Happily Ever Endings: Heist Society by Ally Carter

Happily Ever Endings... was born out of sheer frustration. You know how when you read a series and you love it but the last book takes a little while to come out and then you sort of forget parts of the novel? That's what these posts are going to serve to remedy. Happily Ever Ending... is a short post about what happened at the ending of each book that is going to be in a series for people who need a quick reminder of what happened in the previous installment. It's really annoying when you can't remember what happens and don't have time for a reread, so this hopefully will be a huge help!

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Synopsis from Goodreads: When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

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Happily Ever Ending:  Kat is approached by Arturo Taccone, who accuses her dad of stealing some paintings from his very high security house in Italy. Her dad had once before tried to break in and steal them, but he failed, so Taccone assumes it was him again, but it wasn't. Taccone tells Kat that she must get him back his paintings, or her father will pay. Kat, even though she doesn't want anything more to do with the family business, couldn't say no when her father was in danger, and along with her friends, one of who is the mysterious Hale, they plan to find the paintings, steal them back and return them to Taccone.

Unfortunately, Kat doesn't know where the paintings are, and she can't ask her Uncle Eddie like she normally would because she is performing this heist without his permission. Then she hears about a break in to the Henley, which is the most securely guarded museum in the world. Nothing was stolen, but a card was left by a man called Visily Romani, and this causes Kat to think about why on earth a man would break into the most secure museum in the world. She then thinks that maybe he didn't take anything, but he did leave something more than just his card before. She works out that in the room the card was left, there were four paintings, which is the same number of paintings that was stolen from Taccone, and she thinks that the missing paintings must be hidden behind the existing paintings.

Kat and her friends then visit the Henley to test out their security system, and work out which would be the best possible way to attempt a break in. Kat's cousin Gabrielle, who had been helping out with the scheme, walked into the room and tried to touch one of the paintings. In a few seconds the whole room went into lockdown, and Kat is faced with a very big task.

They finally work it out and they carry out the task. It's very complicated, and all over the museum, one of Kat's gang of thieves is playing their part. In the end, the heist is successful, and Kat manages to steal all four paintings back. She leaves them in a house for Taccone to collect, but little does he know that she had also tipped off the police, who barged in on him with the paintings, and arresting him for breaking into the Henley. The book ends with a man and woman coming up to Kat and asking them if she can help them with something. Kat declines, but then they tell her that it was Visily Romani who sent them, and we never find out Kat's reaction.

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If there's anything important that I've missed out, or something's wrong, do let me know in the comments! Hope this helped! :) For more Happily Ever Endings, go to Down the Rabbit Hole!