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A review by brynnlee
Thief by C.L. Stone, C.L. Stone
2.0
On the surface this book seemed like the perfect solution to all of my problems with Stone’s Ghost Bird series. The heroine of the Scarab Beetle books is a little older and more experienced, and there aren’t quite as many guys. Unfortunately the trade-off is that the characters aren’t nearly as charming and likeable as the younger ones. I struggled to get through this, and was happy when I finally got to the end.
Our mc, Kayli Winchester, lives in at an extended stay hotel with her younger brother and their drunk, abusive father. They’re barely making ends meet, and Kayli has resorted to picking pockets in order to pay their rent. Of course she has a heart of gold, only stealing from guys, taking as little as possible, and leaving the wallets where they can be found and returned. Then one day a group of guys catch her in the act and try to chase her down. She escapes, but they find her the next day. They tell her they work for an organization that has them spy on potential criminals (or something like that). The guys need her to steal a wallet from a man they think might be up to no good so they can get in to his office and search it. They agree to pay her rent for a month and get her a job so Kayli agrees. She winds up getting too close to the suspect and the guys insist she hide out with them for a while. Kayli’s not really the patient type though and she ends up causing all kinds of trouble.
The plot of this book was convoluted and confusing. I thought it was a bit of a reach that the guys chased down Kayli so she could steal a guy’s wallet, and I wasn’t sure why they were spending so much time investigating the suspect in the first place. I mean was it really a big deal that a rich guy was going into a bad part of town in the middle of the night? Even when everything was revealed at the end I had trouble understanding what was going on, but maybe that’s in large part because I realized i didn’t care.
My biggest issue with this book though was Kayli. At the beginning when the focus was on her home life, her love for her brother, her struggles with her father and getting money, that’s when I found her interesting and sympathetic. Once her entire focus was on the guys she turned in to a bit of a reckless brat. I mean she shoots a guy with a nail gun just because he dares to tell her she can’t do something he thinks is dangerous. It’s kind of an extreme reaction. She’s constantly making dumb decisions, and is in general too stupid to live. By the end I didn’t like her.
The guys weren’t developed enough for me to dislike them. In this case older also apparently means a little crude and rough around the edges. There’s lots of fighting, and Kayli likes to playfully hit them. On the one hand it’s nice that they don’t handle her with kid gloves, but this went a little too far to the opposite extreme for me. They were okay, but none of the guys appealed to me.
On the plus side I like how they include Kayli in their Academy activities from the beginning. She’s much more of an equal than a damsel in distress who must be protected at all times. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the relationships in this book at all because Kayli is independent and experienced. She was in a bad situation, but she’s not desperate for the guys to like her.
Thank goodness I didn’t have a multiple book bundle for this series. I would have felt obligated to keep going. I looked at reviews for the other books because I was curious about the mystery at the end of this one, but once I saw that it still hadn’t been resolved four books later I didn’t feel the need to keep reading. If you’re debating between the two series go with Ghost Bird. There’s just something sweet and appealing about Sang and her boys that for me was lacking in Scarab Beetle.
Our mc, Kayli Winchester, lives in at an extended stay hotel with her younger brother and their drunk, abusive father. They’re barely making ends meet, and Kayli has resorted to picking pockets in order to pay their rent. Of course she has a heart of gold, only stealing from guys, taking as little as possible, and leaving the wallets where they can be found and returned. Then one day a group of guys catch her in the act and try to chase her down. She escapes, but they find her the next day. They tell her they work for an organization that has them spy on potential criminals (or something like that). The guys need her to steal a wallet from a man they think might be up to no good so they can get in to his office and search it. They agree to pay her rent for a month and get her a job so Kayli agrees. She winds up getting too close to the suspect and the guys insist she hide out with them for a while. Kayli’s not really the patient type though and she ends up causing all kinds of trouble.
The plot of this book was convoluted and confusing. I thought it was a bit of a reach that the guys chased down Kayli so she could steal a guy’s wallet, and I wasn’t sure why they were spending so much time investigating the suspect in the first place. I mean was it really a big deal that a rich guy was going into a bad part of town in the middle of the night? Even when everything was revealed at the end I had trouble understanding what was going on, but maybe that’s in large part because I realized i didn’t care.
My biggest issue with this book though was Kayli. At the beginning when the focus was on her home life, her love for her brother, her struggles with her father and getting money, that’s when I found her interesting and sympathetic. Once her entire focus was on the guys she turned in to a bit of a reckless brat. I mean she shoots a guy with a nail gun just because he dares to tell her she can’t do something he thinks is dangerous. It’s kind of an extreme reaction. She’s constantly making dumb decisions, and is in general too stupid to live. By the end I didn’t like her.
The guys weren’t developed enough for me to dislike them. In this case older also apparently means a little crude and rough around the edges. There’s lots of fighting, and Kayli likes to playfully hit them. On the one hand it’s nice that they don’t handle her with kid gloves, but this went a little too far to the opposite extreme for me. They were okay, but none of the guys appealed to me.
On the plus side I like how they include Kayli in their Academy activities from the beginning. She’s much more of an equal than a damsel in distress who must be protected at all times. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the relationships in this book at all because Kayli is independent and experienced. She was in a bad situation, but she’s not desperate for the guys to like her.
Thank goodness I didn’t have a multiple book bundle for this series. I would have felt obligated to keep going. I looked at reviews for the other books because I was curious about the mystery at the end of this one, but once I saw that it still hadn’t been resolved four books later