Painted Devils by Margaret Owen

Briana | Pages Unbound

Sep 2

Information

Goodreads: Painted Devils
Series: Little Thieves #2
Age Category: Young Adult
Source: Purchased
Published: May 16, 2023

Official Summary

Let's get one thing straight—Vanja Schmidt wasn't trying to start a cult.

After taking down a corrupt margrave, breaking a deadly curse, and finding romance with the vexingly scrupulous Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad, Vanja had one great mystery left: her long-lost birth family… and if they would welcome a thief. But in her search for an honest trade, she hit trouble and invented a god, the Scarlet Maiden, to scam her way out. Now, that lie is growing out of control—especially when Emeric arrives to investigate, and the Scarlet Maiden manifests to claim him as a virgin sacrifice.

For his final test to become a prefect, Emeric must determine if Vanja is guilty of serious fraud, or if the Scarlet Maiden—and her claim to him—are genuine. Meanwhile, Vanja is chasing an alternative sacrifice that may be their way out. The hunt leads her not only into the lairs of monsters and the paths of gods, but the ties of her past. And with what should be the simplest way to save Emeric hanging over their heads, he and Vanja must face a more dangerous question: Is there a future for a thief and a prefect, and at what price?

Review

I am a big Margarent Owen fan, and Painted Devils drew me in from the start. Vanja is a little down on her luck, but that doesn't stop her from scheming and, even if accidentally at first, going big. Her wild ideas and fiery personality make the book fun, even as she and her friends must find a way to battle some very real dangers.

Owen's books always have interesting premises, and here readers get to see Vanja goes toe-to-toe with mystical forces. She's confident enough to believe she can find a way out of her dilemmas and challenge people immensely more powerful than she is, and it's so entertaining to watch her plot and practice and brag and succeed through it all. One never knows what Vanja is going to get get up to next or how she's going to pull off a crazy plan.

The one thing that did make me uncomfortable in the book is the huge focus on whether or not Vanja and Emeric are going to have sex. Not because, "Ah, there might be sex in a YA book!" (and there's a note that this is sort of a focus before the book starts, just to warn readers who may not want to engage), but because I found it strange that whether these two characters sleep together became a major plot point. They think having sex might mean Emeric no longer qualifies as a virgin sacrifice, so they feel pressure to go all the way, but then it becomes a huge thing where they may or may not, and they keep almost having sex and discussing their exploits with others, and then other characters are talking about whether they're having sex and making bets about it and creating romantic situations to put them in to make them have sex. It was, I don't know, maybe voyueristic? And it actually felt unnecessary from the a pure plot stance, as the evil deity literally explained to them that there would still be massive issues if Emeric were not sacrificed. So I don't really see how having sex and disqualifying him would solve most of the problems the characters in the book were facing.

This took over the book so much, it sometimes overshadowed what I would have called the main plot -- defeating the evil deity -- and the secondary plot where Vanja is searching for her birth family. The percentage of sexual content is really up with there with some novels in the actual romance genre, where ever few scenes the characters start hooking up. This is not necessarily a "good" or "bad" thing, but it wasn't what I was expecting from the book and, again, I was mostly uncomfortable with how invested everyone else from the other characters to the readers get in the question of whether the two main characters are going to go all the way. I felt it wasn't really anyone else's business!

So the book is overall still a win for me. And while I was surprised to learn there will be a third book (I thought this was a duology for some reason), I am going to be one of the first in line to read it because I am sure Vanja will continue to get into much trouble and then find an interesting way out.