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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
Nothing beats a good book and killer scenery- and this combo had it.
This is the first book I’ve read by @hkdimon and spoiler alert: I LOVED it. Big thanks to @avonbooks and @netgalley for gifting me an advanced copy to read and review. This hysterical mystery rooted in a family of con artists is out on April 25!
We meet Jillian Moorewood upon her release from prison. She crashes a family event and we quickly learn that her family is… dysfunctional as hell. Her con artist dad attempted an epic con with an heiress - and what resulted was Jillian and her younger sister, Emma. But the con gene runs strong and extends to Jillian’s uncle, cousins and great aunt.
This was SO fun. It gave me strong oceans 11 vibes, but also reminded me a bit of Weeds and Good girls. There’s some mystery elements, a lil romance and lots of family intrigue and drama.
Come to learn why Jillian was in prison, and stay for hot bodyguard Beck, the laughs and the surprising twists and turns
Posted on goodreads, my bookstagram @scottonreads and will post on retail sites
This is the first book I’ve read by @hkdimon and spoiler alert: I LOVED it. Big thanks to @avonbooks and @netgalley for gifting me an advanced copy to read and review. This hysterical mystery rooted in a family of con artists is out on April 25!
We meet Jillian Moorewood upon her release from prison. She crashes a family event and we quickly learn that her family is… dysfunctional as hell. Her con artist dad attempted an epic con with an heiress - and what resulted was Jillian and her younger sister, Emma. But the con gene runs strong and extends to Jillian’s uncle, cousins and great aunt.
This was SO fun. It gave me strong oceans 11 vibes, but also reminded me a bit of Weeds and Good girls. There’s some mystery elements, a lil romance and lots of family intrigue and drama.
Come to learn why Jillian was in prison, and stay for hot bodyguard Beck, the laughs and the surprising twists and turns
Posted on goodreads, my bookstagram @scottonreads and will post on retail sites
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
funny
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In Morewood Family Rules, you’re thrown into the action of a dysfunctional con family as one of their own returns from a prison sentence. Each chapter begins with a Morewood Family “rule” and then explores the values through the text. I liked the exploration of roles we are assigned to play in a family. The main character and our primary narrator, Jillian, has been plotting her own revenge to trick her family into coming clean and finally leave their old ways behind. What she really needs is closure. The romance element with Beck, Jillian’s bodyguard, was a little unexpected but I think it added a nice layer to the story since it is fairly low in terms of mystery and drama. Overall this was a really fun read due to the quirky cast of characters. I pictured this as a movie the entire time I read it so I think the comparisons to Knives Out are accurate. This book appeals to a certain type of humor and it hit the mark for me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Grief, Death of parent
This was SUCH a fun family drama with revenge and romance and a memorable female main character who gets released from prison and turns the tables on her family of con artists who think they’ve bested her out of the family “heist” money.
HelenKay was new to me author that I am going to have to do a deep dive into their back list. Perfect for fans of Knives out and fantastic on audio too. If you’re looking for something a little different from the usual romcom fare out there I highly recommend this one!!
HelenKay was new to me author that I am going to have to do a deep dive into their back list. Perfect for fans of Knives out and fantastic on audio too. If you’re looking for something a little different from the usual romcom fare out there I highly recommend this one!!
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Moorewood Family Values
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: HelenKay Dimon
I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Avon Books and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.
Synopsis: 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.
My Thoughts: This is classified as a romance/mystery/thriller but it is really family drama with a slight mystery and slight romance. I think if it was reclassified, it would set the reader expectation better. I thought the overall premise was interesting, however, it just fell a little. Jillian, after spending time in jail, no longer wants to be grifter (con artist) and wants to go ‘straight.’ Her family has other ideas. Jillian gives them an ultimatum… Will they comply?
Each chapter has a Moorewood Family Rule listed, which was fun. The banter between the characters was fantastic. The characters were a bit complicated and a little confusing in the beginning. The history of the multitude of characters is absent, so at times, I had to reread paragraphs to understand where it was going. I think if there were flashbacks to the family history and dynamic, it would have pulled things together better. For the romance part, there needed to be more built up chemistry. Since there were many characters lacking the historical significance, it was really hard to connect with any character, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Jillian. She had the attitude that even though she covered for her family doing the jail sentence, she was determined to go straight, even at the determent of her family.
