Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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And Holy Be The Terror

Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen

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Holy Terrors is the final book in the Little Thieves trilogy and it picks up well over a year after Vanja dismantled (sort of) the cult she managed to accidentally create after a drunken night out. And this being Vanja, she’s still completely unable to keep herself out of trouble. There ’s not a lot of detail as to what Vanja has been up to since the last book, but we’re given some hints to it being a bit messy—not out of character for her. […]

“She’s been painting the devil on the wall and hoping we won’t know it from the real thing”

Painted Devils by Margaret Owen

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Now, spoilers here for the previous book; it is a direct continuation, after all.  The blurb for Painted Devils starts out fantastically: “Let’s get one thing straight—Vanja Schmidt wasn’t trying to start a cult.” With Little Thieves, I knew that it was a trilogy coming in, but by the end of the book, I wasn’t 100% certain where the story was going to be heading next. After ridding herself of a nasty curse, putting the displaced Princess Giselle back where she belonged, settling most of […]

“There’s a saying in the Blessed Empire: Little thieves steal gold, and great ones steal kingdoms, but only one goes to the gallows. “

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

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One of the consequences of working through the Hugo Award nominees is that I’ll be making my way through a lot of YA entries for the Lodestar Award. And while most of the nominated authors have a positive buzz, they are also all new to me. One of the nice things Worldcon did for the voters this year—in addition with the publishers, I assume—is provide not just a copy of Margaret Owen’s Holy Terrors, but the two proceeding books in the series as well. A good […]

A Worthy Sequel (For Once)

Painted Devils by Margaret Owen

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I read Painted Devils because it’s the second book in the series, and I loved Little Thieves. This book is completely worth it, and it’s definitely one of the better sequels of all the series’ I’ve read. This is the sequel to Little Thieves, and it’s set in the same world. Painted Devils is a fantasy setting, not too advanced in terms of technology but there are trade and politics, which are well developed as well. This book shows Vanja as she accidentally starts a cult, […]

This book stole my heart

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

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I read Little Thieves by Margaret Owen because of a recommendation from a bookstore, and it seemed very interesting to me. The story is set in a fantasy medieval setting, there is trade and politics, but no heavily advanced technology. This book is the story of a girl who after being taken in by the gods Death and Fortune, is then given to a noble family where she becomes a serving girl. She, for reasons to be found, takes the spot of a soon to be […]

Goose Girl Redux

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

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“I think there are lives that make it easy to be good. Or what most people call good. When you have wealth, status, family, it’s easy to be a saint, it costs you nothing. I can’t say if you’re a good person or not. But the more I know of you, the more I understand that the world keeps making you choose between survival and martyrdom. No one should fault you for wanting to live.” Vanya is the goddaughter of Death and Fortune, but that […]



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