Review Detail

Grace Fontaine is new in town, a sweet girl, and she’s caught the eye of one of the most popular boys in school. Just like she was supposed to do. Grace was adopted as a child by a pair of con artists who have been using her and her ‘brother’ as a means to get close to affluent families and steal from them. They then disappear and start fresh in a new city where it all begins again. This has been Grace’s life for years. But this time it’s different. This time she’s falling for her mark.

I really enjoy books, movies, and TV shows that involve con artists. Ocean’s Eleven, White Collar, Leverage, Heist Society, they were all so much fun to watch or read. This book was no different. It was a lot of fun. There were so many ways throughout the book when the con could have fallen apart and it was fun to see how Grace and her family took care of the problems and how they integrated themselves into the lives of the families in their new community.

I really ended up liking all of the teen characters in this book. Grace and Parker, the other child the con artist couple adopted, were siblings in everything but blood. They cared for each other, would call each other out, would worry about each other’s parts in each con. The difference in how they viewed their ‘parents’ was interesting. Grace viewed them as the closest thing she’s ever had to parents while Parker really seemed to hate the life they imposed on him. Logan, Grace’s mark, was just an all-around sweet guy and I really liked him and Grace together. Rachel, the queen of the school and Logan’s ex, turned into one of my favourite characters in the book. I liked her suspicious nature and how protective she was toward her friends when she felt something was off. The adults posing as Grace and Parker’s parents, them I wanted to kick. Hard.

Besides the con and the romance, Grace’s struggle with executing the con was a big part of the book. The more she got to know Logan, his family, and his friends, the harder it was for her, knowing what she would be doing to them soon. But it was her job and not doing her part could lead to exposure for her and her family, and even if they were an unconventional family Grace loved them.

I did find the romance plot moved a little too fast. It wasn’t quite insta-love but it came pretty close. It was a sweet romance though a little painful to enjoy while reading since there was no way I could see it ending well, considering the circumstances. Another thing that moved a little fast was the end. There was a lot of build-up toward the final move of the con, the actual robbery, but once it was time, it was so fast that it felt a little messy and unprofessional.

I went into the book thinking it was a standalone but I was happy to see there is a sequel since there were a lot of things left unresolved that really needed answering. I’ll definitely be reading the sequel because I need to know what happens.