Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing team for sharing this ARC with me!

This book was fine. The book's premise was interesting and while I was deeply intrigued with the idea of it, it fell flat. It took too long for me to understand what was happening because we jumped into things without any build-up. I found it hard to connect to any of the characters because things weren't clear in how they were written for me to follow along and actually care. While I didn't connect with it, it was a quick read so if magical realism is something people are interested in, this could work for them!

In the best way possible, this book was fine. The premise was really interesting and I love a good heist so I was drawn in. However, the execution didn’t sing to me. It took reading about 30% of the book to understand the world. I am a person that loves lore and backstory and the magic in this world was never explained thoroughly. The love triangle also fell flat to me. Dani’s inner monologue didn’t really indicate much attraction to either of her prospects and then suddenly she was choosing someone and rejecting the other? The entire book was missing a sense of urgency that was needed for a heist novel that’s on a short deadline. Throughout the book, there is an active countdown to the day of the heist but not once did I feel adrenaline. The climax and the resolution of The Plot also didn’t blow me away like I expected. Additionally, while I’m mindful that an ARC does not reflect the truly fleshed out book, many sentences felt hard and confusing to read. Overall, the barebones are there and enticing but the execution wasn’t my cup of tea.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for this book!!
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I thought I would like this book more than I did. To be fair, I loved the first half of it. The idea of these underground magical thieves was a very fun concept! I loved the opening scene with Dani and her dog Sunflower. (Sunflower is honestly one of the better parts of the story. Five stars for Sunflower). I was looking forward to a fun heist with Dani's old magical crew but.... as the story progressed I lost interest.

I liked the mystery of Archer, and how Dani was at odds with her mother/old crew, I even liked Brad and the work Dani was doing to bolster the security of "The Fortress" so she could later break into it. What I didn't like was how Archer turned out to be a demon??? I was supportive of the plot up until Dani found that old diary of her ancestor Maeve. The diary introduction was cool but I just wish that archer didn't turn out to be a demon?? In my mind demon implies angels which implies a possible higher power which implies religion and that's not where I expected the story to go.

Now, the author DOES NOT MENTION religion in any way in this book (that I can remember) but I thought it was just Archer's magical ability that was keeping him alive?? For so long??? Like maybe he could steal time from other people?? I didn't mind that he was partially trapped in the painting. I still think that could have worked if he wasn't a demon. It could have been a whole Picture of Dorian Gray kind of thing. Archer could have been this young man who wanted to steal a portrait of "his grandfather" back, when in reality he wants to steal it back so he can be at full power??? I don't know but the demon angle wasn't what I wanted.

Other than that... Elliot and Dani's relationship was so flat. I ended up liked Brad WAY MORE than I liked Elliot. It didn't matter to me that Elliot and Dani had history, I would have never given someone another chance if they left me the way Elliot left Dani. That didn't sit right with me. Also.... Brad was hot and rich and kind and into her???!?! I would've folded SO HARD.

The heist also didn't do much for me. It happened almost too little too late. I wasn't interested enough to pay attention and almost didn't even realize it was happening until Dani talked about how the paintings were being switched around. I think I was expected more Ocean's 8 with a bit of magical fun but that's not what this story was at all.

Overall, I enjoyed the magical realism but the plot wasn't what I expected.

I was so hoping to love this novel; a romance with a heist and magic sounds like everything I could want. I'm sorry to say that I really didn't enjoy this. There was little chemistry between the couple and I need so much more from them to truly believe they were falling in love. The heist itself was fine and while the inclusion of magic made this interesting, it felt out of place within this story.

I think this had so much potential but it fell very flat for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e arc.

I so enjoyed this novel. Dani, art thief turned con artist, has to face the music after being manipulated to return home and pull of the biggest heist of her career. She's out to prove her. mother wrong and redeem her reputation within the magic community. She must balance getting too close to her very handsome mark and the boy she left behind.

Fascinating characters. Magical elements. Intrigue. Romance. It's all here.

5 stars.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. There are a lot of good ideas here with magic and a heist and some romance possibilities. However the book rushes by everything so fast, that I didn't really get to enjoy it as much as I would've liked. I definitely think there's a possibility for a series of heists here, but please add more character and story development and more pages.

Meh…the premise was over-the-top, but overly ambitious trying to do a heist and magic (what’s the point of the magic?), and didn’t grab me. DNFed at 10%,

Dani is the daughter of the infamous Maria Poissant, renowned art thief and security advisor. Or, at least, she was before Maria practically disowned her after Dani betrayed Maria during one of her heists and sent her to prison. Now, Dani has been out of the life for a while, ignoring her magic and instead living a quieter, albeit still not completely legal, life. But when Archer, one of Maria’s old partners, shows up with an offer that Dani can’t refuse, she’s forced to go back to the life she thought she’d left behind. Not only will she have to re-connect with the found family that abandoned her after Dani’s betrayal, but she’ll have to pull off the most difficult art heist in history, one that even Maria has never attempted.

