About the Book

Welcome to Farrowfell where edible magic is the hottest commodity, traded between those who can pay or – in the case of Jude Ripon, the youngest thief in Farrowfell – those who can steal it! 

Twelve-year old Jude Ripon has never been taken seriously by her family of magic-stealing masterminds. To them, she’s just the youngest, only good for keeping watch while they carry out daring heists. Desperate to prove her worth, Jude decides to steal valuable magic from the fanciest house in town…

But Jude’s stolen prize was protected by a curse. While attempting to untangle the mess she’s made, Jude discovers just how far her family will go to stay at the top of the criminal world. 

Suddenly, her quest to become a true Ripon isn’t straightforward any more…

An epic debut middle-grade series from FAB Prize winner Ravena Guron, author of UKYA, This Book Kills. 

About the Author

Ravena Guron is a British Indian biochemist turned lawyer turned YA author turned MG author, a superb new voice who brings her own captivating brand of energy, wild adventure and joy to the genre. The Thief of Farrowfell is the first in an intended series following Jude Ripon, and was shortlisted for Penguin’s WriteNow scheme, as well as being highly commended in the Faber FAB Prize. Ravena is a Londoner through and through: born, raised and educated in London, she lives there still. 

About the Illustrator

Alessia Trunfio is an illustrator who lives in Rome. After graduating with an Animation Degree from the International School of Comics in Rome, Alessia has worked as a background artist for some of the most important animation studios in Italy. 

What I Thought

The book arrived to me with its own bag of edible magic which tasted very yummy, hopefully I have got away without turning into a Lilthrum.

I’ve only managed to read the start so far – it only arrived at the weekend and then I had a health blip – so I will add my full review and reshare this post when I do. Here are my initial impressions.

The reader really gets drawn into this new world with a bang and I love that we start with a heist and immediately see the edible magic in action. What a fun magic system – although it appears not all magic is tasty. We get an immediate sense of the pressure that Jude is putting on herself to really belong to the Ripon family and we just as quickly see why she doesn’t already have that. With a sense of competition and not collaboration amongst this family of thieves. I want to do an Encanto shout out with the magic house chucking open doors and windows, I wonder how big a character it will play.

Poor Jude doesn’t manage to get the big reveal about her daring heist and captured magic, and it’s probably a good thing no one noticed if the curse turns out to be true.

Things soon start going wrong for the Ripons – is it just bad luck or cursed bad luck? Will Jude get the blame or will she manage to prove herself and find her place in her family. I like the rival relationship between her and her older sister but I can sense there is much more to that story. There’s some clever hints that things aren’t so rosy in the Ripon spotlight.

I can already tell this is going to be such an expansive world with plenty of opportunity for more adventures once this one is wrapped up. I probably won’t get to finish this until the weekend but I’m looking forward to finding out more about what Jude’s magic yo-yo can do.

Huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and the publisher Faber for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. Do follow along with the tour using #ThiefOfFallowfell for more reviews and content.