[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Crown Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Sky is a wyvern – as are her brothers and her parents. Wyverns are were-dragons – humans who can shape shift into dragons. Although modern wyverns have lost the ability to shift, they can still breath fire. And they are crazy about gold!
On the night someone tried to steal her mother’s 24-karat gold piano, Sky was supposed to be at the movies, drowning her sorrows in buttered popcorn. Her mother had disappeared while on some sort of job, and Sky’s boyfriend, Ryan, and the entire wyvern community had shunned Sky’s family. But Sky wasn’t feeling up to a movie and burning the mementos of her broken relationship, so she went home early. And stumbled into a heist in her own home.
Then, she ruined the heist (yay!) only to later discover it was her brothers, trying to prove to their father that they were up to the task of a major heist (oops!). But all of that made Sky realize how tired she was of trying to live as though her mother’s disappearance was no big deal. So when she finds out what her mom was trying to do, Sky puts together a crew for a heist of her own.
Review
I loved every bit of this! It was the perfect book for me – a smart and sassy protagonist, a fantasy world, and a heist/mystery. I read it in one sitting and as soon as I finished, I ordered my own copy of the book. This was fantastic!
I loved the “voice” of this from the first page. It begs to be read out loud (as my family discovered because I kept reading passages to them). And Sky is a huge part of that voice/tone. She’s smart and funny – sarcastically honest. But she was only the first character I fell in love with. Gabriela and Sky’s brothers and “Worm” were some of my other favorites – so many great personalities in this one!!
The fantasy world for this really worked well for me. It feels 75% normal with 25% dragons. And I love dragon books. The heist was fairly simple. Once Sky and her crew had it planned, they just had to execute it several times flawlessly for things to work. The issues in the story had little to do with the planning and more to do with self-confidence and determination during execution. Well, that and traps.
Another great selling point for this book is it is “clean” teen. I can recommend this to any kid who enjoys fantasy without having to worry about mature content. And I adore finding terrific stories for teens that will appeal to all audiences. I highly recommend this one!