The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

On March 18, 1990, thirteen renowned works of art were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Claire Roth, a struggling artist who specializes in Degas, makes a living reproducing such works for an online retailer. She is approached by Aiden Markel, owner of the hip gallery Markel G, to forge a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Museum in the heist. However, when the painting is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect it's not the real Degas, either.

360 pages.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a YA Fantasy Heist novel, in the vein of Six of Crows, but this was not as easy to consume and enjoy as that story. On the positive side, the world was intense, the magic system was complex, and the characters were intriguing. There are some things I really enjoyed about this one, so I am glad I read it, even though I don’t exactly love it and probably won’t continue on with the series.

There were a few major things I struggled with that may also be difficult for you, depending on your reading personality. In particular, I struggled with the world building, the scene setting, and the character development of the villain. Also, relationships between characters, in general, could have used a lot more depth and growth.

The world building is complex and initially extremely overwhelming. I love nothing better than burying myself in a deep fantasy world, including learning about and understanding every little facet that makes the world tick, but something about the dispensation of the information in this novel was too extreme. Way too much information was thrown at readers way too fast, and instead of that being exciting or intriguing, it was complete information overload.

Minus the initial opening scene, which is short and extremely dramatic, I couldn’t even settle in to who the characters were or why I should even care about the story before it overwhelmed me with 1,000 details that could have waited until later. There is way too much telling up front, and I needed reasons to care, before I committed to trying to understand this extremely complicated world.

That does not mean that I don’t think you should read this book, but it does mean that

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I will and do read everything by Leigh Bardugo, because I love her worlds and characters. This is another excellent read, but unfortunately, I didn't love this quite as much as all the others. The first book was definitely better, even though I was happy to have more time with these characters that I adore.

This is fiercely plotted, but still, the story feels just a bit drawn out at times. I hate that, because usually it's the longer, the better with Bardugo. However, there's a bit of spark missing from this story for me, at times, and most of it is in the interactions between characters. It's still well-written, so it's not exactly about the writing. I think I wanted the characters to grow a bit more than they apparently were capable of. That might have been unfair of me, but alas, I'm a greedy reader.

Also, I am not quite in love with how things ended up. I don't expect everything to be perfect and wonderful, but I just wanted something a bit more epic from the ending, since it's the last book in the series. It was off-putting that the final scene was from the POV of the villain, who I was already over and no longer cared about at that point. It's not how I wanted to leave the story. I would have rather it wrapped up from a better and more satisfying viewpoint.

Honestly, I think what this boils down to is that everything is great in how the fantasy/heist part of the story wrapped up, in general. I'm just not completely happy with how all the relationships developed and wrapped up, as I craved something more. I wanted the characters to dig to some deeper emotional levels.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still happy I read this book. It's good in a million different ways. But it's just shy of magnificent, and I have come to expect magnificence from Bardugo.

Pages: 560

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantasy heist novel, which is a great concept! I love Leigh Bardugo, because she writes rich worlds and complicated characters. This is the first book in a duology, and I've already started book 2. You will want to have it on hand, because book one ends dramatically.

Pages: 462