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21 exciting YA book releases we can’t wait to read in Fall 2021

By Lacy Baugher

You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao. Image courtesy St. Martin’s Press & Wednesday Books
You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao. Image courtesy St. Martin’s Press & Wednesday Books /
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Little Thieves by Margaret Owen. Image courtesy Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen. Image courtesy Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group /

Fall 2021 release: Little Thieves – Margaret Owen

The highly-anticipated new novel from Margaret Owen, who gave us the fantastic The Merciless Crow duology, Little Thieves is a delightfully irreverent retelling of “The Goose Girl” about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.

The story follows 16-year-old Vanja Schmidt, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, who came to live with them when her real mother abandoned her. But she’s horrified to learn that these otherworldly figures she always saw as her only family don’t feel quite the same way about her – and that she’ll have to choose one of them to serve for the rest of her life.

Desperate to escape, she concocts an elaborate plot that involves stealing the life of the princess she’s spent most of her life serving and using her double identity as a royal to steal jewels from the local nobility in the hopes of ultimately funding her escape for good. But when she crosses the wrong god, things go from bad to worse, and she’ll have to pull off the biggest con of her life – to save her own life.

The official synopsis describes the story as follows.

"Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love–and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele’s dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself. The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed. Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life."

Little Thieves is available on October 5. 

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