Dance of Thieves (Dance of Thieves #1)

Overall Content
Severity
3.8

Language

5.3/10

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

1.5/10

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

3.0/10

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

8.0/10

Potentially Intense Themes

1.0/10

Mary E. Pearson

YA Fantasy

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.

Mary E. Pearson’s Dance of Thieves is a new YA novel in the New York Times bestselling Remnant Chronicles universe, in which a reformed thief and the young leader of an outlaw dynasty lock wits in a battle that may cost them their lives—and their hearts.

Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) Dance of Thieves is a series I recommend to a lot of people who are wanting to get into fantasy but they’re not sure they’re going to like it. This series has a “new world” (not contemporary) which makes it fantasy but there are very few, if any other fantastical elements.

I believe it was this book that started my love for female warriors or soldiers that work as a team. The friendship and comradery between them is a sisterhood that isn’t easily broken.

One aspect I liked was that the characters didn’t feel as young. It is YA so they are 17-19 years old (I believe) but they were portrayed as much more mature while still staying in what I believe is YA content parameters. I also liked the enemies-to-lovers romance. It felt more believable with the slow, uncertain build.

The characters were full of depth and backstories, even if they were side characters. Pearson did a great job making me feel connected to each one.

General content summary:

Language 

F***-

H***- 21

S***-

A**- 5

B****- 4

D***- 15

Bas****- 8

Religious Cursing-

J****-

Chr***-

G**- 8

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

Crapcake

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

After a father dies, a son says it’s time to get drunk. Him and his friends drink all night, buying many drinks for many others. They all wake the next morning hungover, some vomiting, some with headaches. One vowing to never drink again. 

A man has bloodshot eyes from drinking. 

A man takes a swig of ale. 

A man gambles away a city while gambling. 

A small group sip ale at lunch. 

Small crystals are given to a young woman to help ease pain and they knock her out for 2 hours. She wonders how else she could use them. Later she is given sleep elixir. 

A man smokes a pipe. Tobacco hangs in the air. 

A man has a bottle in one hand and a goblet in the other. He has a large stash of wine and tobacco. 

Ale is served at dinner. 

People plan on sneaking a sleeping pill into food. 

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

A woman asks her friends if two people have “done it,” referring to sex.

A man takes off his shirt and a young woman has a hard time not staring. 

A young woman needs to take off her shirt and a man hopes she takes off the undershirt also. 

A man and young woman softly kiss, then he grabs her hips and pulls her closer, his tongue parting her lips. They kiss and explore each other’s mouths. They kiss multiple times, he kisses her neck. 

The young woman is “careful not to cross that unwanted line that might bind (man) and me together forever” She notes the lack of protection she has, and not risking creating a child. 

A man trails soft kisses down a young woman’s face until he reaches her lips where he passionately kisses her. 

While running to get somewhere, a man rips off his clothes, drops his pants and underwear to change into new. A young woman sees him naked. 

A man implies he’s been sleeping with a young woman and that’s why he’s been away for weeks- to continue his legacy. 

A friend asks a friend if she did “it.”

A man kisses a young woman and feels her tongue on his. 

Two people kiss. Later they kiss again while laying down, him cupping her face. 

A woman admires men with their shirts off. 

A man sees a man leaning on a tree, he then sees a woman between him and the tree. The man is moaning, the woman waves the other man away. 

After falling in horse dung, a woman strips naked to wash in the river. 

A man very softly kisses a young woman. She later kisses him long and hard then helps him button his shirt. She asks him to turn around then changed her clothes. Later, after kissing her in the hall and pressing his body against hers, he asks if they could skip dinner. It’s vague but both know he’s implying sex. They go to dinner. 

A man comes behind a young woman, wraps his arms around her and nibbles her neck. He kisses her quickly. 

Two people kiss.

To taunt a young woman, a man says many things that another man probably did to a woman when he took her. No details. 

A man kisses his wife. 

Joking, a woman says “it” will come later. 

A man lightly kisses a young woman multiple times, his tongue gentle and his hands going through her hair. 

A man kisses a young woman. They kiss another time. 

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A group of women visit the place where 20,000 people died. They visit again at a later time, taking note of the skulls and scattered bones. Some believed the dead would come through the ground and take them back with them. 

A leader would behead for any defiance.

A young child is a thief.  If caught, thieves lose a finger. The book refers to her stealing multiple times and the skills she needed to hone. 

Women carry swords and bows and arrows.

A woman watched her family be slaughtered when shown allegiance to a certain person. Her parents were beheaded then she ran because the man wanted her next. This is referred to a few times.