If you like Knives Out or even Ocean’s Eleven, this would be right up your alley. A dysfunctional family of con artists, what could go wrong? It was not a bad read, overall, I did enjoy the story and would recommend under the classification of family drama.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: HelenKay Dimon
I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Avon Books and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.
Synopsis: 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.
My Thoughts: This is classified as a romance/mystery/thriller but it is really family drama with a slight mystery and slight romance. I think if it was reclassified, it would set the reader expectation better. I thought the overall premise was interesting, however, it just fell a little. Jillian, after spending time in jail, no longer wants to be grifter (con artist) and wants to go ‘straight.’ Her family has other ideas. Jillian gives them an ultimatum… Will they comply?
Each chapter has a Moorewood Family Rule listed, which was fun. The banter between the characters was fantastic. The characters were a bit complicated and a little confusing in the beginning. The history of the multitude of characters is absent, so at times, I had to reread paragraphs to understand where it was going. I think if there were flashbacks to the family history and dynamic, it would have pulled things together better. For the romance part, there needed to be more built up chemistry. Since there were many characters lacking the historical significance, it was really hard to connect with any character, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Jillian. She had the attitude that even though she covered for her family doing the jail sentence, she was determined to go straight, even at the determent of her family.
If you like Knives Out or even Ocean’s Eleven, this would be right up your alley. A dysfunctional family of con artists, what could go wrong? It was not a bad read, overall, I did enjoy the story and would recommend under the classification of family drama.
I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm disappointed. I wanted more for this story. I wanted it to want more for itself.
This book really nailed the family dysfunction part of the synopsis. All the drama and one-upping and back-stabbing and general insanity made for an interesting ride. The problem is is that you know you can't trust anyone in a book about a family of con artists. So you're always looking for the trick, the big reveal and this one didn't deliver well. There was one mildly surprising moment and that's it.
The romance either needed to be a slower burn -- really dig into why Jillian likes him, trusts him, feels comfortable with him -- or don't have it at all. It felt half-baked and convenient as it stands. I had also thought there would be more conning but it was mostly a lot of talk.
We didn't need two PoVs here. Anika's PoV took away from the tension and distrust of some of the characters. It seemed more like lazy storytelling -- a way for the readers to see things they wouldn't see if this was told strictly from Jillian's PoV.
This book is readable and has a moment or two that I found entertaining. But on the whole, it's disappointing and not really worth the time.
I'm disappointed. I wanted more for this story. I wanted it to want more for itself.
This book really nailed the family dysfunction part of the synopsis. All the drama and one-upping and back-stabbing and general insanity made for an interesting ride. The problem is is that you know you can't trust anyone in a book about a family of con artists. So you're always looking for the trick, the big reveal and this one didn't deliver well. There was one mildly surprising moment and that's it.
The romance either needed to be a slower burn -- really dig into why Jillian likes him, trusts him, feels comfortable with him -- or don't have it at all. It felt half-baked and convenient as it stands. I had also thought there would be more conning but it was mostly a lot of talk.
We didn't need two PoVs here. Anika's PoV took away from the tension and distrust of some of the characters. It seemed more like lazy storytelling -- a way for the readers to see things they wouldn't see if this was told strictly from Jillian's PoV.
This book is readable and has a moment or two that I found entertaining. But on the whole, it's disappointing and not really worth the time.
Another fun read from HelenKay Dimon, with something a little different from her romance/mystery reads. More lighthearted with lots of laughs. Jillian has spent the past three years in jail and blames her entire con-man family for that privilege. Now that she is out she is ready for revenge, withholding the one thing her family loves most of all, money. Jillian is still in control of the family fortune and has an ultimatum for the family if they want to continue receiving money. With the help of her new bodyguard, Beck, she unravels the cons they are currently planning and works to find a little peace in her life. But that can only happen if she can survive her family. Loved the twists and turns, the humor and banter between the characters. I did spend some time getting the twins confused but overall loved everyone. Great read!
*HelenKay is a personal friend, take this review however you'd like.
*HelenKay is a personal friend, take this review however you'd like.