I received an advanced reading copy of The Frame-Up in exchange for an honest review.

The Frame-Up is a fantasy novel by Gwenda Bond. It’s a novel that takes place in our present world, with the slight caveat that there’s some people with magic out there, and they keep it secret from those who don’t have any.

But while The Frame-Up is a fantasy novel, it is also, first and foremost, a heist book. Dani’s main goal here is to steal a piece of priceless art from an eccentric millionaire’s collection, and there’s a lot of moving pieces to the operation. Not only does Dani need people who have a certain set of skills to help her, but she needs to plan for every eventuality, which gets harder and harder as one wrench after another gets thrown into the plans.

But luckily she’s got other people there to help her, and I think this was my favorite part of the novel. Dani is forced to reconnect with her old found family, who took Maria’s side after Dani betrayed her, and it’s not always easy. However, you can tell that there’s history between them as they interact, and you have to wonder how (or if) Dani will ever convince them to actually support her as she attempts the heist of a lifetime. I do wish we’d gotten more of this, though. I’m a huge fan of family and found family stories, and the emotions tied up in them, and this story didn’t completely satisfy them for me. Similarly, I wanted more of Dani and her mom. They have a very fraught relationship, but I wanted to see more of it to truly understand each of their choices near the end. I tend to like very character-based stories, though, and this focused more on the heist, so if you are more into that than into the relationships between characters, you might enjoy this.

There’s also a very minor love triangle happening here, between Elliot, Dani’s childhood best friend; Brad, the eccentric millionaire’s son; and Dani herself. I say “minor” because I thought it was fairly obvious who Dani would end up with from the beginning, and also because while it was a subplot, it was definitely a more minor subplot, and, in fact, could even be considered as part of the “reconnecting with old family” subplot.

Oh also, there’s a dog! And minor spoiler ahead for those who need to know whether or not the dog is OK at the end. If you don’t want to know, skip to the next paragraph. All right, you ready for the spoiler? The dog makes it through the book unharmed, and she’s such a sweet girl! I wish more novels had dogs like her.

The Frame-Up was such a light read. It’s the good book to read on a plane or on vacation, or just a quiet weekend. Since it’s so light on the fantasy, I think both those who like fantasy in our world, as well as those who just like heist novels would enjoy it.

The Frame-Up will be released on February 13. You can preorder your copy from Del Rey here.

An entertaining supernatural heist romance featuring a spunky con artist, her sidekick canine and the complicated relationship she has with her mother. If you like Ocean's Eleven style impossible art heists and books like Kelly Siskind's Don't go stealing my heart that also have some witchy/magical elements, this one is definitely a must read. Good on audio as well narrated by Shannon McManus. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

The premise of this one hooked me with con-artists and a heist but ultimate it fell flat. There were too many tropes for the sake of tropes. The characters were not fully formed. The addition of magic was unnecessary and didn't bring anything to the plot.

Hoping for a fun heist book with a touch of romance, "The Frame-Up" left me thoroughly disappointed. Despite the promising premise of a daughter reconnecting with her art-thief mother for a daring job, the execution fell short of expectations.

The narrative was overwhelmed with too many tropes, making it feel like the author attempted to cram every possible element into the story. This approach proved overwhelming and detracted from the overall plot, leaving the reader with a sense of confusion rather than enjoyment.

Despite Gwenda Bond's previous works, the writing in "The Frame-Up" felt disappointingly amateur. The characters lacked depth, feeling one-dimensional and cliché, as if copied from a template. The attempt to introduce an otherworldly being as the mastermind behind the plot came across as ridiculous and mundane.

Moreover, the scenes that should have carried suspense failed to deliver, resulting in missed opportunities for engagement. Overall, "The Frame-Up" had the potential to be an exciting read but ultimately fell flat due to an excessive use of tropes, lackluster character development, and missed opportunities for suspense. A disappointing experience for those seeking a captivating heist and romance novel.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️ ☆ ☆ ☆ (2/5)

A story of magic and art thievery. An evil lord makes hell for a family of women. The women are generations with magic. One woman created a painting of the evil lord and bound him to it. The painting is sold and makes its rounds, dragging the lord around while he tries to free himself from it.

