Mistborn

Blurb from goodreads:

Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale spinner, author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails? What kind of world results when the Dark Lord is in charge? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises and magical martial-arts action that begins in Mistborn.

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

 

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

Sorry. Long blurb.

First off, Mistborn was not what I was expecting. Granted, I didn't even read a blurb before requesting it from the library. All I knew was that I kept seeing it everywhere on people's lists of favorite Fantasy books. Well, this is not your typical fantasy. I don't know why I was expecting elves and dwarves or something like that, but Mistborn is completely original. Brandon Sanderson creates quite the clever mythology here and imagines up a fully-rounded world that is easy to get immersed in. And so you know, I recently took a grammar class and my professor told me it's ok to end a sentence with a preposition, so that last sentence is perfectly fine. ANYWAY, nerdy aside over, let's get back to the book.

Misborn was a fascinating read. It feels more like an Ocean's 11ish heist novel than what anyone would call a fantasy. I loved it, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel with high expectations. The characters were well-described and felt like real people. I especially liked Vin. The plot was intricate and there was some very interesting foreshadowing. I liked the depth of Brandon Sanderson's world and can't wait to get back into it with The Well of Ascension.

Heist Society

Goodreads summary:
When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

I've been wanting to read an Ally Carter novel for a while. She's written lots of teenage spy/thief books and I love that kind of thing. The Oceans movies are some of my favorites, and my husband and I quote them all the time. Anyway, I love a good heist. I just didn't think this was a great one.

Any good heist is going to be very complicated, and the trick in a heist book/movie is to portray that without being so confusing that readers/viewers feel like they have no clue what just happened. Heist Society is a little too confusing and overall just doesn't quite cut it. Oh it's close. I enjoyed many parts of this book, but overall I left feeling dissatisfied. Since I finished the book, I haven't thought of it once (until writing this review). It's unforgettable. It lacks the "WOW!" factor that it needs. 

Despite that, this is a really fun, clean teen read and I still plan on checking out more of Ally Carter's works.