She Thief by Daniel Finn

Title: She Thief

Author: Daniel Finn

Release Date: April 13th

Source: From the publisher

Synopsis from goodreads:

The girl, Baz, and the boy, Demi, are master pickpockets. They weave through rich neighborhoods to slip bags off shoulders and wallets out of pockets before disappearing into the crowd. Their loot goes to Fay, who runs a gang of child thieves from her den in the Barrio. This sweltering slum—in a city that is imagined, but all too real—is what passes for home to the kids, and Fay is what passes for family. 

That all changes the day Demi steals a magnificent blue ring. Soon, the police chief and the Barrio’s crime boss close in on Fay, and she begins to break under their pressure. 

Baz has never doubted Fay before. She’s never been apart from Demi, either. But soon, Baz is left alone to find her way through a world more corrupt than she’s ever realized. Here, the lives of children are thrown away without a moment’s hesitation. Here, the rich and powerful are just thieves on a larger scale. And somewhere in this wreck of a city, Baz must find the scraps of hope, the small acts of kindness, and the steely strength that will take her back to Demi and wash them both out of the Barrio for good.

For the first book that I received for review it was very disappointing. In my opinion the synopsis makes it sound much more exciting than it really is. I was about half way through before I got into it and it picked up the pace. 

One thing that made it difficult was that it was in third person, which usually doesn't matter, but in this book meant that I never completely connected with the characters. Another thing was that the dialect was annoying. I understand that they are supposed to be uneducated street thieves, but how hard is it to add a "d" at the end of your words to make them past tense?

Once I got through those things it was pretty good. The lives of Baz and Demi were interesting to read about, and the storyline was good. I just wish that the beginning wasn't so slow, and that I could have connected more with Baz, as the main character.

Characters: 6/10

Writing: 7/10

Originality: 9/10

Plot: 8/10

Ending: 7/10

Overall: 37/50 C

Title/Cover: 1/5 The only thing going for the title is that it has the word "thief " in it. The model on the cover is white where in the book the characters are dark skinned, and no way are any poor street thieves going to use their money on eye-liner.