Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Dani is the daughter and former apprentice of a famous art thief, until she turned her mother over to the FBI. Now, she’s been hired for a job, but first she needs to reunite her former crew. And also, they can use magic.

I was originally interested in this because heist stories are fun and heist stories with magic are even better. There were things going on in this book (magic heist, Sunflower, women getting justice, messy family dynamics) that I should’ve been into, I just felt sort of whatever about it all the whole time. I don’t think the prose itself managed to capture my attention, and I felt like I should have liked the characters but they all sort of blurred together for me. I also wish there had been more magic involved, as there were times where I forgot that they could use magic entirely. This book did start off strong, but I started flagging fairly early on, which was a little sad for me. Maybe I just need to be in a different mood, but I mostly just found this boring.

This magical heist novel was fine but forgettable. The characters were fine, the heist was fine, the magic was fine, but nothing was memorable or super unique. I wanted this book to be something more than it was.

I was super excited to read this book. The description sounded so good, am art heist that has magical people?! I am in! Sadly, I felt like this book wasn’t the page turner that I was expecting. I felt pretty bored reading it and often felt kind of lost with the magical characters. I didn’t feel a closeness to the characters as I felt there as a lack of character development. This book just fell flat for me, unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

Okay so, it’s an art heist, but it’s a magical art heist with a found family of really good characters. And it has a border collie, and a romance, and women getting the justice they deserve. I’d call this a feel good, especially if you love seeing female characters taking back their power. The heist itself was detailed and clever. I really enjoyed how the author kept the novel’s plot fast moving, while gradually filling us in on Dani’s past and family. The characters in this are so fun, and I really cared about them. I truly hope there is a sequel for this book because I LOVED these characters! Obviously the dog but also Dani, I felt for her so much. And I want to see more of Rabbit and Mia and Elliot and Liz and of course Sunflower🐶. I would love to read a sequel, or many sequels! I would love if this book was adapted into a tv series!

Okay so if you like heist books or magic or magical realism and found family tropes, this is a great book for you. I do not know why this is firstly billed as a Romance book, because I would argue the romance is a very small part of the book. The story is really about Dani reuniting her family and figuring out who she is and what she wants in life.
The pacing of this novel was really good. If you are interested in true crime, this story attributes a lot of famous art heists to magic which makes it really fun. Have magic, do heists amiright? The only critique I have is that the romance felt a bit underdeveloped to me. But I still wanted them to get together and I liked their chemistry.

I’d recommend this to anyone who loved the Charmed tv series, the Supernatural tv series, or Baby Driver(2017). I’d also recommend this book to anyone who took art history courses and now has a lot of seemingly useless knowledge stuck in their brain.

Trigger/Content Warnings: blood, murder off script, guns, sexual assault (historical, off script), parental neglect/abuse, brief violence, brief self harm, swearing/course language, and alcoholism.
*no animal abuse, no animal death*
Thank you to @netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Frame-Up seemed like such a promising read and though I enjoyed the magic realism, I just didn't;t find myself enjoying the characters and the story. This is an art heist and it didn't feel the least bit exciting or thrilling, it just felt flat...

Dani is a con-artiste/art thief who survives now alone with her exceedingly well trained collie, Sunflower, stealing from bad men. She's alone because years ago she betrayed her crew and now is outcast.

Only, someone mysteriously connected to her mother wants her back for an almost impossible heist-- steal one very important portrait from the private collection called "The Fortress".

Can Dani win back-- or even trust her old crew? What about Elliott, the one member of her crew she thought would always have her back?

To make things even more complicated, her crew is bound by found-family loyalty even more than most thieves, because they are all part of a world where people have magic. Everyone has some kind of ability that they all have used for lives of crime.

If you liked Holly Black's Curse Workers family, you'll probably like Dani and her heist, although this book is much for nuts-and-bolts heist and uncovering of who the portrait actually portrays than the emotional family development of Black's books. This is definitely more of an adult book although steam level is fairly non-existent.

Dani's got a lot of trust issues. Weirdly, most of the other characters didn't quite feel fleshed out to me (Sunflower had the most personality) and while there is an explanation at the end a bit about why some of the characters seemed to be working against their own personalities-- since we only get that explanation at the end it did seem odd for most of the story.

The premise for this one was promising, the overall end product was kind a let down. Parts of it were great, other parts not so. I appreciated being dropped right into the thick of things and there were a few times that I felt genuinely unsettled by Arthur's presence. The author did a really good job setting the tone. On the flip side, the book didn't strike me as very magical. The powers were not wow! just super convenient. I also, Elliot was just so boring, Dani and Brad seemed like a better pair.

