Thief review

Thief: The Scarab Beetle Series #1

(The Academy)

By C.L. Stone

About:

Kayli Winchester is a dirt-poor girl living out of a hotel, forced to be the parent for a drunken father and teenage brother who she’s desperate to keep in school. The only way she scrapes by is to utilize her one skill: pick pocketing. But even though she’s a thief she has a moral code: no kids or old ladies, only targets who can defend themselves. Not that they see her coming…

Thinking she’s been working under the radar, Kayli has no idea The Academy has been watching and taking notice. Now a team that needs her skill has offered her a way out of her predicament and it’s her last chance: work with them, or face jail time. Kayli resists at first, but slowly the boys reveal they can be trusted. With Marc, the straight man, Raven, the bad-boy Russian, Corey and Brandon the twins as different as night and day, and Axel their stoic leader, there’s a lot Kayli can learn from these Academy guys about living on the edge of the law. If only she can stay on the good side instead of the bad.

Especially when the job they offer her is more than any of them bargained for. After it’s done, the hunters have become the hunted and their target is now after Kayli. The Academy boys do their best to keep her hidden, but a thief like Kayli will never sit still for long.

Meet an all-new Academy team in Thief, the beginning of the Scarab Beetle series.
Warning: This is a new adult series. Readers of the other Academy series may need some caution as this series will contain mature sexual and violent situations and themes.

Source: Amazon

My rating: 4.5/5

My Thoughts:

C.L. Stone’s other series (The Ghost Bird series) is so addicting that I knew I had to read her new series as soon as possible. Thief is a captivating first book in the Scarab Beetle Series, and I am positive that the subsequent books will be just as brilliant.

In Thief we see the story from Kayli’s perspective. Forced by circumstance, Kayli resorts to stealing wallets in order to pay the rent so that she, her younger brother, Will, and her drunk, abusive father have a temporary roof over their heads. However, she doesn’t pickpocket from just anyone, Kayli is a thief with morals. She does not pickpocket from the elderly, women or children, even though they are the easiest targets, but only steals from those that can defend themselves. Not only that, she doesn’t take it all, she will steal a few bills and then leave the wallet somewhere she knows the correct authorities will find it and return to the owner.

The academy boys have tracked Kayli and need her for their mission, to steal a billionaire’s wallet and then replace it at the same party without anything going missing. This billionaire has also been on the academy’s radar since he has been recently mingling with dodgy people and they want to find out what he is up to.

Kayli is prepared to do this job but she is unprepared for the boys themselves and how they accept her despite knowing her secrets. They promise to help her but can she trust their promises? She tries to run away and shut them out but slowly they are beginning to break down her walls and Kayli isn’t sure why they would want her when she is so broken...

This is an excellent start to the series and I am looking forward to the second book, which should be out this summer!

Zed (:

Favourite Quotes:

A snore broke through our mutual silence. I turned my head, spotting Jack on the bed closest to the wall. Daddy, Dad, Papa and other father names never really fit well between my lips and his ears. Jack was the thing we’d settled on. And those moments he wasn’t cursing at me, he sometimes remembered my name was Kayli.

“Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me there’s no chance in hell you’ll stop stealing.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He didn’t know me. I didn’t want to admit to anything. “I didn’t ask for a chance.”
“None of us do. But you don’t throw away one when you get it.”

“Promise not to say anything?”
My eyebrows shifted up. “You’d trust me not to tell? You don’t even know me.”
“Doesn’t mean your promise isn’t any good.”

There was something about him I was drawn to. He made an effort that made it impossible to hold up any wall against him. He simply climbed over it and offered to help you knock it down. Instant and overwhelming.

I stretched out, and took Corey’s face in my palms. “Tell me you’re not messing with me. I swear to god, I’ll kick your ass...”
“No one’s kicking anyone’s ass.” Raven materialized next to me. “What are you doing? What’s with this shirt? And let my boy go. I do the ass kicking around here.”

“Is that hope I’m detecting in your question, little thief?”
Brandon made a noise that sounded a lot like a growl. “If he’s not a bad guy, she’s hoping for a date.”
Eyebrows lifted on faces around the room. Raven smirked. “In that case, yes. He’s a dealer. And a rapist. And a murderer. He murders babies. Girl babies. And puppies. And he rapes them. After they’re dead. Sometimes.”

“Gay guys are awesome,” I said. “You can do all kind of cool things together and it never goes into a weird zone.”
Brandon huffed. “You’ve got strange ideas.”

Maybe it was best to pretend it never happened.
I was a thief. I worked alone. Alone was best for me, for someone who didn’t fit in anywhere. It never hurt. It never made promises it didn’t mean. Alone was who I was.

He isn’t perfect. He makes mistakes. We all do. If you’re willing to learn from and make up for those mistakes, and try to do better next time, doesn’t that deserve a chance?”

“No one’s listening.”
“You never know who is listening. That’s something you should learn. Watch what you say all the time. Talk like the world is listening in. Usually because someone is.”

“What do you want?” Blake said.
“I need a new maid. The old one left.”
Blake’s eyebrow rose. “Left? Old Mrs. Jennings? She said she needed the money.”
Doyle zipped his hand back and forth in the air as if to cut off the conversation. “Left. Died. Whatever. Same thing. This place is disgusting.”

I needed to know I was wanted for who I was. And I didn’t know who I was outside of Kayli the thief.