Stealing Heaven
by Elizabeth Scott
- Pages: 307
- ISBN: 0061122823
- Link: Goodreads
- Format: Paperback
- Published on: June 23rd 2009 (first published June 1st 2008)
- Published by: Harperteen
“My name is Danielle. I’m eighteen. I’ve been stealing things for as long as I can remember.”
And thus ends the first chapter of Elizabeth Scott’s novel, Stealing Heaven.
Danielle, or Dani, has been moving around a lot for most of her life. She and her mother remain in a town only long enough to case out the expensive houses and then rob them. After that, they move on to the next town. Dani hasn’t remained in any one town long enough to attend school or make friends. And for the most part, Dani hasn’t thought that her life could really be any different. That is, until she and her mother reach the small town of Heaven.
Heaven is the sort of town where rich people have summer homes. It’s here that Dani starts to wonder if she really wants to be a thief for the rest of her life.
Can she really just give that up and throw down some roots?
Review
I’ve been dying to read more books by Elizabeth Scott ever since I read Living Dead Girl. And it probably goes without saying that Stealing Heaven is very different from Living Dead Girl. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Stealing Heaven manages to be fun while also having heart. While Living Dead Girl’s ending can be interpreted in different ways, Stealing Heaven wraps things up pretty neatly. I will say that I had mixed feelings about the ending. Dani spends Stealing Heaven questioning who she is and what she wants while simultaneously feeling like she can’t just quit.
But what ultimately determined Dani’s ending seemed very…convenient. That probably sounds very vague and cryptic, but I’m not sure how to better articulate my thoughts without ruining the ending. I don’t want to do that.
I don’t want to make it sound like I thought Stealing Heaven was all bad.
One of the things I liked most about Stealing Heaven was Dani’s relationship with Greg. More specifically, I liked their conversations. Some people will tell you that one of the things they like about YA is the witty banter between characters. And I think Scott did that really well here.
So basically, I enjoyed Stealing Heaven. It was a fun read.