RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
SPICE: 🔥
Jillian Moorewood is finally out of prison. Now she wants to break out of..her family business. Especially since it was the reason she was in jail to begin with. Thanks to some leverage, Jillian is trying to keep her family on the legal side of the law.
Unfortunately, the Moorewood Family just cannot help their conning ways.
What I love about this book is the mental chess Jillian plays with her criminal family. There are so many twists and turns, but it has that playful tone I love about the Knives Out and Ocean's movie series. It doesn't take itself too seriously but manages to entertain completely. I love that along the way, Jillian does some soul-searching about herself and also finds some love (with a bodyguard!) in a rather chaotic situation.
This did not have as much steam or spice as I hoped so I am not sure why it was firmly put in the romance bucket. Like in the book, things happen for a reason, so I am grateful because I would not have otherwise been introduced to it.
If you like a light, fun read with a good helping of suspense and a small side of romance, this standalone read is a good pick.
** I am voluntarily reviewing an advance copy of this book. Thank you to HelenKay Dimon, Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for providing an ARC. **
ABOUT THE BOOK
Knives Out and Ocean’s 8 meets The Nest in this hilariously twisty novel by award-winning author HelenKay Dimon, about a woman who returns home from prison to her dysfunctional con artist family and tries to get them to go legit.
One day a con man met an heiress, wooed her, married her, had two kids…and kept on conning. Jillian Moorewood is the oldest child from that meet-cute-gone-wrong marriage. The stable one. The sensible and dependable one. The one who protects and fixes. The one who went to prison to save their sorry butts. Now, thirty-nine months later, she’s out and she’s more than a little pissed.
Finally home she finds the scheming clan in full family fleecing mode. They all claim they didn’t really agree to Jillian’s previous go-legit-or-else ultimatum before she went away. They viewed it as a “suggestion” then ignored it. So, business as usual. But Jillian is done with the lies and fakery. She demands the whole messed-up crew clean up its act, and this time she’s not kidding—she has the leverage to make it happen.
Problem is, her life is in shambles, but with the help of a great aunt (crooked but loveable), a bodyguard (who is a nice surprise after three years in prison), and a few allies (all working undercover), Jillian starts to put her life back together. She kicks out a few mooching relatives living under her roof, sets limits on everyone’s access to the money, ducks from their various attacks, and sees if that bodyguard is maybe interested in sticking around for a while. For the first time, she’s Jillian Moorewood, her own woman, and she’s ready to figure out who she is.
MEET HELENKAY DIMON
HelenKay Dimon is a former divorce lawyer turned bestselling author of more than 40 Romantic Suspense, Contemporary, and Erotic Romance books and novellas. Her books have been featured in various national and international venues and she has had two books named Red-Hot Reads in Cosmo magazine. She is a four-time RITA® Award finalist in romantic suspense (for Mr. and Mr. Smith, Facing Fire, Guarding Mr. Fine and The Fixer) and is 2018 RITA® Award winner for The Fixer. She’s also a Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award winner in romantic suspense for The Fixer. In addition to writing, HelenKay is Chair of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Romance Writers of America and frequently teaches workshops and classes on fiction writing and romance writing. She lives in San Diego where she is (or should be) working on her next series but might be streaming a show on Netflix.
Just in case you were wondering…HelenKay is her real name. Yes, that’s a capital K in the middle, all one word and no space (blame her two grandmothers – Helen and Kay). Dimon is pronounced Die-Mon.
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