nerdy_birdie_reader 's review for:

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

4.5

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“Nahuseresh says I am a bastard, not a king.” I saw Attolia follow his gaze, this time to Eddis, as the king continued. “A Thief and not a king. He wanted to know what I can steal now, and I look forward to showing him.”

Four and a half completely biased stars.

Turner does the same thing she’d done in her previous books, which is bring us a new character who’s the main perspective of the book. But this time I actually loved the main character, Pheris. I liked reading about how Pheris as an outsider views the main characters like Gen, Irene (*vomit* I still hate her), Eddis, and Sophos. And how over time Pheris who was hated and ridiculed by everyone for being disabled becomes one of the closest to Gen, his family’s enemy and a king Pheris serves from his heart.

Turner lets the main characters in the Queen’s Thief series shine, which in my opinion didn’t get to happen in Thick As Thieves. The style of narration for this book is a bit different from the previous ones. Instead of staying in the first or third person, it shifts back and forth and takes the form of an autobiographical account. Let’s hope that Pheris, the writer got some important facts right: 

“… Melheret is, this very minute, lecturing [Sophos] again about shooting his ambassador.”

…

[Gen] assured the Braeling in a high-handed manner that he wasn’t going to start firing at ambassadors the way [Sophos] had… 

…

[Gen] conceded waving his hand. “You’re right. [Sophos] can shoot [the Mede ambassador] instead.” 

…

[Susa] went on to catalogue [Gen’s] transgressions: the many examples of rudeness, the theft of the Mede ambassador’s statue, the assault on the Pent, every complaint a thread with which, loop on loop, he meant to bind [Gen]. Susa even blamed him for the shooting of the Mede ambassador by [Sophos].

Yep, sounds about good! It’s okay because even if Pheris happened to miss it, a hundred years after he has died, Gen will come back to life to remind us all that Sophos shot an ambassador.

Anyway, in this book the kingdoms of the Little Peninsula are up against the powerful Mede empire. In an attempt to have a fighting chance the three kingdoms unite in which our Gen becomes the high king. While Gen was viewed more distantly from the previous books, this book and its central conflict gives Gen the time to shine despite his many flaws (temper, sharp-tongue). He’s still that scheming, shrewd thief he’s been since book one. You still root for him. That’s what made this book fun to read.

Well that’s the end of the series. I feel a little sad. But when I’d finished Return of the Thief I also felt like giving the book a hug (which I didn’t cause that’s weird and I’d read this on my iPad as a library loan so no physical book to hug). I don’t know how to explain this but despite never having given any of these books five stars the series is so close to my heart. I can’t believe it’s actually over. If we go back to the old covers I might buy the entire series. Actually I love the characters so much I might ignore the cover changes for all of them.