[Read Your Bookshelf] Book Review: Dance of Thieves
by Mary E. Pearson
Read Your Bookshelf is my 2025 goal of reading the remaining unread books on my physical TBR. View the full list here.
Dance of Thieves
by Mary E. Pearson
Two Stars
Book 24 of 2025
Genre: Romantasy
Format: Audiobook
Blurb
When the patriarch of the Ballenger empire dies, his son, Jase, becomes its new leader. Even nearby kingdoms bow to the strength of this outlaw family, who have always governed by their own rules. But a new era looms on the horizon, set in motion by a young queen, which makes her the target of the dynasty's resentment and anger.
At the same time, Kazi, a legendary former street thief, is sent by the queen to investigate transgressions against the new settlements. When Kazi arrives in the forbidding land of the Ballengers, she learns that there is more to Jase than she thought. As unexpected events spiral out of their control, bringing them intimately together, they continue to play a cat and mouse game of false moves and motives in order to fulfill their own secret missions.
Review
Mentions of: side characters talk about doing “it,” hints to side characters having sex (mentions hearing moaning), main characters making out
DNF at 66%
I attempted to read this book on three or four separate occasions. Many people (both readers and authors) whom I trust have raved about this book, so I wanted to give it a fair shot, and I think I did. It just fell sort of flat to me.
First of all, this book is long. Completely unnecessarily long. It could’ve easily been cut down by 20%, and I didn’t even finish it.
Second of all, I didn’t understand Kazi and Jase’s romance plot line. And don’t get me wrong, I love a good romantasy (I’m a romance author after all), but I jst don’t understand why they like each other. And it didn’t add anything to the overall story. I almost wanted to skip their several makeouts, not because I felt it was inappropriately written, but because it was just boring.
Third of all, I never really understood why Kazi and Jase were supposed to hate each other. I wish that Pearson spent more time worldbuilding at the beginning than just jumping into this weird sort of enemies-to-lovers trope without fully explaining why their enemies. She should have used part of that unnecessary 20% of making out to world build.
To me, it kinda felt like she wrote this book to please all of the enemies-to-lovers romantasy fans without really giving a thought to plotting.
Get your copy of Dance of Thieves here (affiliate link).
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