Review: Stealing Heaven

Stealing Heaven, by Elizabeth Scott. The GoodReads summary:

Dani has been trained as a thief by the best--her mother. Together, they move from town to town, targeting wealthy homes and making a living by stealing antique silver. They never stay in one place long enough to make real connections, real friends--a real life.

In the beach town of Heaven, though, everything changes. For the first time, Dani starts to feel at home. She's making friends and has even met a guy. But these people can never know the real Dani--because of who she is. When it turns out that her new friend lives in the house they've targeted for their next job and the cute guy is a cop, Dani must question where her loyalties lie: with the life she's always known--or the one she's always wanted.

This is one of those books that I’ve seen recommended on enough blogs that I thought I should give it a shot. Or to be strictly honest, being the cheapskate that I am, I bought it for my sister for her birthday and then pretty much simultaneously asked if I could borrow it. But anyway, the book turned out to be decent. Not quite the game changer I was hoping for, but still generally enjoyable.

Basically the best thing about the book, in my opinion, is Greg. He’s beyond adorable. In fact he’s so adorable that there’s pretty much no way he could exist in real life, but hey—isn’t that why we read fiction? His appeal comes from the fact that he sees the best in Dani and never gives up on her, despite the fact that she’s incredibly standoffish to him and only gives him the smallest slivers of outward encouragement. But Greg keeps trying anyway, and he’s such a decent guy that his persistence comes off as endearing rather than creepy.

Dani herself is a likeable narrator. I did find it frustrating, though, that she felt like she had no alternatives to being a thief. I get why she felt that way, and that a lot of it had to do with wanting to feel worthy of her mother’s affection, but at the same time, I just wanted to shake her and tell her that she’s better than that.

Plot-wise, I was good with it all until the end, when the story takes a more serious turn. The serious stuff didn’t ruin the book or anything, it’s just that I thought the book was already doing a good enough job dealing with consequences and what not, so the added seriousness at the end felt unnecessary to me.

Overall, a good read. I didn’t fall in love with it in quite the way I hoped I would, but I still liked it well enough, all things considered.

Rating: 3.5 / 5