“To Steal From Thieves”: M.K. Lobb’s Shadow-Drenched Heist Fantasy Where Loyalty Costs Blood and Secrets Have Teeth

In the City of Shadows, Every Oath Has a Price: The Ruthless Brilliance of To Steal From Thieves

There’s something hypnotic about the way M.K. Lobb writes a city—grimy, brutal, and somehow still glinting with allure. In To Steal From Thieves, we’re dropped back into Della’s world, where daggers are easier to find than kindness, and ambition has to be sharper than steel. But this sequel doesn’t just raise the stakes. It slices deeper—into identity, grief, loyalty, and power.

The emotional engine of the story is Della herself, still reeling from the fallout of Seven Faceless Saints, yet more determined—and more dangerous—than ever. She isn’t softened. She’s scarred, steeled. Lobb doesn’t romanticize her choices; she interrogates them. Della’s evolution isn’t a redemption arc—it’s a reckoning. She moves through the novel like a storm: calculating, wounded, and incandescent. “You don’t get to mourn someone and destroy them in the same breath,” she mutters to a former ally, and the line echoes with everything the book dares to explore.

The heist mechanics are sharp, tension-laced, and soaked in moral complexity. This isn’t a glamorous Oceans-style romp. It’s a survivalist puzzle, where betrayal is expected and alliances feel like loaded dice. Yet, amidst the gritty maneuvering and whispered revenge plots, there are flickers of tenderness—moments where human connection cuts through the cynicism like moonlight over broken glass.

Lobb’s writing crackles with atmosphere. The city isn’t just setting—it’s sentient. You can feel its breath in every alley and locked vault. Pacing is taut, but generous when it needs to be—letting moments of rage, yearning, and regret bloom in the spaces between chaos. The supernatural threads are subtle but potent, used not to dazzle, but to disturb. Ghosts, seen and unseen, haunt every choice.

And then there’s the question the book keeps asking without ever speaking it aloud: How much of yourself are you willing to lose to win?

Who Should Read This

To Steal From Thieves is for readers who crave darkness laced with complexity—those who rooted for Kaz Brekker, mourned Jude Duarte’s fury, and still think about Zoya Nazyalensky’s ambition. It’s ideal for lovers of morally ambiguous fantasy, fierce female leads, and found-family dynamics that hurt as much as they heal. If you want a story that smolders with betrayal, loyalty, and the ache of power—this one will steal your breath.