This was a light hearted story about a family of con artists and their interpersonal drama. It’s nothing like Oceans 8 or Knives Out so don’t go in expecting that. There is no heist involved which I found disappointing.

The hijinks in this novel is unbeatable. This was fun, funny, suspenseful, and heartwarming. It is a story of self discovery and family drama. The chapters are short and always end in a fun cliff hanger so the novel is really easy and fun to read. Totally recommend this novel for a fun and easy escape from your world.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the gifted copy. This novel is out April 25th!

Moorewood Family Rules by HelenKay Dimon is a rom-com novel about a family of con-artists who get what they deserve. The book flowed easily and it drew me right in with the funny remarks and quick immersion into the plot. The different rules as chapter titles was hilarious and witty
 
We meet Jillian, fresh from 39 months in prison, ready to descend upon her unsuspecting family who put her there. She debarks from her helicopter on the family mansion’s spacious grounds in the midst of a party, where they are laying the groundwork to swindle and con their latest victims. They are none to  happy to see Jillian, but Jillian is less so. They had promised to go straight in return for Jillian taking the fall for them with the FBI. Now she’s back, she has their number, she holds all of the cards, and she’s had 39 months to contemplate her revenge.
 
This book was really engaging and fun since it is about a family of manipulative con artists. I have not read anything like this, so when I saw the premise of this book, I was immediately interested.  The book lived up to my expectations. The revenge aspect of Jillian's return gives this book extra zing. The supporting characters were written well and we get enough insight to understand them. The shadiness and ridiculousness of them made it that much more fun to read. While it was fun and flirty, it was also sharp and witty, which was perfection and I could not put it down! . I would recommend this book to others who love that light rom-com aspect!

Totally drawn in by the synopsis but the execution just didn’t work for me and it ended up a DNF. Take this with a grain of salt though - I’m struggling to find the right books for my mood lately so could very much be a case of wrong reader and not wrong book. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Ms. Dimon for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

I saw "Knives Out meets Ocean's 8" in the title and I was ALL IN. I love a good heist story, I love a revenge story, I love romance, I love a messy family, and frankly this book was poised for complete success. It definitely had all of those elements, I just wish it had... MORE.

It really wasn't a heist per se, so much as that Jillian (recently freed from jail on good behavior) wants to neutralize her family of grifters and con artists, which requires heist-like planning. It really wasn't revenge, as Jillian isn't trying to GET revenge, exactly, just enforce her desire that her family "goes clean or goes broke". It really wasn't romance, necessarily, as Jillian certainly LIKED her hunky bodyguard, Beck, but the romance element was weak and underdeveloped. And there was a messy family, certainly, but the way they were talked up (I mean, for pete's sake, they cut her brakes!), I expected way more than some half-hearted grumbling and conniving. As another reviewer pointed out - and I completely agree - this book could more accurately be described as contemporary fiction with a little self-discovery on the side.

That's not to say it wasn't fun: it WAS. I really enjoyed the book and I devoured it at top speed. It just wasn't precisely as advertised. For what it WAS: four stars. For what I thought it would be: three. Solid average score of 3.5, but I'll round up because I enjoyed it (which is really what ultimately matters, right?).

This family!!!!!! Y’all this family is one of kind. Jillian had just gotten out of jail after serving a few years, taking the fall for her family of scammers and con artists, I guess someone had to take the fall for all her family has done. Now that she’s back she wants to seek revenge on the person who set her up, and also clean up the family. She’s not a fan of their scamming ways, but she had also realized that someone in the family is trying to kill her to stop her. She gets a security guard to keep her safe, its that serious, but I couldn’t help but laugh at this whole set up. A family of con artists???? This book was too entertaining.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this witty family dramedy about a young woman who, when released from a three-year prison sentence returns home to her grifter relatives, and then tries to force them to go legit. In a twisty, back-stabbing household, filled with cousins and relatives who all are looking to protect their own stakes in the family 'business', Jillian and her bodyguard, Beck, are trying to control the family.

