The Duchess of the Shallows
After growing up in hiding, a letter with a peculiar talisman changes everything for a young baker’s girl named Duchess, and leads her into a dangerous world of thievery and intrigue where the only thing she has at stake is her place in the world and the truth about that terrible childhood night in which she lost everything.
Duchess of the Shallows is a deceptively simple book, but rich in details. The plot revolves around Duchess, once the youngest child of a wealthy family, but forced to live in secret as the daughter of a baker after the horrifying death of her father and family. The story is driven by a single mission – a heist – in which Duchess, assisted by her street-friend, Lysander, must pull off an impossible robbery in order to gain admission to the secret world of thieves. The plot is simpule, but the world, and the characters inhabiting it, are anything but. Political maneuvering, rival factions, and power-players working in the shadows—all of this serves to create a richly textured world with depth and appeal. I was rooting for Duchess right out of the gates, and didn't come up for air until reaching The End.
— Jefferson
