VERDICT With Six of Crows and The Cruel Prince as readalikes, this will find an audience anywhere there are fantasy fans. The main cast is white, with diversity in race, gender, and orientation in the supporting characters, including on-the-page queer couples. Packed with heists, gods, and monsters, the Germanic worldbuilding is easily accessible and readers will love rooting for Owen's clever antiheroine with ambition. A cast of fully realized characters are colored by Vanya's sharp tongue and criminal proclivities, making her a fun, and occasionally unreliable, narrator. The Low God Eiswald curses her to slowly turn into the jewels she loves so much unless she can give back everything she stole-which means finding the real Gisele, not getting caught as the Penny Phantom, and getting out of this curse while all the gods are watching. While trying to steal enough gold to escape her divine godmothers, she accidentally crosses the wrong god during one of her burglaries. Using the Prinzessin's status to gain access aristocrats and rob them during high society parties, Vanya acquires a reputation as uncatchable and an alter ego: the Penny Phantom. Vanya, the adopted daughter of Death and Fortune, has been impersonating the blonde and beautiful Prinzessin Gisele for the better part of the year. Gr 9 Up-A brash "Goose Girl" retelling from the villain's point of view by way of Six At first, Vanja is thrilled with her luck, but soon, she crosses the wrong god, and is cursed to turn into the jewels she covets, gem by gem, unless she can right her wrongs and pay back her debts-quickly.Ī fresh twist on a classic Brothers Grimm tale, this is an irreverent YA fantasy that reveals the fickle hands that deal the cards of fate and fortune. So begins a life of merry mayhem posing as a royal to rob the nobles blind. Luckily, her godmothers are Death and Fortune, each of whom blesses Vanja with magic in exchange for a life of servitude when she comes of age.īut when the time comes, Vanja flees, swiping an enchanted string of pearls that allows her to impersonate a princess. Seventeen-year-old Vanja Schmidt is the thirteenth daughter of a thirteenth daughter, and wherever she goes, misfortune follows.
Kids' Indie Next pick for November/December!
A scrappy maid must outwit both palace royals and low gods in this new Bavarian-inspired YA fantasy standalone by Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series.
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