?”

I have had this book since it came out, I have tried a few times to read it, but never got very far. Until March, I decided to truly go for it. Truly do it. It took me multiple times in 3 weeks time (which for me is a long long time to read a book), but I finished it. Why it took me so long? It just didn’t have the same pull that the Grisha books had, which I devoured.

I will try to write a review, but can’t promise it is much, words are still hard for this review. 🙂

We meet a whole load of new characters in this book. Kaz, our swindler but oh so awesome character who may seem quite cold but has a kind heart under all of that. Nina, the girl who can do things to people’s bodies and who has had quite the hell of time before she got to the point where she is now. Inej, a girl who is just way too awesome and did some epic things, she was definitely and by far my favourite girl, she also had a past that made me cry for her. Then we have Jesper who was such a fun and playful character, I loved that he was such a master with guns and later we found out something else that made me like him more. Wylan was also a fun character and I was definitely a fan of him. He was just so smart and seemed to know so much. And lastly the guy I didn’t like in the beginning but later warmed up to, Matthias.

There were a bit too many backstories and at times it just felt a too cluttered. I just wanted the main story to go somewhere and instead we were stuck with backstories. But after a while I was actually looking forward to them, just a bit. I wanted to know more about these characters, and each and every character has their story and the author really wants us to meet them, as they really are, what makes them tick and how they came to this point in the story.

On the one hand I was happy with the romance, my favourite was Jesper and Wylan, but on the other hand it felt a bit too much like in the Lunar Chronicles, where all the romances were also mapped out and you just knew from quite early on who would end up with who. And that is a shame, it didn’t make me root for the couples as I just knew they would end up together one way or another. Even Kaz and Inej.

The story was at times quite slow, it probably had to do with the many backstories, but also with other things. It just seemed to take the characters very long to reach a certain point.

I did like the idea of the heist and all that was involved. It was quite exciting to read and also to see if their plan would actually work out or if things would get between. The author really did an amazing job at describing everything.

The various Dutch (or Dutch-ish) names and various Dutchy things were fun! It always makes me happy to see Dutch stuff appear in books or movies.

I also wasn’t too happy this one ends at a pretty open ending/cliffhanger. I knew, by this year at least, that there would be more of this series, but I had at least expected a bit more of it. Thankfully, I can just keep reading. Especially after I found out that, instead of just stop reading this series for a while, I need to continue reading it if I want to read King of Scars. Argh!

As for a rating? I have debated and debated and I am settling on 4.5 stars. Yes, despite some things, this book kept tugging at me, begging to be read, and I did have fun reading.