This book sounds like so much fun, and it is just so...flat. One of my biggest disappointments of the year. It really doesn't match the marketing - doesn't give much of Knives Out or Ocean's 8, with more of a focus on character and family dynamics than any kind of mystery or thriller. I wouldn't even mind that so much if it was done well, but I don't care about any of the characters or their relationships with one another, and the prose is just unappealing and dull to me. Alas for my Knives Out-comped dreams and the wasted potential!

Thanks to Avon for the advance review copy.

This book hit all the right spots for me. Dysfunctional family? Check. Wacky characters? Check. Engaging story and plotline? Check. Witty banter? Check.

Jillian Moorewood, the FMC, has just returned home to her family's home after a thirty nine month prison sentence, only to discover that family is continuing to do the one thing she clearly told them not to do: con everyone and anyone. Jillian belongs to the notorious Moorewood family, grifters and con artists who will do anything to keep finding ways to help people "misplace" family valuables such as artwork and jewelry. But Jillian is determined to make them go legitimate.

Part of what I loved so much about this book was the premise and how the author accomplishes that premise. She makes the whole book fun and funny, engaging in a way that is snarky and doesn't take itself too seriously. The characters are great, each different in their own way. She does a great job at differentiating the characters, even though there are a good chunk at first. The dysfunction is maddening, but interesting and she incorporates family drama and family dynamics without hashing out too much backstory, so the pace of the story was well done. She even manages to throw romance and mystery into the mix. The way she balances all of these ideas flawlessly, while still being funny, made me want to keep turning the page.

While genre wise this is hard to place, I will echo what other people are saying: this is not an Ocean's 8/Knives Out book and I don't think that comparison is accurate. I think it is more of a book that celebrates the tropes of character driven, family drama , but with a fun twist of them being a crime family and snarky with one another. So if you are reading this, please do not think that it is what it is not. But it is still wonderful and amazing in it's own right.

Overall, if you like wacky characters, fun banter, light reads, a tad of mystery and romance, and dysfunctional families. this is the book for you.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

When I read that Moorewood Family Rules was about a family that got obscenely rich by being a group of con artists, I had to read it. As a huge fan of Leverage and White Collar on TV, my curious nature piqued at the publisher's description.

An opulent mansion. Stolen paintings. Family secrets for generations. The Moorewood family has it all. Unfortunately, one of the two family members trying to make their fortune legitimate, Jillian, was set up to take the fall when the FBI came around. The book begins with Jillian making a grand entrance as soon as she is released from prison early. Who was the one to betray the family and give up Jillian to the feds? That's the only real mystery here and it has a satisfying explanation.

The rest is hilariously spun family drama. Jillian is awkward as hell since coming out of prison. The family stalwart keeper of operations, Kelby, is one of the only outsiders to breach their boundaries. He keeps his loyalties with Jillian who is now in charge of the family trust. Kelby hires a bodyguard for Jillian because someone under her roof is trying to kill her (a little mystery there, but you can easily figure it out once you nail down the personalities). This bodyguard, Beck is the romantic hero of classic Romancelandia combined with Action-Adventure tales. We don't know how Beck does his job of knowing literally everything about everyone in the Moorewood family and we don't care. Readers know he's there to keep poor Jillian safe and eventually land in bed with her. He fits the role perfectly.

Though Jillian is in her 30's, I could not help but envision her clumsiness, strength, self-doubt, and awkwardness with Beck as anyone other than Sandra Bullock (PS - watch The Lost City!). Jillian's nervousness around Beck is brilliant comic relief. Author HelenKay Dimon is known for romance books, but she could definitely pen a great script for Bullock.

There isn't much to say except I thoroughly enjoyed Moorewood Family Rules. It's a funny, witty, and classic wealth-fantasy with a welcoming romance and satisfying ending for all the characters—even that cheeky old Aunt Patricia who keeps string cheese in her bra.

Rating: 5 stars

I saw this marketed as a Knives Out meets Ocean 11 type of situation and I feel like neither of those are an accurate description of this book.

I felt like there was way too much going on that didn't properly get fleshed out.

The mystery and romance elements weren't even the focal point of the story. It was more about the main character finding herself, which is fine--just not what I was looking for. This story may work better for a different kind of reader.

