Blurb: (From Book 1) An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.
Review: God bless Jean. I absolutely adore this series, and think the first two books are simply stunning. I think there's three strengths in particular for this series: Firstly, the main character has friends which are deserving of MC status themselves, and the relationships between them are supportive not out of situational necessity, but because of shared experiences and friendships. I just like reading books with these types of friendships at the core, and think the Gentleman Bastards balances it perfectly. Secondly, each book is relatively self-contained, and stands on it's own merit (the third admittedly less so than the other two). There's a clear story over books in the series, but at-least in my case I originally read this books in the completely wrong order and felt like I wasn't denied any additional enjoyment. Thirdly, I think the villains were all unique and helped each book a-lot. They were varied in motivations and always facilitated the creativeness of Locke and co. The changing setting in each book helps with this, as you can set up a new 'villain' from scratch, and I think the heist-like aspect of the books let's you have a bigger range than the archytypical absolute death machine evil (I can't say I wouldn't love Wicked Sisters vs Super Demon though.....). This series is thus a huge recommend from me. Heads up that the fourth book is in an eternal state of 'maybe next year?'.