A review by jencolumb0
Partners in Crime by Alisha Rai

adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I found this to be an incredibly engaging read: I blinked and I was almost half-way through it. Mira and Naveen make for a very likable couple and Ms. Rai did a solid job with the arc of their emotional growth and growth together. The rest of the story was a wild, if not somewhat gritty (for Romancelandia), heist of a heist that had me thinking of Dial A for Aunties (but less absurd). My hang-up with all of this is just how much was supposed to be shoved inside, like, 18 hours. (
drive to Vegas, wake up and free themselves, drive to diner, eat and arrange new car, track Emi to two places, negotiate at the poker game, play poker, the whole charade to talk to Sunil, going to the party + talking with Steve, Walmart stop, sex, sleep . . . until sunrise, then a few piles of other things 
Then, we have how all of this stuff was wrapped up and that’s really what knocked a star off for me. I get how it couldn’t be a much deeper resolution but the resolution provided feels super cheap and
is what I think would actually mess Mira up the most . . . but there’s just a passing mention of her PTSD when there had been pretty steady talk about her emotions. This produces a bit of a disconnect that is only bolstered by Ms. Rai ’s decision to keep it real with the resolution, or lack thereof, between Mira and her sister
. The warm-fuzzies of the epilogue and Mira/Naveen smooth the experience for the reader but there is a definite gap between the rather realistic emotional experiences of the characters through the first, oh, 80% of the book and then that kind of crumbled at the end. I do think this book would make a very fun movie, though, where the issues at the resolution are easily smoothed over in a move visual medium.
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