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My name is Danielle. I'm eighteen. I've been stealing things for as long as I can remember.
Dani has been trained as a thief by the best--her mother. Together, they move from town to town, targeting wealthy homes and making a living by stealing antique silver. They never stay in one place long enough to make real connections, real friends--a real life
In the beach town of Heaven, though, everything changes. For the first time, Dani starts to feel at home. She's making friends and has even met a guy. But these people can never know the real Dani--because of who she is. When it turns out that her new friend lives in the house they've targeted for their next job and the cute guy is a cop, Dani must question where her loyalties lie: with the life she's always known--or the one she's always wanted.
Read Chapters One through Three
Reviews:
"Scott tells a surprising story that features a mature teen who longs for the straight and narrow even as the adults around her profit from crime and corruption... Dani is a brave teen who can and does shape a strong future for herself." -- Booklist
"Other teens spend their evenings eating home-cooked meals and trudging through homework; Danielle, 18, has always lived on the run with her professional-thief mother, memorizing floor plans of estate homes and quickly calculating the worth of silver place-settings. When they arrive in Heaven, a quaint, affluent New England beach town, the lonely girl thinks it is just one more stop on an endless road to nowhere...teens will focus on the story's real crime--a stolen life. " -- Kirkus
"Stealing has been the way of life for 18-year-old Dani for as long as she can remember. Dani and her mom have moved around to more places than she can count and in each area, they settle in quietly, meeting only a few people who they can use in their scheming plans. Dani has never attended school and has awkward social skills. But in Heaven, a wealthy, historic coastal town, everything changes...through tragic and exciting twists in the plot, it comes down to who she chooses to be loyal to: her mother or her new friends. Dani struggles to discover who she really wants to be; being only what she's ever known is not a valid excuse in Heaven. Dani, with her witty dialogue, gives a new perspective full of hope to YAs who feel trapped between family and friends." -- KLIATT
"Elizabeth Scott is amazing at creating wonderful, believable characters...Stealing Heaven is a well-written, absorbing book that grabbed me from the first page and refused to let go! I highly, highly recommend it." -- Teen Book Review
"Scott, author of the luscious Bloom, is developing a nice line in romances with genuine personality. Danielle is an unusual protagonist, convincing in her combination of evident plausibility (she mingles freely and unremarkably with the non-criminal world in order to obtain access) and complete outsiderness, and her struggle with the influence of her charismatic mother will be familiar to many readers, criminal or no. Touches of characterization fill our secondary characters, with Allison a better friend than Danielle deserves (a fact of which Danielle is acutely and uncomfortably aware) and Greg an effective romantic foil but a real guy beyond that, with human limitations and regrets. This blend of old-fashioned love story with lively contemporary details will satisfy readers fond of a solid summer romance." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"From the first page, I found myself pulled into Danielle's story. By page ten, I was hooked. Scott has given us an incredible narrator in Danielle. Getting a reader to care about a character so quickly is no small feat, but Scott achieves this with ease and grace. Instead of the stilted, cardboard cut out characters that one normally gets in most teen fiction, Scott has written characters that are very real, that are alive. While reading Stealing Heaven, it felt as if Heaven was a real place, like I could go visit these people any time I wanted. Scott has given us an intimate look at a very human struggle, perhaps the greatest What If of all: What if I got everything I wanted but it would cost everything I knew? Stealing Heaven is essentially a study in human nature, at what one girl would do to get everything she desired. Stealing Heaven is a fast, fantastic read that is sure to become a classic." -- American Chronicle
"Stealing Heaven is a beautifully crafted novel. I loved it from the beginning and had trouble putting it down even when I had to. The isolation and feelings of being trapped that Danielle experiences are very well written and seem so real..I could really relate to her feelings out helplessness and feeling as if nothing can change and you couldn't make it change if you wanted. I love Elizabeth's style of writing as well. It is similar to Sarah Dessen but different at the same time. I really love it and can't wait to read more from this amazing author." -- The Ravenous Reader
"Stealing Heaven is an engaging read about a girl who wants nothing more than what most teenage girls have - a school, a friend, a boyfriend, stuff that belongs to her instead of to someone else. Scott captures Dani's longings for all these things and her mother's total lack of understanding of why anyone would ever want the things that Dani wants...this is a quick read about growing up and learning that it's never too late and you're never too powerless to make the decisions that can change the circumstances of your life." -- Leafing Through Life
"Elizabeth Scott has written a gripping story about growing up, breaking free, and making some of life's most important choices. Stealing Heaven grabbed me on the first page and didn't let me go until the very last word." -- Carolyn Mackler, author of Guyaholic and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, a Printz Honor Book
"Stealing Heaven is an addictive book about a real world that feels like a fantasy--where everything gleams of silver and nothing stays in one place for very long. It will sweep you right along."--Maureen Johnson, author of 13 Little Blue Envelopes and Girl at Sea
"With characters ranging from the insincerely charming to the charmingly sincere, Stealing Heaven just may steal your heart." -- A. M. Jenkins, author of Beating Heart and Repossessed, a Printz Honor Book
Extras:
Read Chapters One through Three (note: .pdf file)
The idea behind Stealing Heaven: I wanted to write a book about a mother/daughter thief team, and I wanted the daughter to *not* want to be a thief. The only problem was, what could they steal? I didn't want them robbing banks or anything like that, and after reading an article about someone who'd tried to steal antique silver, I thought "huh." It was just such an unusual thing to steal, and the more I thought about it, the more it felt like it was the right thing for my two thieves to chase after. And as for Greg...well, he was always going to be part of the story!
ISBN:0061122807