Thank you to Netgalley for my arc.

Jillian Moorewood has just been released from prison and is heading home to her con-artist family and the reason why she was in prison. While she was in prison they were supposed to go straight, only they didn't. Jillian is going back to make sure that they do and she has the means and the motivation to get it done.

Marketed as a Knives Out/Ocean's 8 meets The Nest, the story didn't match the marketing. I was expecting more mystery and action than there was. It was more family dynamics and unfortunately the family dynamics weren't all that interesting. There were a few characters that were really not needed as they didn't bring anything to the family situation. This is not a bad book - it just didn't meet the expectations.

I think the Marketing team needs to be talked to about how they are promoting this book. Knives out and Oceans 11 is a VERY specific genre and this book was not that. The premise of this book had me excited, however the execution and the story itself fell a little flat.

This is much more of a story family drama novel, focusing on figuring out your place in your family and how to let up control and be able to live your own life.

I disliked how Anika's random POV that was added to the story. Beck seemed like he was not fully flushed out as a character and the romance did not feel organic.

Overall this was just an okay book. But marketing did it a disservice

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

This book was off to such an interesting start and I was really excited to see how it would go. I wish the author included more heist or moments of the Moorewoods trying to do something to Jillian, but that never happened. It was just way to much family drama. This book just didn’t end up wowing me. I did like the family rules with every chapter though. Also, I’m a huge romance fan but there wasn’t enough of a connection between Jillian and Beck for it to be worth including in this story.

Probably wouldn’t recommend.

Moorewood Family Rules tells the story of Jillian, a young woman who has just been released from prison. Jillian’s family is made up of grifters aka conmen. Jillian had agreed to take the fall for her family and serve time in prison if her family would forgo crime and when she is release from prison she finds out that they have not held up their end of the deal.
Unfortunately while this books premise sounded interesting, none of the characters in the book were likable enough to keep me going. By 50% the romance sub plot had barely been introduced and I did not care for or about any of the characters in this book.
While I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book from NetGalley and Harper Voyager/Avon I cannot recommend this book and can only give it 2 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the eARC.

HelenKay Dimon has written some of my favorite thrillers under other names. I thought this one had a fun premise. A messy family at its core.

Unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t get into it the way I had hoped.

This book was absolutely not what I expected- and I mean that in a very good way. I walked into it somewhat blind and confused and after reading the synopsis again things got a bit more clear. In a way, I feel that the author expected the reader to have read the synopsis and to remember small details out of it before reading, which isn't really possible for some readers who are good at forgetting synopsis or just don't read them to begin with. But after reading the synopsis again, the specific background details made things make a bit more sense as I was reading. I like to call myself decent at guessing plot twists and similar things like that and not being able to immediately guess what's going to happen made it that much better.
Although this was an absolute crazy story of a very dysfunctional family, I feel like there were really a lot of characters (or maybe just characters with similar names) because I did get confused occasionally about who was who. I also feel like the small romance that occurred was very sudden and didn't really match the plot that the book was going, but really that's just small specifics.
I flew through this book and absolutely enjoyed every twist and turn that occurred!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Publishing for an eARC copy of this book.

'Moorewood Family Rules' was a cute, light rom-com with lots of fun twists and turns as the reader tries to figure out the inner workings of the complex cons run by the Moorewood family. This novel was full of interesting, quirky characters, and careful plotting as this dysfunctional family of con artists try anything to maintain their lavish lifestyle when their cousin/sister/niece, Jillian returns holding all of the cards (i.e. cash). This is a great light summer read for anyone who enjoys shady dealings and building sexual tension.

I don't usually say this, but I wish this book would have stuck with one POV. I usually like multiple POV books, however, I found it very hard to keep track of which family member's perspective I was reading. I still recommend it you are in the mood for a light, funny rom com!

A breezy semi-mystery with a bit of a heist/caper feel to it. Opening scene: Jillian, our main character, makes a grand entrance at a soiree at the family estate by helicopter -- of course she hasn't seen her family in 39 months since she's been serving time after one of them turned her in to the FBI.

