Pocket Full of Pages's Reviews > Pearl Thief

“The wave of memory had submerged me for a whole minute, while I’d just sat staring and let it all come flooding back”.

We received a copy of this novel from Bloomsbury Australia in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Bloomsbury!

We were just so excited to read ‘The Pearl Thief’ when it arrived in the mail, which was such a lovely surprise! We have been wanting to read ‘Code Named Verity’ for a while now which we can’t wait to pick up! When reading this prequel story, we weren’t sure what to expect due to all the hype around the author. Although we were a little disappointed with the world we still did enjoy this read.

The Pearl Thief follows Julia Beaufort-Stuart a fifteen-year-old girl who wakes up in hospital desperately trying to fill in the gaps for the events/ points in time which she can’t remember. As she retraces her footsteps she meets new people who are similar in age called Ellen and Euan. The two take her on an adventure of a lifetime where she discovers the price of which people pay, herself and the truth behind her country town.

We aren’t entirely sure if we enjoyed Julia as the main protagonist. Although we really did love when she found the voice to stand up for others. However, we also felt as though she was a little immature at times.

We did really enjoy the character of Ellen though. She was strong-minded and let everyone know exactly what she believed in. We just wish we got to know Euan a bit better as his character was a little distant in the story-line.

We also enjoyed the romance aspects that were included in the plot. We were quite surprised to find a different relationship building, especially in this historical fiction novel 😊.

The mystery aspects of the novel were enjoyable and we did find ourselves coming to all different types of strange conclusions! A link to finding/ looking for pearls definitely added to the novels spark.

Overall, The Pearl Thief was an enjoyable read. It explored a time where people found it hard to stand up for what they believed in, however, family, friends and believing in each other were definitely some of our favourite themes which were covered within the novel. The friendship building was just beautiful!

Book Rating: 3/5 Stars.