Little Thieves

 Little Thieves by Margaret Owen, 512 pages.

For years Vanja was the loyal servant of Princess Giselle, until a year ago, when she stole the Princesses face and life with an enchanted string of pearls. Since then she's being leading a double life as the princess waiting for her (terrible) fiancé to return and the Penny Phantom, a master thief who has been robbing the local nobility blind. After all, she's already learned that nothing in life comes without a price, including a mother's love, and without a whole lot of gold there's no way she'll be able to outrun her godmothers, Death and Fortune.

Everything is going to plan until Vanja steals the wrong token and is cursed by the goddess of the forest to be consumed by her greed by the next full moon if she doesn't make up for everything she has taken, and she's taken a lot in the last year. If that wasn't enough Giselle's sinister fiancé is back from the war front and planning the wedding immediately, all while she is slowly turning to gemstones and being pursued for her crimes by an inspector from the godly courts. If she has any chance of survival she'll have to unlearn everything that's allowed her to survive up until now, and that isn't an easy road.

I loved this book! It's a retelling of The Goose Girl, but there are shades of other stories artfully woven throughout. The setting is also very interesting. Politically it is extremely similar to the Holy Roman Empire (honestly an underutilized fantasy European setting), but there are also aspects that are uniquely fantastical, so it feels new and strange, but also firmly rooted in the same kind of culture that gave rise to the Grimm fairy tales originally. It is also has a lot to say about cycles of power and entitlement, and the ways systems of power often leave people without it with no good options and than judge them for their immorality. This book is often heartbreaking, but also very warm and healing. I loved all the characters, and I am so excited to see more of them in the sequel that's been announced!

(Note: There's also not just one but two asexual characters who talk about their experiences in a way that feels extremely genuine and I think that's really neat)