I liked that none of the characters were trustworthy, and the budding romance between Jillian and Beck. I was intrigued from the beginning about what Jillian's plans were and how she was going to get the cousins and other relatives to comply. This was a fun, twisty novel, that kept me guessing until the end.

Thank you to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager for the digital ARC of Moorewood Family Rules by HelenKay Dimon. The opinions in this review are my own.

The comparison to Knives Out does this book a disservice I think because they're really not similar at all. There also wasn't much mystery or romance here so this definitely read as more like women's fiction to me. I also did't care for the dual POVs. Not for me, sadly.

Moorewood Family Rules by HelenKay Dimon #twentythirdbookof2023 #arc

CW: discussions about death, suicide, cancer, drugs, prison time, con artists, dysfunctional families

This book was billed as Knives Out and Ocean’s 8 meets The Nest, full of scheming family members and their desire to hang on to their inheritance. That’s a very generous and untrue comparison. It was also kind of boring.

Jillian takes the fall for her family’s financial crimes and goes to prison, and now that she’s out, she’s determined to make everyone else go straight. Sounds interesting but nothing ever happened. The book was literally just talking about cons and scheming behind each others’ backs and then not actually doing anything. I didn’t care about any of the characters because they were all very flat.

The relationship between Jillian and her bodyguard was unearned and not believable. I found myself speeding through the book to get to the interesting parts of the family dynamic, and nothing jumped out.

Thank you to @netgalley and @avonbooks for the advance copy. (Pub date 4/25/23)

Jillian wants her family to go straight and they don’t want to!

Jillian Moorewood was hoping her family had finally went legal like she had planned before taking the fall and going to prison for all of the stuff that her grifting family had done. Jillian plans to put a stop to their cons but that changes when one of her family tries to murder her and now she needs a bodyguard!

I absolutely loved the line at the top of the cover about the family that steals together stays together because you get the feel of a movie where everybody especially your family has a plan to relieve you from your money.

I absolutely laughed at all the back talk between Jillian and Beck when he finally get to really know her family plus all of the Moorewood Family Rules!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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 not sure what I expected when I picked this book up, and after having read it I still don’t know what genre it should be classified under. Maybe WF? Maybe like WF with a touch of mystery? I’m not really sure. I will say this is a fast, fun, light read even with the darker elements that are layered in.

When the book first opens it introduces Jillian Moorewood, fresh out of prison and surprising her family by helicoptering into the family estate right in the middle of a society luncheon. She’s pissed and has some surprises up her sleeve on how she plans to handle her disreputable family and their shenanigans. This is a family of conmen who can’t seem to go legit, not that they really want to, and Jillian is done. They’ll clean up their act, or be cut off.

I zipped right through this novel, the pacing stays steady, with shorter chapters, and it was so easy to keep flipping pages until I reached the end. Jillian is the main POV, but several chapters have her cousin as the narrator, which means you never quite know what’s going on or who the culprit out to end Jillian really is. Despite the lightness of the dialogue, there are some deep themes throughout, with huge revelations of Jillian’s mother’s backstory toward the end. It’s kind of a shock to the senses when you read it. Yes, I knew these were horrible people who had done some horrible things, but I guess the admission of just how Sonya died surprised me, as well as the flippant way it was brought up in conversation by Jillian’s family.

There is a romance, with some closed-door love scenes. But it’s pretty light, and there isn’t a whole lot of lovey-dovey romance between Jillian and Beck, who also happens to be her bodyguard. They fall for each other while he’s protecting her, which I didn’t really buy into, but appreciated the potential HEA for at least one of these characters.

The ending was quick, and weirdly enough without a huge amount of drama, which I had expected. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love. Although, I do think readers looking for a lighter suspense novel, with dysfunctional characters will be interested.

