Painted Devils by Margaret Owen

 

4.7/5 stars

Vanja Schmidt was most definitely not trying to start a cult. Things just got a bit out of hand and well, something that would appear to be a cult was the result. She swore it wasn’t on purpose. Anyway that was what she tried telling Emeric Conrad when he showed up to the village she fled to- away from him mind you- to investigate the newly formed cult. Now Vanja has to prove to the man that she probably loves, one that is a prefect or on his way to becoming one that she is not a fraud. But what if she is, and what if the claim that the Scarlet Maiden has laid on Emeric can’t be broken. Just what will Vanja do then?

***

The second installment in Margaret Owen’s Little Thieves series, Vanja is on the run from Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad because she is after all nothing but a thief and how could a prefect like Emeric love somebody as lowly as her?

 With her family still being the biggest mystery in life, Vanja decides that before she returns to Emeric she must be able to prove that she’s a normal hard working citizen that can contribute something useful to the world, prove herself to be the exact opposite of what she is, a thief. Though what does she go and do instead? She somehow creates what could be a false low god and a cult. That of course brings the last person she wants to see on her doorstep, Prefect Emeric Conrad. 

I loved Little Thieves, so it’s not a surprise that I loved this book too. Though it took me a lot longer to read this than anticipated (through no fault of the storyline or the author, you can blame a break up for that), when I wasn’t reading Painted Devils, I couldn’t help but find myself thinking of the book and just what was going to happen next. It’s so easy to lose yourself in the world that Owen creates. The worldbuilding in the first book sets things up perfectly for the second book. 

Vanja goes through a lot of character development in the first book and the second book is no exception. Vanja is seen to begin to embrace who she is and what she wants to do in the world as the storyline progresses. Though, the lower than five stars rating is of course due to her self sabotage at the end of the book, because of course she would. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction to new characters and reintroduction to old ones. What I enjoyed even more was Vanja’s initial struggle with family and her later acceptance. There were parts in the book where I teared up a bit because it’s so easy for me to empathize with Vanja. Owen does a truly great job writing her character and I’m not afraid to admit that Vanja Schmidt is beginning to become one of my favourite literary characters. There’s just so much growth and dimension to her, I absolutely adore it. (Minus the earlier mention of self sabotage, I really wish she would give my boy Emeric a break because he is such a tender and loveable character and oh so totally right for her and god dammit why can’t she see that?)

I enjoyed this book in form of Audiobook, I found the narration to be great and as it was my method of ‘reading’ both the first and second book, it will also probably be my chosen form of the book when the third one (Which is confirmed at the end of Painted Devils by the way!) when it does eventually come out. 

I received my copy of this book in form of an audiobook from Macmillan Audio and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views on the book are my own.