A soldier betrays his country, killing his comrades, trying to poison the king  and kills thousands more. He used small children on the front lines of battle to rattle the other side. 

A young woman stabs a man.  She later threatens to slice a man’s throat.

A young boy watches a man kill his mother with an axe to the chest and burn his father alive.  

A man is dying in a relatives arms. He requires the relative to cut off his finger. 

Men ransack a small village, taking livestock and destroying barns and fields. 

Swords and knives are carried on soldiers.  

A young woman shoves a man against a wall and holds a knife to his throat. Later she finds him bound and gagged with blood running down his temple. She is hit over the head and passes out. She wakes up bound and gagged like the man. Another prisoner has been beaten for moaning. He punches the young woman, blood dripping from her mouth. A man swings an axe at the man’s head but the man fights back, pushing him and punching his throat, another man comes with a spiked mace, knocking out another man with it. The mace is swung toward them. 

Men trick a group of people and stab one of them, then run away laughing. Children watched. 

Fingertips of children are taken and fed to swine if they are caught stealing. 

A young woman admits to killing two people during her job working for the Queen. 

A man breaks into a home, a mother hides her young girl then talks to him. He forces her to drink something and it makes her pass out. He carries her away and the daughter never sees her again. She lay there for 2 days in her own waste. Then becomes an orphan on the streets. This is referred to multiple times.

Men are killed for taking others captive. 

A woman wears a dagger at her side. A young woman hides a tool she uses like a knife. 

A store owner whips a young girl multiple times to get her to stop looking at his fares. 

Small blood spray is on a man’s shirt. Then a man shows a package they received with human ears. 

A group of men take a 14 year old boy captive.  A man kills the leader quickly with a knife to the throat  instead of letting dogs ravage him. Blood sprays. They then cut off the others ears, with a warning for more if they come back. 

A man gives a small blood sacrifice in a temple. He drips blood into gold coins.

A family is betrayed by a friend,  him poisoning a man, creating a massacre and attacking a man who loses a leg and dies later. 

A young woman gets a large dog bite. The dogs were poisonous and she gets cramps and spasms until an antidote is given. 

Men are raiding caravans outside a city and killing men. 

Men buy a large cache of weapons. 

People cheered when a woman stabbed a man who had killed a child. 

Raiders attack a group of wagons and horses. Two sword fight on a wagon, then more appear, one is stabbed in the thigh and falls off. One rams a knee into another’s ribs, holding him over the edge with a knife, another jumps on to help and two fall off, one beating the other senseless. Many are fighting, blood spraying, one young woman is found under a man she had killed, covered in blood. He had tried choking her, she felt death hovering, then she found a knife and killed him. 

People bang and yell threats to people secluded in a gated area. A young man pulls a lever and pikes come out, making them scream. He does it one more time. 

There is a history story about an entire family being slaughtered except for a baby. When the baby grows up, she slaughtered the entire family that killed hers. 

A young woman hits a man in the jaw. A man hits another man, sending him backward. 

A man sleeps with a knife under his pillow because his parents were killed in their sleep. 

A man takes another man in custody. He punches his face in the process. He is going to question him and take fingernails or fingertips one at a time. 

A man holds a knife to another man’s throat. A woman holds an arrow to a man’s head. She then grazes his ear with it. They force them to drink a sleep elixir and hold weapons at them. A young woman wonders if they should slit one throat and leave the man there. A group are surrounded with weapons drawn. Threats are made. A man lunges but a woman kicks him to his knees, grabs his hair and holds a knife to his throat. 

A captive man suggests they bash their captors heads in. One captive takes an animal bone and stabs a man with it, killing him.  The noose is planned for all the captives. Two of the captives fight while their hands are chained. The captives fight multiple times, sometimes getting bloody. 

A woman tells stories about a woman snipping eyelids off so her captives have to look at her. 

A captive tries to run but he had antelope blood on him and a large bird picked him up while he screamed. 

Potentially Intense Themes

A man creeps into a young girls hovel asking where she was, she cowers in the corner in her own waste.

A father dies after clutching his chest. A young man holds his father’s hand after he has died. A young man cuts his father’s finger so he can take his ring. 

There are tense moments when a large bear comes close to two people and actually sniffs and licks them but moves on. 

Sand is filled with small parts of human bones from an ancient graveyard. 

Two people have to outrun a flash flood. 

A young girl was very sick, her brother carried her from an ice bath to her bed but she died in his arms. Her and another brother die of a fever. 

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