A magical mystery, a love triangle, and a dog. Dani's family have special powers and now she's being asked to use them once again to steal a painting, This was a miss for me- it had too much going on (choose a theme, choose a trope) on one hand and not enough magic on the other, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others,

This book was absolutely nothing like I expected going into it, and while where it went ended up interesting I can’t help but feel like the summary of this book sells you on something very different. I was initially interested in this book because of the art and heist elements, and you get those, but more than anything it ended up turning into a supernatural mystery. The romance that’s being sold was also underwhelming for me, so I’m honestly glad it didn’t show up as much as it could have. THE FRAME-UP is an interesting read for sure, but it feels very different than what the promotion of it made me feel, and ends up a little more fantasy than exciting mystery where I think it wanted to. All in all, it was a decent read and if you’d like a supernatural-esque heist and a centuries-old family mystery to boot, this might be worth checking out!

The roughest part about this book for me was initially getting into it. It took me a few days to get through the first half with some dedicated time to reading it, but for some reason the chapters felt like they went on forever even if they were probably only a few pages. I don’t know if the plot just hadn’t truly started or what, but it was a struggle. Once the deeper levels of the mystery were revealed, it certainly went faster but I can’t say I was more drawn into the book at that point.

Plot-wise, I’m not going to comment on the heist because whether or not it’s realistic or believable isn’t necessarily the most important factor for me, plus the element of magic kind of changes the stakes. It is a bit frustrating for it to be sold as impossible and then the actual heist is relatively low-stakes/tension to read. And the romance subplot was a relative nonstarter for me, there just isn’t a lot of chemistry and I can’t see it going anywhere, so take that as you will.

I think the characters end up being pretty interesting, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the different thieves, and I think the most interesting ones end up being Brad (the dead billionaire’s son), the Curator, and Maeve Poissant in her diaries. The motivations struggle to feel deeply nuanced, which allows for some slightly interesting twists and turns, but are less impressive after finishing the book. There are some really cool elements of this book, but they struggle to form a fully interesting-to-read whole for me.

The premise sounded great, but it wasn't. I thought heists were supposed to be exciting, it wasn't.
This book was boring! Some of the heist bits were ok, but the romance was not good. And I am not happy with who Dani ended up with!
I wanted to give this author a go because people really seem to like her books, but it just wasn't for me. I'm not a big romance fan, so I was hoping the addition of a heist would make it better, but I just didn't like it.

I had expected Mission Impossible with fairy dust and got a good heist story with realistic characters who have differing magical talents. I like the way this one is written much better. The publisher's blurb is rather encompassing so there is no need to repeat it.
I requested and received an EARC from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey via NetGalley. THANK YOU!

This was such a a fun magical heist book! Dani is the daughter of a magical art thief who takes a seemingly impossible job to atone for a past error that got her mother arrested almost a decade ago. She attempts to pull together her old crew to steal a painting from one of the most secure art collections in the US. Working as an insider security consultant for the family who owns the collection, Dani must play a double agent while planning how to create a replica of the piece that needs to be stolen. The book includes unique magical system/powers, quirky secondary characters, a second chance romance, and attempts at reconciliation with friends and family. I was engaged throughout the story and enjoyed the pacing. I wish there had been more time for romance development, but overall, it was an enjoyable book.

Overall, this book had amazing potential. With a cast of characters with magic talents and a penchant for Ocean’s-Eleven-level-escapades, this should have been a fun, quick read. And for the first third or so, it definitely was. But I started to feel stuck between the under-developed chemistry between romantic interests, unbalanced pacing, and info-dumping. Dani almost immediately finds herself in a love triangle between her new boss and her childhood sweetheart. Unfortunately, there was such limited development between either relationship that I didn’t root for either side. There’s also an interesting subplot featuring Dani’s ancestor that delivered a great plot twist, but that twist was barely explored within the main storyline.

Beyond those issues, I did enjoy the book. The characters, while not fully developed, are fun and have good banter with each other. Their plan for the heist is interesting, and leads to a series of hijinks that are goofy and suspenseful.

I would recommend this to anyone specifically looking for a magical art heist storyline. If that specific storyline isn’t what you’re looking for, I think there are better fantasy, magic, and heist books that would hold your attention.
Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the advanced copy!

DNF. I didn’t like how the magic was seemingly thrown in and remained confusing. Additionally, the explanation that criminals are the ones who mostly have magic due to the fact that they were poorer and more likely to commit crime was extremely classist.

I tried. I really did. Honestly, it's my fault. The synopsis clearly said "a magically gifted con-artist..."
I just didn't think they really meant...MAGIC. It just wasn't for me.
This review was collected as part of a netgalley promotion.