The Academy - Thief

Kayli Winchester is a dirt-poor girl living out of a hotel, forced to be the parent for a drunken father and teenage brother who she’s desperate to keep in school. The only way she scrapes by is to utilize her one skill: pickpocketing. But even though she’s a thief she has a moral code: no kids or old ladies, only targets who can defend themselves. Not that they see her coming…

Thinking she’s been working under the radar, Kayli has no idea The Academy has been watching and taking notice. Now a team that needs her skill has offered her a way out of her predicament and it’s her last chance: work with them, or face jail time. Kayli resists at first, but slowly the boys reveal they can be trusted. With Marc, the straight man, Raven, the bad-boy Russian, Corey and Brandon the twins as different as night and day, and Axel their stoic leader, there’s a lot Kayli can learn from these Academy guys about living on the edge of the law. If only she can stay on the good side instead of the bad.

Especially when the job they offer her is more than any of them bargained for. After it’s done, the hunters have become the hunted and their target is now after Kayli. The Academy boys do their best to keep her hidden, but a thief like Kayli will never sit still for long.
from goodreads.com

Beth says 1.5 Stars...
Ugh, this book.  It starts out with Kayli, who I initially liked.  At the beginning she's working and picking pockets to try to make rent because her alcoholic father can't keep a job.  When the "team" catches up with her, the action supposedly starts.  I say supposedly because Stone doesn't actually reveal much information and has things happen without explanation.  The plot is totally confusing, with the actual badness of the bad guys constantly up for debate.  Throughout most of the book the team is chasing this guy without knowing any real details of what's going on.  The pacing was always off; sometimes really slow and other times all together too fast.  The climax of the book left me very unsatisfied and didn't serve to actually resolve any of the issues brought up during the story.

So I initially liked Kayli, but that quickly faded.  I thought she was going to be reasonably interesting because she seemed conflicted, but with morals and a giant protective instinct.  However, when she met the boys of the team it completely turned me off.  Literally every time a new young male character was introduced she had the hots for him.  EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.  Then she started feeling conflicted because her heart got all aflutter when the super sexy mancandy entered the room, no matter who it was.  At that point all of the potentially compelling parts of her personality were shoved aside to make room for romantic longing and thought.  Either she was sinking into angst about her thieving lifestyle or wanting to make out with someone.  I couldn't even pay attention to the male characters because I was so frustrated with the insane focus on flirty romance at the expense of all development.  It basically evolved into a love star with Kayli at the center connected to most of the guys introduced in the book.

My advice about this book: don't bother with it.  There were occasionally quips that made me laugh, but the rest of it isn't worth the time it takes to read the novel.
ebook from publisher