Perfectly Addictive

Katarina Bishop has never had a normal life, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been a happy life. She is loved by her con artist family, she knows they will always be there when she needs them, and now she has a boyfriend, Hale. But Hale has never known the concept of family the way Kat has, and when his beloved grandmother dies, that fact becomes all too real.

The boyfriend thing is new for Kat, but when Hale abandons them in the middle of a con, she knows something horrible has happened. When she finds out his grandmother has died, she gets to see the true origins of W. W. Hale V, and it isn't pretty. When she goes to the funeral, she truly begins to understand that Hale is from a different class of people than Kat is, and she knows she could never fit in with this life of his. When the will is read, Hale's world is thrown into turmoil again as he learns his grandmother has left him the billion dollar company. Until Hale is of age to take over the company, the family lawyer will serve as executor, but something is wrong.

When Marcus, Hale's faithful servant, pulls Kat aside to talk to her, he explains his concerns that the will is a forgery. Hale's grandmother never trusted the lawyer, and she always said she would leave something to Marianne, Marcus's sister and Hale's grandmother's best friend. Knowing Kat's particular set of skills, Marcus asks Kat to investigate and find the real will. Now Kat, always a moral con artist (really! I swear!), feels like she must take this job, but how can she take the job that might prove her boyfriend doesn't deserve the inheritance he received? 

You know, I have seen a lot of comparisons of this series to "Ocean's Eleven", but while there is the heist connection between the two, and I love them both, I think this series is in a class all of its own! It really is fun and exciting and gives the reader so much to think about. There was a time I wanted Ally Carter to start writing more YA novels and less MG novels, but I realize that has already happened. Just because her books are clean and can be appropriate to younger readers doesn't mean they aren't also complex enough for older readers. In fact, I find Carter to be very similar to Rick Riordan in that respect. Both of their books are written for younger readers within the genre but are so well written they can easily appeal to everyone, including adults. And in that sense, they are pure genius! There aren't many books that can appeal to both adults and 5th graders and make both demographics happy, but Carter has found the magic formula with this series!

And this was a much different book from the first two because the heists were much more personal to the group. Knowing the possible outcome for Hale, they didn't know how to include him, and he resented their involvement until he found out just how evil the lawyer was. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be more of these books in the series, because they are just so great to read. And it isn't often you find a good clean book you can give to tons of readers. If I had one complaint it would be that I wished the covers were more gender neutral because I know boys would love to read these stories, but the covers would scare many of them away. So I might just "heist" the book jacket and trick them into reading it! After they finished it, they would thank me for my trickery!

Will Steal Your Attention!

When we last left Kat Bishop in Heist Society, by Ally Carter, she had reluctantly returned to the family business to save her father: high-end thieving. They steal what can't be stolen- priceless paintings, one-of-a-kind jewels, and items that have been horded by the rich, famous, and nasty for generations. She and her motley crew of teen masterminds managed to break into the most secure museum in the world and recover stolen paintings. But now Kat has fallen off the wagon. Once she started stealing again, she couldn't stop. The only thing that changed? Her motives for stealing. In Uncommon Criminals, Kat is a new kind of thief.

Kat finds priceless family heirlooms and returns them to their rightful owners. She specializes in art that was stolen during the Holocaust and returning it to the survivors or their families from the war criminals who absconded with them during the war. When a woman approaches her to help return an emerald her family uncovered in Egypt and were scammed out of, Kat can't say no. Even when she finds out the emerald is the famous and cursed Cleopatra Emerald, the jewel that has brought pain, suffering, imprisonment, and death to all those who come near it. Many thieves, including Kat's uncles, have tried stealing the Emerald and failed. But not even the curse can keep Kat and her friends from taking a chance at returning the Emerald to its rightful owner.

Somehow they manage to get the Emerald (no one ever suspects kids!), but after she returns it to the woman, Kat is in for the shock of her life. On the news, Kat sees the picture of the woman whose parents found the Cleopatra Emerald and had it stolen from them- and it isn't the woman Kat gave it to! Now Kat and her friends, who have already achieved the impossible, must find a way to steal the Cleopatra Emerald- again. To make matters worse, it seems the woman who conned Kat into stealing the Emerald is a con artist herself- on of the best! Now Kat and the crew have to con a con artist and find a way to get the Emerald back in one of the biggest jobs the thieves of the world have ever witnessed!

This was a fun sequel in this series that reminds me of a teen version of "Ocean's Eleven". The characters are fun and colorful, and the stealing is for a good reason (usually). I love Kat's crew. They are goofy and add some spice and laughter to the story. When Kat's cousin seems to have been cursed by the Emerald, her usual elegant demeanor is quickly sunken beneath trips, slips, falls, and tumbles. Even the two boys Kat cares about, Hale and Nick, are there to keep the excitement up and moving.

This is a wonderful story for middle school students because it is fun and exciting, but completely clean in language and content. It would also be great for a low-skilled older student, because the story is far from juvenile. I love the versatility of this series; it reaches such a wide range of children, making it a must for libraries and classrooms. My only silly complaint? I wish Carter would stop making her covers so cheesy and "girlie"! This book would appeal to both male and female students, but I doubt I could get an older boy to read it! Maybe I will just toss the dustcover and insist they read it anyway!