★★★☆☆

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, is a short book, but that’s probably a good thing. Gen, the main character is a thief who ends up in the Kings prison for stealing the King’s seal and then bragging about it. Our protagonist is offered his freedom but he first must complete the seeming impossible task of stealing a small stone belonging to the true ruler and said to give it’s wearer mortality.

An unlikely band set off through enemy lands to find the stone and this is where the boredom sets in. Half way through the book and all the time has been set on getting to the location of where this stone “might” be. There is some interesting folk tales intersperse, but I almost DNF because of how slow paced it was.

The rest of the book is a roller coaster of high’s and low’s and the ending made the book worth it. The characters are engaging, complex and believable. You can’t help but root for Gen and you even start to respect the Magus who is supposed to be the “villain.”

A solid three star book but I’m not sure if I’m interested in reading the next one in the series.