And so we meet a truly cringe-worthy family. Jillian's late mom was an heiress and her dad was a scallawag from a family of grifters. Nothing good came of that except Jillian and her sister Emma. Her Uncle Jay is possibly the worst, amoral, greedy, unscrupulous and smooth. And his two daughters, Astrid and Anika, are just as bad. This is a bunch of relatives who cheat each other, plant bugs in bedrooms, plot physical harm to each other, and will stop at nothing.

Jillian went to prison to protect her family even though most of them were guilty as sin and are still running scams. She laid down the law and told them their illegal activity days were over and next thing she knew, the FBI was there with a search warrant.

Nobody in the family can be trusted and the family financial manager and her great aunt both warn her that she might be in physical danger, so on their advice she agrees to a bodyguard. Beck isn't just any protector -- and it isn't long before he and Jillian start feeling some chemistry.

This is a pretty quick read which moves right along. Jillian's grasping relations are deliciously awful and the whole story is wrapped in an entertaining package. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Have you ever read a story that could have been perfect if not for that ONE THING? That happened to me here. The plot? Awesome. The writing style? perfect. All characters who weren't Beck? Hilarious and interesting. Beck ruined this for me. He felt inserted for the sake of having a romance. It really felt like someone else wrote him as he wasn't in the same style as everyone else. This would have been a 5 star read without him, but with him, it's a 3 for me.

Probably really 2.5 stars. I'm not the first person to point out that the Knives Out and Ocean's 8 comps are somewhat misplaced, but it's worth saying anyway. I wanted something twisty and clever, and this just wasn't it. The reveals were anticlimactic to say the least. I got a bit more invested when Beck was introduced, and I honestly think I would have liked this book better if it was from his perspective and we got more of that outsider angle.

CW: past parent deaths (including suicide), past incarceration

The Moorewoods are completely dysfunctional, and super funny like had me laughing out loud. They sucked me in from the first page when Jillian is describing the best way to return to the family... and of course, flying in via helicopter and landing on the front lawn was obviously the best choice. And the fact that it ended up being during a huge party just makes it all the better.

This book was so entertaining, I ended up reading it in one sitting because I just didn't want to put it down! I loved every page, and if the author ever decided to write more books with the Moorewoods I would absolutely buy them.

I was a little unsure about this one at first. It took me a bit to get into the story, but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was over the top, but hilarious at the same time. Definitely a fun easy read.

Jillian is out of prison after taking the fall for her family and determined to stop her family of grifters from their conniving ways and to go straight. They, of course, try to get away with as much as possible as well as hatching a plan to eliminate Jillian.

Moorewood Family Rules is more of a dysfunctional family/ contemporary fiction novel. I think the comparison to Knives Out does it a disservice. There is a small romance arc about Jillian and her bodyguard, Beck, but I don’t think the romance aspect is necessary to the story per se. I wish there was a bit more plot development too.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this eARC. Moorewood Family Rules is out April 25, 2023.

Jillian is the daughter of a con-artist family who went to prison to take the fall and clear their names on the condition they all go straight-laced, but three years later after she’s released for good behavior she finds out they haven’t changed their ways one but. And she plans on making them pay for it!

This fast paced, dysfunctional family ensemble cast is a fun romp but I think the comps to Knives Out and the Ocean’s movies do it a disservice. It has those vibes but it’s not a heist book, it’s the behind scenes/fly in the wall story focused more on character and relationships. You also get a fun romance with a body guard that I feel could have been given more page time because I was here for it!

Fans of con artist stories and heist books who wish there was more time spent on the characters than the heist/cons will enjoy this book, especially if you love colorful quirky characters!

After going to prison to "save" her family, Jillian is out and wants them to finally stop their conning ways. This time, she's more prepared and has the ability to cut them off from the money if they refuse again.

I think comparing this book to Knives Out and Ocean's 8 does it a disservice. Unfortunately, I went into this book with very high expectations that it couldn't reach. While there were some threats on Jillian's life, it wasn't very many and the scheming wasn't as involved as I'd expected. It also wasn't as suspenseful as either KO or O8. Jillian did have some much needed growth and I liked her relationship with the bodyguard. I enjoyed it, but I was expecting to love it based on the description.