A review by tessisreading2
The Steal by M.J. Rose, C.W. Gortner

4.0

I went back and forth between three and four stars for this one. The setting and the premise are both excellent, but the writing and the romance felt kind of flat; the MMC is very film noir and the FMC doesn't have a ton of interiority. (Is that a word?) It felt like reading a novelization of a movie and didn't quite work because it didn't have the same advantages that a movie does - the banter wasn't particularly great, there weren't a lot of long and loving costume descriptions, etc. Basically, the setting is cool but the authors weren't in love with the glitz and glamor of it, so it didn't really pop - it's just a setting.

Plot wise,

Spoiler

the book ends on a semi-cliffhanger, with the Leopard identified but on the loose, and our FMC and MMC allied but sort of broken up, but I'm not sure I'm interested enough to continue

.