While I found the first few chapters a bit hard to follow (there is a lot of jumping around in the timeline), I was quickly hooked by Thief's Covenant and literally couldn't put it down for most of the story. Widdershins reminded me of a cooler version of Digger from Elizabeth Bunce's Starcrossed, while the plot and relationship between Olgun and Adrienne reminded me of Kelly McCullough's Aral Kingslayer and Tris (a series I also quite enjoy).As a note, don't get too attached to secondary characters. Ari Marmell does not pull his punches, and you can expect main characters to die. 3 or more stars for characters and plot. But deduct a star due to jumping around in time causing confusion and frustration.The author has a university degree in creative writing. I want to know “who told him it’s good writing technique to jump around in time?” Is that what they are teaching? I do recall one “expert” saying authors should create hooks (or cliffhangers) at the end of every chapter. But I disagree. But I expect some readers are not bothered by it. Jumping around in time is the easiest way to create cliffhangers. This book is so full of jumping around I was totally confused and frustrated. By page 76, I lost track of who was who and doing what. So I sat down, and flipped through the entire book writing down pages and times. Then I went through the book reading the chapters in chronological order. And that way it was good. I liked the ideas, the setting, the gods.The story is about thieves in a city with aristocrats. Reminds me of Dickensian London. The main character is 17-year-old Widdershins, a female thief. She climbs buildings like Spiderman. She is nimble, can dodge most attacks, and is good at running and hiding. The god Olgun lives in her body. She and Olgun have conversations, and he helps her do dangerous things. For example, the staircase is falling down, Olgun makes it stable while she climbs it. The Finders Guild (of thieves) has a god that rules them and tells them what to do. The aristocrats pray to a different god and get benefits. The Guard (police) have their own god. Different bad guys want to kill Widdershins, a demon and some of her fellow thieves.Widdershins never kills anyone, but she manipulates action to cause death to bad guys, like making one bad guy shoot at her but she ducks so a different bad guy gets hit.Overall it was pretty good. I’d recommend it for teens. But don’t buy the audiobook if there ever is one. You won’t be able to follow it due to jumping around. Even though I read it out of order, I still had to take copious notes to keep track of the many different characters. There were too many. Some characters could have been combined into one.One part bothered me. Widdershins was living with a close friend for more than two years. A disaster happens and the police tell her friend they suspect Widdershins did it. The police want to search her room and her friend nods ok. Widdershins hears this and leaves. She has no contact with her friend for another two years. That was out of character. The least she could have done was wait until the police were gone and then tell him the truth. But she didn’t.This is book 1 in the Widdershins Adventure Series. The ending is complete and satisfying with the bad guys taken care of, but a few good guys die. And Widdershins is ready for the next book. So far there are two sequels.DATA:Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 268 pages. Swearing language: damn, hell, sh**, but not often used. Sexual content: none. Violence: moderate fighting and injuries plus one bloody massacre. Setting: unknown time of swords, blunderbuss guns, and travel by horse, city of Davillon. Copyright: 2012. Genre: young adult adventure fantasy.
What do You think about Le Pacte De La Voleuse (2014)?
Different than what I usually read, but some parts grossed me out. I want to read the next one! (=
—eli
It was ok. Its no great story and it was a bit predictable in places.
—karen_174
