Book Review: Dance of Thieves (Dance of Thieves #1)

Dance of Thieves
Mary E. Pearson
4/5

When I started this book I didn't think that I would like it. It felt choppy to me, the POVs kept switching off and it was mixed with flashbacks that just made everything confusing. It got a lot better though, the characters really won me over.  Kazi is young, but she has already earned her place as one of the new queen's most trusted guards. She is a little impulsive though, and she is sent on a mission to find a fugitive and redeem herself from a past mistake. Jase is a new leader, his father has just passed away and he's the patriarch of a very large family and quasi-kingdom. Both characters know that they have their own secrets and people to represent, but they can't help it when they start building a relationship with one another.

I like Kazi's story. I like characters who work their way back from nothing, and Kazi certainly has a success story on that front. She was a street rat and now she's a royal guard, she pretends to be strong but some parts of her past are still tormenting her. I appreciate her as a character because she's so good at fighting and sneaking around, yet she still has moments of vulnerability and moments when she fails. She has trained tirelessly for her position but also she's only human.

Jase is great because he's a complete foil to how Kazi was raised. A large family, pretty wealthy, the ability to make his own choices. Though he also has had to deal with tragedy, and he's also struggling to make his way in the world. I think one of my major problems with this book was how it's marketed, describing both Kazi and Jase as thieves and like sneaky people?  I don't think there was that much treachery or sneaking involved, they were both just trying to represent their own interests. They didn't even do it very well a lot of the time, secrets by them weren't very well kept. I appreciate the idea, but it wasn't as sneaky as I'd like a book all about thieves to be. I need more of the shadow thing, more spying and just more stealth.

I would recommend this book- it's a little more heavy on the romance element than it is on the fantasy. I never finished the Remnant Chronicles, so you can definitely read it without reading that. Overall, it's had a lot of hype and I can see why people like it.