Our Favorite YA Heists and Thieves
*Cue Mission Impossible music*
You guys, I have a confession to make… I watched my first Mission Impossible movie last month. I know, VERY late to the party. I don’t know what I was expecting, but let me tell you, it was the most fun I’d had in a while. WHAT A WILD RIDE. THE PURE CAMPERY!!!! Did it make a lot of sense? No. Did I care??? HECK NO. Was I convinced that Tom Cruise is just paying people to film him riding motorcycles at this point? Maybe.
This is why, my lovely NOVLrs, the genre of heist and thievery is here to stay. So plan a heist of your local library (just kidding) and see if you can escape with any of these thrilling reads! But look out, I heard some libraries are putting in laser grids…
Heiress Takes All
by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
YOU GUYS, I could NOT put this one down. It’s the definition of a summer read: set in a luxe and coastal area of Rhode Island, a cast of loveable characters, and a sweet romance throughout. Did I mention Olivia is. A bad ass?! I CAN’T WAIT FOR BOOK TWO!
The Inheritance Games meets Ocean’s 11 in this thrilling adventure about a teenager determined to pull off the perfect heist in the middle of her father’s wedding.
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Owens isn’t thrilled that her dad’s getting remarried…again. She’s especially not thrilled that he cheated on her mom, kicked them out of their Rhode Island home, and cut Olivia out of her rightful inheritance.
But this former heiress has a plan for revenge. While hundreds of guests gather on the grounds of the gorgeous estate where she grew up, everyone will be thinking romance—not robbery. She’ll play the part of dutiful daughter, but in reality she’ll be redistributing millions from her father’s online accounts. She only needs the handwritten pass code he keeps in the estate’s safe.
With the help of an eclectic crew of high school students and one former teacher, Olivia has plotted her mid-nuptial heist down to the second. But she didn’t plan for an obnoxiously nosy wedding guest, an interfering ex-boyfriend intent on winning her back, greedy European cousins with their own agenda, or a vengeful second wife. When everything seems like it’s going wrong, Olivia has to keep her eyes on what really matters: getting rich. And when she’s done, “something borrowed” will be the understatement of the year.
The Drowned Woods
A heist novel set in a dark fairy tale world? SAY LESS. If you enjoy real-life folklore and history, along with haunting fantasy elements, look NO FURTHER than the queen of ethereal, Emily Lloyd-Jones! Who said a heist can’t be magical???
In this magical, ethereal fantasy novel from the bestselling author of The Bone Houses a crew led by a magic welding woman fight to take down the overpowered prince that used and abused them.
Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict, and eighteen-year-old Mererid “Mer” is well-acquainted with both. She is the last living water diviner and has spent years running from the prince who bound her into his service. Under the prince’s orders, she located the wells of his enemies, and he poisoned them without her knowledge, causing hundreds of deaths. After discovering what he had done, Mer went to great lengths to disappear from his reach. Then Mer’s old handler returns with a proposition: use her powers to bring down the very prince that abused them both.
The best way to do that is to destroy the magical well that keeps the prince’s lands safe. With a motley crew of allies, including a fae-cursed young man, the lady of thieves, and a corgi that may or may not be a spy, Mer may finally be able to steal precious freedom and peace for herself. After all, a person with a knife is one thing…but a person with a cause can topple kingdoms.
The Drowned Woods—set in the same world as The Bone Houses but with a whole new, unforgettable cast of characters—is part heist novel, part dark fairy tale.
The Inheritance Games
You know a list about heists and thieves wouldn’t be complete without a JLB book. If I’m ever planning a heist, she is DEFINITELY ON MY TEAM! Chock full of twists and turns, this whole series is just MWAH!!! (*chef’s kiss*).
OVER 4 MILLION COPIES SOLD OF THE #1 BESTSELLING SERIES!
Don’t miss this New York Times bestselling “impossible to put down” (Buzzfeed) novel with deadly stakes, thrilling twists, and juicy secrets—perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying and Knives Out.
Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why—or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.
To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man’s touch—and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.
To Steal From Thieves
by M. K. Lobb
Add this one to your TBRs NOW, people! (Pubbing March 2025!) Fan favorite author M. K. Lobb of Seven Faceless Saints is BACK with a whole new series. This one is giving me… Peaky Blinders. Or Sherlock Holmes (the one with Robert Downey, Jr.) I AM WAY TOO EXCITED YOU GUYS! And the romantasy element? Yes please.
Within the dazzling halls of London’s Crystal Palace, the event of the season has arrived: The Great Exhibition. An opportunity for the greatest minds of the century to come together under one roof in an unprecedented display of wealth, magic, and power. And for two unlikely partners in crime, it’s about to become the score of a lifetime.
Charming conman Kane Durante works alone—or on occasion with his adopted brother, Fletcher. But when his boss, the infamous Kingpin of London’s magical dark market, gives him the impossible task of stealing a priceless artifact from the Great Exhibition, he knows it’s a job he can’t pull off alone. Enter Zaria Mendoza, daughter of one of London’s greatest alchemologists. Ever since her father’s death, Zaria’s been struggling to keep her underground business afloat, and impatient clients are becoming violent. When the infuriatingly handsome Kane offers her the promise of enough money to get out of debt and leave London entirely, she knows she can’t walk away from this dangerous partnership.
