Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) by Leigh Bardugo
Series: Six of Crows #1
Published by Henry Holt and Company on September 29th 2015
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 465
Format: ARC
Source: BEA
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Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

Leigh Bardugo has done it again.  She made me fall in love with the world, the characters, the story, everything, and then she ripped it all away!  Six of Crows proved to me that I will love everything she does.  If you were a fan of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, then Six of Crows is definitely for you.

Let me start off by saying, yes, there are references to the Shadow and Bone trilogy but to be completely honest, I feel that I would have been okay even without reading those books first.  That’s not to say I don’t recommend those books (very very much) but if you haven’t read them and you’re dying to start Six of Crows, I say go for it.  The references were mainly names and some incidents and sure they might spoil your experience with the Shadow and Bone trilogy but to each his own.  It’s up to you to decide which you read first.

When I started Six of Crows, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to like it.  It took me a long time to really get into the story.  The book is told from six different points of view and it made it harder for me to really get to know the characters and fall in love with them.  That’s not to say that that didn’t happen eventually, it just took about 150 pages.  I really had to spend some time with this book and push through the beginning to get to the good parts.  And when I say good, I really mean great.  When things get going, they really get going.  Kaz and his crew do not mess around.

Kaz is the leader of the Dregs, a gang located in the Barrel, the lowest place in Kerch.  He’s in charge of the group that’s meant to take on the biggest heist possibly ever.  It’s an almost impossible job and it requires a very skilled crew.  Kaz (nicknamed Dirtyhands) brings everyone together and his skill set is wide.  He’s great at coming up with crazy plans and he’s willing to do anything it takes to get what he wants.  Hence his nickname.  He’s also got a past that haunts him and influences everything he does.  He’s got secrets and my heart broke for him every time a new one was revealed.  Then there is Inej.  She’s his Wraith, his righthand woman.  She is sneaky and brave and cunning and just plain badass.  She’s also got a past that is pretty much the only reason she’s stuck doing what she’s doing.  But she’s also got plans for a future and nothing is going to stop her from reaching it.  Jesper is another of Kaz’s crew, also part of the Dregs.  He’s got a serious gambling problem and a love for guns.  I feel that there’s more to him than meets the eye and I look forward to finding out more about him in the coming books.  Also, he’s pretty dang funny.  Nina is the Grisha in their crew.  She’s a Heartrender who is stuck doing things she doesn’t want to do because Grisha are totally taken advantage of everywhere now.  She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get back to Ravka but she has some wrongs to right first.  Matthias is one of those wrongs.  He’s not part of the Dregs but he doesn’t really have much of a choice when it comes to this heist.  He took a lot of work but he wasn’t all bad.  Last but not least, there was Wylan.  A relatively new member of the Dregs (and I’m not even sure if he was a full member) but he had other uses.  He was smart and funny and willing to put up with all of Jesper’s crap.  The two of them together might have been my favorites.

The heist is totally crazy.  I had no clue how Kaz and the crew were planning on pulling it off and even if I thought I knew, I would have been wrong.  Things were popping up every other page that put a damper on their plans.  Like I said, Kaz was great at coming up with plans which was good because they needed a new one practically every other page.  Once the Dregs really start in on their heist, the book never slowed down.  I was hooked and I wanted to do nothing but read.  It was pretty much perfect from that point on.

Oh and there may have been some romance.  It was more of a slow burn and there wasn’t a whole lot of payoff this time around.  I’m definitely hoping for some of that in the next book.  I don’t want to give anything away but I honestly don’t know who my favorite couple would be at this point.  They all have their moments.

Overall, Six of Crows has solidified my love of all things Leigh Bardugo.  Take your time with this one.  Don’t let the beginning fool you.  It’s a fabulous book that deserves every bit of praise it has been getting.  I’m already dying to get my hands on the sequel.

What others are saying about Six of Crows:

The Book Addict’s Guide’s review: “I found myself thinking about the book when I wasn’t reading it and wanted to read more.”

Reading Books Like A Boss’ review: “Set in the same imaginative world as Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy, this action-packed spin-off left me in an abyss of despair because I need more of these characters!”

There Were Books Involved’s review: “There was so much potential for attachment and shipping (the ships! so much potential there) and feelings, but Six of Crows never crossed that line from “potential” into actual, full-blown attachment, for me.”