A maid who stole her mistress's life has two weeks to undo a god's curse — with a dogged junior detective on her trail.
- Score
- 79.9
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- first
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
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What readers think
Readers consistently praise Vanja's sharp, snarky voice and the rare authenticity of the demisexual representation for both leads. The fairy-tale-retelling structure, Margaret Owen's own black-and-white illustrations, and the thematic depth around systemic oppression and found family earn high marks. Critics note some uneven pacing — the middle stretches and the romance occasionally receives more page-time than the heist plot — and a few readers felt the ending leaned cliffhanger rather than conclusive. Overall reception is strongly positive, with Smart Bitches Trashy Books awarding it an A- and many reviewers calling it one of the best YA fantasy releases of 2021.
Read it if
- · Readers who want a morally-complicated, feminist fairy-tale retelling with genuine LGBTQIA+ rep
- · Fans of slow, emotionally-earned romance between two equally clever characters
- · Anyone who loved Spinning Silver or Uprooted and wants something wittier and more irreverent
Skip it if
- · You need a high-heat romance — this is firmly closed-door
- · You prefer tight, fast-paced plotting over character-driven meandering
- · You dislike open endings that set up a sequel
If you liked this
- · For fans of Spinning Silver — Germanic folklore, morally complex heroine, dealing-with-gods tension
- · Like Six of Crows but lighter in tone, with fairy-tale scaffolding instead of heist crew ensemble
- · For readers who want The Cruel Prince's political intrigue dialled down and wit dialled way up
In this series
Part of Little Thieves — read in order:
Full series profile & spice/trope breakdown →Which dark romantasy heroine are you? Five choices in a forest that wants you dead.
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