Picked this book up off the new arrivals at the library based on the cover and a brief glimpse at the description.

This book does that weird thing where they keep the reader out of the loop but constantly refer to things the reader does know. I didn't love that. Then the payoff wasn't even good.

In the dedication the author says she wrote this for a friend that passed away. Her friend loved Elin Hilderbrand and the author usually writes thrillers. More proof that when I book cover/intro pages in anyway reference Elin Hilderbrand I should just put it down.

(G) ( )

After the death of her mother, Jillian Moorewood tried in vain to get her family of grifters to go legit. Things definitely don't go to plan, and the story begins with Jillian returning to her family estate after spending 39 months in prison. But if there's one thing that Jillian knows, it's how to pull a long con. Unbeknownst to her family, Jillian has returned with a few surprises, but she's not fully prepared for how much her family is determined to hold on to the lives they've built. Enter, Beck Romer a security specialist hired to keep Jillian safe from her family. It's hard to know who to trust in the Moorewood household, but Jillian and Beck form a strong working relationship that will hopefully carry Jillian through the upcoming confrontation. That is, if the person who ratted her out in the first place, isn't set on sending her back to prison for good.

I was very interested in reading this book when I found out it would be about a family of criminals and the seemingly one family member who is trying to go legit. I think I was prepared for a lot more scams and cons, these things are all there, but almost in the peripheral. Down to its most basic premise, this story is about a dysfunctional family.

We kind of start the story on the other side of all the cons (although really Jillian's family seems to be in a constant con if not with someone else than with each other). We're seeing this family after years and years of crime. The breaking point for Jillian was the death of her mother. Her mother who, despite everything, loved Jillian's father. She always wanted the family to turn honest. It was her dying wish that Jillian has been trying to uphold when she's sent to prison.

Seeing this family with all the baggage and how they navigate around one another was very relatable. I think we all, at certain times or another, will clash with our relatives (probably not over crime, but still).

The pacing of the book was one that I had to get used to. There's a lot of bantering and back-and-forth between the family and having an understanding of the characters helped pick up on the tone of the story. It's very quirky and it's funny without specifically trying to be just as we see the lengths in which certain Moorewoods are willing to go in order to in order keep up the con. The lies in which they live everyday in order to assure themselves that what they're doing is not wrong.

While not exactly what I was expecting, I thought that this book was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the family interactions and I think the whole idea, the thing that this family is really good at, is shattering expectations. ( )

4.5 stars rounded up.

It's not often that I give a new (to me) author this many stars. There really has to be something about the book that calls to me. Everything about this book called to me. I love a good story about screwed-up, bitchy, backstabbing rich families. Books that have twists and turns. Books with some mystery, intrigue, and surprises. Books that leave some of the characters with insight that they hadn't had when you first started reading. And boy, howdy, do we sure have all of that here. That and just a bit more that put the shine on the book. There is some humor and a bit of romance, too (sort of)!

This is a perfect beach read - not too long, not too short. Perfect for a long vacation flight. ( )