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.

@bookishswiftiesclub June YA read! This is a retelling of The Goose Girl, a fairytale I was not familiar with going into my read. I think the book did a really good job of keeping the fantasy vibes while also mixing in a fair amount of adventure and drama. At first Vanja comes across as a bit of a selfish antihero, but throughout the book her motivations and background are revealed, making her a complex character and endearing her to the reader. I enjoyed her growth throughout the story, as well as her quest for independence. I also really enjoyed the medieval German setting of this book, which overall really added to the fairytale atmosphere. There were a lot of different side characters that also had their own back stories and complexities, and I really loved their relationships with one another. There were a lot of characters, but I never felt overwhelmed by the amount or had trouble keeping them straight. The book also had great queer representation! If you’re a fan of fantasy or fairytale retellings, definitely pick this up.