Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Narrator: Shiromi Arserio
on January 14, 2025
Genres: Fantasy
Length: 9 hours, 25 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
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The bustling city-state of Märchen borders the Three Queendoms, represented by the Spindle, the Slipper and the Apple.
But the time of the godmothers has passed. If you want access to magic you either have to be one of the few who are born with it and live in hiding. Or extremely wealthy.
Former assassin Samara Dawa is bent on vengeance. When the opportunity arises to destroy the man who sold her as a child, she doesn’t hesitate.
Soon Samara finds herself needing to infiltrate a magical auction run by the mysterious Order of Grimm.
The main item for the last descendant of Queen White.
To pull off this heist she’ll need to put together a an inside man, an explosives expert, a kinetics expert, a master forger and a getaway driver.
And she needs to do this all under the nose of her the head of the thieves guild.
The Order of Grimm is a standalone magical heist story featuring a reformed assassin. The heroine is given an opportunity to go up against the man that sold her to the assassins guild when she was a child. She just needs to open a safe in his office for a former friend. This is just the situation she needs to see if she can find some records of her past and start looking for her family. As an assassin she worked alone, but for this job she will need a crew.
With the assistance of a few friends and a couple other specialized unknowns, a plan is hatched. When things go wrong, they go really wrong, and now the team has to pivot and try and save a girl being auctioned off as a descendant of one of the last magical queens. Infiltrating an auction is going to be a lot harder and the stakes are a lot higher.
I would say this is a little bit Oceans 11 and sorta Six of Crows. The idea of the world was interesting. Three Queens used to rule Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White with fae magic. But almost all of the magic left the world when they did. Magic wielders are few and far between now, hunted for their power. Trying to run a heist under the nose of Thieves Guild and against a Kingpin is more than dangerous. But the prize, is worth risk, especially if she does have magic.
This was an entertaining book. The makeshift crew had interesting characters to fit the needed roles with some decent backstories blended in. They were all pretty likeable characters. I was a little sad they weren’t a bit grittier or morally ambiguous like in Six of Crows, they are more wholesome or nice than that crew. I found the story entertaining overall but think the characters could have had a bit more depth to them. Still a fun story that did make me wonder how they were going to get one over on the bad guy.
Narration:
Performance: ★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★
Sound Effects: None
Shiromi Arserio is a new to me author but I have listened to some of her other works. She gives a solid performance and made it easy to differentiate the characters from each other. The story was easy to follow with her performance. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
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I really like the Ocean’s 11 comparison! Those are some of my favorite movies. I’m really picky when it comes to books that play on fairytales, but this one sounds interesting. It’s definitely a concept I haven’t heard of before!
Very small fairytale tie in. The magic I think was considered more fae in nature than really fairytale. Definitely Heisty though
A magical heist? Sounds like fun! 😀
I like Heists against someone rich, powerful and corrupt. They had a fun squad.
New author to me too. But I do like a good heist. 😀
Me too…they can be so much fun. This made me think about rereading a few of my favorite heist books.
Sounds pretty good! It’s new to me. Love the cover and title too! Great review!
Overall a fun story with some interesting ideas.