Review: Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Published: July 8, 2014
Pages: 368
Source: For Review from Hachette Book Group Canada
Rating: 3 Stars

Growing up on Forge’s streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that’s not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs.
But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she’s not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he’s persistent—and darkly attractive—and Kyra can’t quite resist his pull.
Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by Demon Riders, a clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with uncanny ease.
When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival—and vengeance—might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra’s past that threatens to reshape both their lives.

In short: Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne is an intriguing plot-driven story, but it was lacking a bit too much in characterization and complexity to make it a stand-out read.

Thieves, assassins, barbarians, and wildcats. Midnight Thief soared to the top of my most-anticipated-reads-of-2014 list as soon as I heard of it. I felt sure that, with so many elements included that I love in the books I read these days, I was bound to like Midnight Thief no matter what. And I did like it. Mostly. I definitely had a positive response to the plot, which I felt moved quickly and kept me intrigued. Language was simple, which, combined with the fast pacing, enabled me to speed through the book quickly. I especially liked the reveal of the "startling secret" that is mentioned in the blurb as it made for a very interesting twist and certainly makes me curious to see where the story will go from there. But I did take issue with a few things.

The blurb for Midnight Thief is perhaps a bit misleading. Here I was, excited to read a high fantasy about a girl who joins the Assassin's Guild and develops into one of those badass female assassins I love so much, but no. Midnight Thief tells the story of a girl, Kyra, who joins the Assassin's Guild and then sorely regrets it when she is asked to actually assassinate someone. Hey, I can definitely appreciate a girl with morals. But what on earth was she thinking was going to happen by joining an Assassin's Guild?? This is a girl who quails just at watching a person getting beat up, so this was not a bright move on her part. I don't mean to be so hard on the girl as she was very sweet, but it was hard not to compare her to Celaena and Ismae and of course she was found wanting BIG TIME.

The writing in Midnight Thief wasn't my favourite. As I mentioned earlier, the language, sentence structure, and description is kept simple, which definitely has the advantage of making for a speedy read. But I am a visual reader. I like DETAILS. Most especially when it comes to characters. As it is, I failed to form an emotional connection with most of the characters in Midnight Thief. Description is kept so minimal that I don't even have a good feel for what most of the characters are supposed to look like. I adore little insertions of descriptive words here and there to help bring characters and story to life, and I was sorry to find that Livia Blackburne's writing was lacking in this area.

I hope I'm not being too hard on Midnight Thief in this review because I did like it overall. It was interesting and quick and it's the kind of book that puts you at ease because it's so effortless and uncomplicated, which can be nice. But I don't think that readers who prefer character-driven stories to plot-driven ones will take to Midnight Thief. Ditto to romance lovers because the romance aspect in Midnight Thief was pretty lacklustre, as well. I'm still very intrigued about the twist introduced in this book though, so I'll be curious to hear what people make of the sequel when it is released.

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