But robbing one of the most public, heavily-guarded buildings in London isn’t going to be easy, especially when love and betrayal threaten to ruin everything they’ve worked so hard for.
Trinkets
OMG you guys. This book is like The Bling Ring, but a lot more heartwarming. It’s girl power, it’s misfit central, and it’s one-of-a-kind. If you are have a penchant for 90s grunge aesthetic like myself, I highly recommend!!
Now a Netflix Original Series! The Breakfast Club meets Leah on the Offbeat in this story of female friendships that break all the rules.
Tabitha, Elodie, and Moe: a beauty queen, a wallflower, and a burnout. Tabitha has just about everything she wants: money, friends, popularity, a hot boyfriend who worships her… and a yen for stealing. So does Elodie, who, despite her goodie-two-shoes attitude pretty much has “klepto” written across her forehead. Neither of them are anything compared to Moe, a bad girl with an even worse reputation. But the day that Tabitha and Elodie walk into Moe’s Shoplifters Anonymous meeting, everything changes. When Tabitha challenges them to a steal-off, they forge a strange alliance linked by the thrill of stealing, and the reasons that spawn it. A more unlikely trio high school has rarely seen.
Hollywood screenwriter Kirsten Smith tells this story from multiple perspectives with humor and warmth as three very different girls who are supposed to be learning the steps to recovery somehow end up on the road to friendship.
Heist Society
by Ally Carter
This one is a bit of a vintage read, people. But let me tell you, Ally Carter was one of my absolute FAVORITE authors when I was in high school. Ally Carter walked so our many top-tier heist novels today could RUN!!!!
Kat Bishop can steal anything-including your heart. Intrigue, adventure, romance, and charm abound in this New York Times bestselling series.
For as long as she can remember, Katarina has been a part of the family business-thieving. When Kat tries to leave “the life” for a normal life, her old friend Hale conspires to bring her back into the fold. Why? A mobster’s art collection has been stolen, and Kat’s father is the only suspect. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.
The only solution is to find the paintings and steal them back. Kat’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s history-and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.
With its glamorous international settings, intriguing suspense, complicated cons and even more complicated romance, Heist Society is stealing the hearts of Ally Carter fans everywhere.
The Girl in Question
by Tess Sharpe
EEEE you know I love this series! Nora O’Malley is the daughter of a con-artist, and she is FIERCE! In this follow-up to the bank robbery masterpiece that is The Girls I’ve Been, Nora must steal something ELSE… she has to steal her friend back from her evil step-father.
The unmissable, thrilling follow-up to the New York Times bestselling The Girls I’ve Been!
Four teens. Three henchmen. Two thousand acres of remote forest. One very bad man. And a whole lot of new secrets to unearth.
High school is over, but Nora O’Malley’s life isn’t, which is weird now that her murderous stepdad Raymond is free. Determined to enjoy summer before her (possibly) imminent demise, Nora plans a ten day backpacking trip with Iris and Wes. Her plans hit a snag when Wes’s girlfriend tags along. Amanda is nice, so it’s not a huge issue—until she gets taken. Or rather, mistaken…for Nora. All because of a borrowed flannel.
Now Raymond has a hostage. Nora has no leverage. Iris has a spear and Wes is building boobytraps. It’ll take all of their skillsto make it out of the forest alive.
There are three problems: Someone is lying. Someone is keeping secrets.
And someone has to die.
The Forest King’s Daughter
by Elly Blake
OK, so I’m leaving you with one more for your TBR! When a demon boy gifts a forest princess a (STOLEN) ring, all hell breaks loose, guys. This book is gorgeously written and impossible to put down! It’s a MUST READ for me!
For fans of Sarah J. Maas and Holly Black, The Forest King’s Daughter is an enemies-to-forbidden-lovers romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Frostblood.
Once upon a time, among the bloodred trees of Thirstwood, a young forest princess became friends with a lonely demon boy. He gifted her an amber ring, a worthless trinket…or so he thought…because no sooner did he slide it onto her finger than the demon queen and forest king declared war.
Years later, Cassia is a crucial force in her father’s army, wielding her ring of light that can blind and disorient hundreds of demons at a time. Then battle-hardened Zeru abducts her, planning to steal the ring back to fix his costly childhood mistake. Exhausted, terrified, and more than a little mistrusting, Cassia is forced to travel with Zeru to a place they both believed only existed in storybooks, one where their childhood friendship slowly rekindles into something much more. But it’s only a matter of time before the war they’ve escaped comes for them, and a hidden threat to forest folk and demon alike grows in the shadows.
From the author of the Frostblood Saga comes the first book in an adventure-filled and enchanting fantasy series about the daughters of the powerful forest king, sure to leave readers breathless and desperate for more.