Content notes- Mentions of- cancer, suicide, off-page death of family members, murder, PTSD

I enjoyed this ARC, but I would have loved if there was more comedic relief in it. One funny outrageous character mixed in the chaos would have been amazing! I enjoyed the family drama and the lengths they would go through to continue conning. I don’t think the Ocean Eleven description is even close. It’s the opposite Jillian is trying to get her family out of the conning business.

Thank you to NetGalley, author HelenKay Dimon, and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Anytime a book or movie is marketed as being similar to Knives Out, I am all in! I love family dramas, especially ones that have a mystery aspect with wacky characters. Moorewood Family Rules definitely falls into that category, and this was a fun read. There were a lot of hijinks, scheming family members, and complicated scenarios to be had. I was definitely Team Jillian the entire book, and I enjoyed trying to figure out how she'd use her control over the family as I read. With all this being said, this book didn't quite land fully for me. There was just entirely too much going on at any given time. The book drops you right into the action and takes nearly the whole book to reveal the background scenarios of many of the characters. In the way that it's done, it feels almost like this is a second book, making it confusing for me as the reader. I kept losing track of who was supposed to be on who's side and what was the context of them being there. It felt messy, and so many of the intertangled side plots kind of distracted and added to the chaos of the overall book. I also didn't enjoy the romantic plot between Jillian and her bodyguard, as it developed way too quick and didn't read even remotely believable to me. Overall, this was a fine book that had some fun moments, but I finished it feeling a bit confused and disappointed.

I loved the family drama portion and the funny moments. There was a lot of humor and banter. The plot and action dragged for me at times towards the middle.

If the Finlay Donovan books married the Spellman Files series this would be the result. A funny, entertaining, clever novel about a dysfunctional family of con artists at odds with each other.

Jillian is out of prison after three years and just wants her family to go legit. That's the deal she made with the family when she was arrested. Free at last, Jillian returns home to find her family still grifting. Ignoring her was a mistake, so now it’s time for her revenge plot to kick in, regardless of the Moorewood Family Rules. Jillian never wanted to be the fixer, the cleaner up of messes, yet here she is. Again. But this time, with the help of some unlikely allies and a very intriguing bodyguard, Jillian finds a way to live the life she sees for herself.

When Jillian Moorewood Landon on the front lawn of her home fresh from prison it was obvious she had more than reform on her mind and despite the fact her family was there to greet her it wasn’t a happy reunion at least not underneath the bleached million dollar smiles in the fragile veneer of surprise they all tended to show. Jillian is back in despite popular consent she is also the head of the family. Her family is a bunch of crooks and Jillian wants to know who helped her wind up in prison and also who is going to go on the straighten arrow and also stay on the family dole. This is a snarky dysfunctional family drama with one LOL moment after another. I found this book to be so much fun and although there were no big gestures or tragic situation the family drama threaded through the storyline was enough to keep me interested in turning the pages. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I received it from NetGalley and Avon, Harper Voyager but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This was a fun read! Lots of anticipation and intrigue from the beginning. It held my interest the entire time and I highly recommend!

Jillian Moorewood served time in prison to protect her family of con-artists with the understanding that she take the fall and they go legit. Returning home after serving over three years, she finds that nothing has changed, and Jillian has had it with her family. She kicks some of them out of the family home and cuts off everyone's access to money, hoping to force them on the straight and narrow.

But a con will always con, and what ensues is a series of wacky, convoluted, outrageous shenanigans as Jullian's family fights her tooth and nail. The story doesn’t end here though and includes twists, turns, and surprises along the way.

It's been years since I read HKD, and this is not at all the HKD I remember. I like her older work, but I completely adored this unexpected, madcap delight! Women's fiction with a dash of romance, this charming, witty story had me hanging on every word. If you’re looking for something a little off beat, you’ll love this fun, quirky, phenomenal read!

This book kept me intrigued and guessing what the big bomb was going to be dropped by Jillian. Definitely a fun book to read to sus out who did what. Lots of family drama like Knives out.