Happy I was able to give it a try!

Dani Possiant has distanced herself from her mom, the well-known art thief but the world she grew up in isn't that easy to leave. So she has started working alone but trying to do good with her skill set. An offer she probably couldn't refuse if she wanted to allows her a chance to go back and finish a job her mother never got to. And gives her a chance to make peace with her past. This was such an enjoyable charming novel. It was part romance, part mystery and a little magic.

I enjoyed this read! I just did not feel that connceted to the characters. I also think the world bulding was a little hard to follow and understand but i thought the book had a unique premsie and i would read more by this author in the future!

I assumed this was a romance book when I saw it. It definitely is not. It is a heist novel with a bit of magic and a hint of romance. The characters are likable but I wish there was more relationship development between Dani and her mother and friends. The book is short but the story moved slowly.

I unfortunately was bored out of my mind with this book. The very beginning where Dani was strong arming a man getting divorced was what had drawn me in. There wasn’t any action until the ending which made this story boring to read. I did switch to audio book to play at max speed to make it through the rest of the story.

I did get this as an arc. Thank you NetGalley for my copy.

If you want to skip through the book guess how much of the plot you will miss? Close to none.

By the time I had reached the end of the book, I was left wondering, "Ummmm, so basically I just read the same thing over and over again FOR 300+ pages?!?!?!?" The story is about a heist that was a long time coming, the main character (i'm too lazy to search for her name) was so messy and did not have a thought in her head about what she really wanted. The romance was so dull and so bad that I did not even care enough and just wanted to get some of the information that actually would move the story along.

I do not want to write a full-on review because I did not personally enjoy this book, If you're only interested in the synopsis, maybe read this? Because I only picked this up because of the synopsis and was left disappointed......

Thank You, Netgalley for providing me an e-arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

DNF at 5%. I am really not in the mood for this book right now but I'd like to go back to it at some point in the future.

Sadly, I didn't make it all the way through this book. I was so excited by the premise: a heist and magical realism? Sign me up! The first chapter did intrigue me, but as soon as I flipped the page to chapter 2, my excitement dropped off, and I couldn't get it back. The writing style just wasn't for me; I don't mind 3rd person POV, but the narration here really kept me at a distance. I also felt like the exposition was laid on thick, which slowed down the pacing as well.

This book just wasn't for me, but I hope it finds its audience.

Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book really took a while to get going, but I’m glad I stuck with it because it ended up being pretty interesting. I think my assumption going into this book was that it was more of a romance (mostly because of the cover, I think), but it is not. I liked that there was a bit of romance in it, but it’s not super integral to the plot, apart from the regular love triangle mentions. I liked the premise quite a bit. The magical realism element was very fun, although not believable that non-magical people wouldn’t all k ow about magic. I think the first half of book did drag just a bit, but it got more interesting past that point. I liked all the characters, but my favorite was the dog. I was curious how the end would play out and was actually a bit surprised by it. I thought there would be a bit of a twist that never arrived. I wasn’t particularly bothered by it, though. Overall, this was a pretty fun, light read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!

I really enjoyed Gwenda Bond's Not Your Average Hot Guy (and it's sequel) and Mr. and Mrs. Witch, but The Frame Up fell flat for me. I struggled to connect with Dani and wished for more heist action.

Oh so clever and intriguing! This was such a fun read. Glenda Bond should really be a household name by now. Her books are unique and swoony and funny and interesting, and The Frame-Up is no exception! Check it out immediately!

Thank you Net Galley and publishers for allowing me to read and give my honest review of this book.

Art heists and magic?! Sign me up!! This book was like ocean's 11 or now you see me. I loved the story and all of it's twists and turns. The first half of the book I was like ok, so they're going to steal a painting and they have special abilities to be able to do so. That's really cool, let's see how they plan this. Then the first twist comes and the rest of the book picked up like oh gosh, how are they going to save the day?! This book is action packed and perfectly planned even when things go wrong, they still manage to get back on top. I liked how the main character learned that it's not blood that makes a family, it's who you choose and chooses you back. Such a fun read.

The heist premise was so much fun, but I think it could have been a little bit more suspenseful and played an even larger role? I also had a hard time getting into the main characters and really shipping their love story. It was good but it did take me a bit to get through and wasn't quite the page turner I was expecting from the cover of the book.

A magically gifted con artist has to do one last heist and somehow this book felt… boring. There is a lot of action in the book but it isn’t written in a suspenseful or engaging way. The character introductions were seemingly random. I was confused about why there was magic? It either needed to be better thought out or not include magic? I’m not sure.

This book had great promise. 1.5