Name: Moorewood Family Rules
ISBN: 9780063240520

HelenKay Dimon

A Novel

Moorewood Family Rules

Helenkay Dimon

Knives Out and Ocean's 8 meets The Nest in this hilariously twisty novel by award-winning author HelenKay Dimon, about a woman who returns home from prison to her dysfunctional con artist family and tries to get them to go legit. One day a con man met an heiress, wooed her, married her, had two kids...and kept on conning. Jillian Moorewood is the oldest child from that meet-cute-gone-wrong marriage. The stable one. The sensible and dependable one. The one who protects and fixes. The one who went to prison to save their sorry butts. Now, thirty-nine months later, she's out and she's more than a little pissed. Finally home she finds the scheming clan in full family fleecing mode. They all claim they didn't really agree to Jillian's previous go-legit-or-else ultimatum before she went away. They viewed it as a "suggestion" then ignored it. So, business as usual. But Jillian is done with the lies and fakery. She demands the whole messed-up crew clean up its act, and this time she's not kidding--she has the leverage to make it happen. Problem is, her life is in shambles, but with the help of a great aunt (crooked but loveable), a bodyguard (who is a nice surprise after three years in prison), and a few allies (all working undercover), Jillian starts to put her life back together. She kicks out a few mooching relatives living under her roof, sets limits on everyone's access to the money, ducks from their various attacks, and sees if that bodyguard is maybe interested in sticking around for a while. For the first time, she's Jillian Moorewood, her own woman, and she's ready to figure out who she is.

*A story about a family of con artists that was way too focused on the drama*

Jillian Moorewood is the only straight arrow in her family of con artists. But when takes the fall for the latest family disaster and ends up in prison, she has finally had enough.

Disappointingly, there was no heist in this book – and not much humor or action. It was mostly a bunch of whiny family drama. I expected more entertaining characters, but this felt like cheap reality TV type drama – which I hate. I suppose I get the 

 comparison since the story is about a toxic family willing to kill to get the family fortune. But I am at a loss about the 

 comparison. Since there was no action, the story had to lean heavily on the characters. But they weren’t quite strong enough or developed enough to carry the story. Dimon tried to create quirky, entertaining characters, but it just wasn’t enough.

There was also a romance subplot that was underwhelming. I totally get why Jillian was driven by her hormones. Girl spent thirty-nine months and was understandably horny as all-get-out. But there was no real chemistry between her and Beck. It felt like her attraction to him had a lot more to do with him being the only nonfamily member in the house at the moment but little to do with a genuine attraction and even less to do with any depth of emotion between the two.

 was alright but leaning towards disappointing. I didn’t have any trouble finishing the story, but it wasn’t memorable enough.

Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars

Colleen

3 Stars

*A story about a family of con artists that was way too focused on the drama*


Jillian Moorewood is the only straight arrow in her family of con artists. But when takes the fall for the latest family disaster and ends up in prison, she has finally had enough.

Disappointingly, there was no heist in this book – and not much humor or action. It was mostly a bunch of whiny family drama. I expected more entertaining characters, but this felt like cheap reality TV type drama – which I hate. I suppose I get the Knives Out comparison since the story is about a toxic family willing to kill to get the family fortune. But I am at a loss about the Ocean’s 8 comparison. Since there was no action, the story had to lean heavily on the characters. But they weren’t quite strong enough or developed enough to carry the story. Dimon tried to create quirky, entertaining characters, but it just wasn’t enough.

There was also a romance subplot that was underwhelming. I totally get why Jillian was driven by her hormones. Girl spent thirty-nine months and was understandably horny as all-get-out. But there was no real chemistry between her and Beck. It felt like her attraction to him had a lot more to do with him being the only nonfamily member in the house at the moment but little to do with a genuine attraction and even less to do with any depth of emotion between the two.

Overall, Moorewood Family Rules was alright but leaning towards disappointing. I didn’t have any trouble finishing the story, but it wasn’t memorable enough.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

Moorewood Family Rules follows Jillian Moorewood, back from prison, after returning to her grifting family (the reason she was sent to prison in the first place). Jillian gives them an ultimatum: end the "family business" or face the consequences. Fearing for her safety, Jillian is convinced to hire a security guard, and well, you can probably guess where that is going:)

I was so excited for this book. I was expecting chaos, I was expecting 4D chess, I was expecting to be thrilled and bamboozled... and I just wasn't. It felt like the majority of this book was Jillian threatening to do something™ to force the family to go legit. There were also some chapters thrown in from Anika's point of view, which were interesting but sporadic. I almost would've rather just kept to Jillian's POV to make some of the twists a bit more mysterious. There were many subplots that didn't really pique my interest and weren't fully fleshed out, which was distracting from the main plot. 

The characters are fun, there are people you root for and people you love to hate, but a lot of them fell a bit flat. The romance was alright, it's a subplot and fade-to-black, so if that is/isn't your thing, there you have it. I did enjoy the banter. That was fun. Although, a solid chunk of it was "your family is messed up," "You don't know the half of it." 

The book is more about family relations than grifting and watching a family get their just desserts, which was disappointing based on the marketing. I think it was okay, but it didn't wow me. There was a lot of missed potential in my opinion. 

Fun, simple, and moderately wacky, Moorewood Family Rules is a lot more com than rom and a quick read.

Many thanks to Avon and NetGalley for sending me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)

Holly

Moorewood Family Rules follows Jillian Moorewood, back from prison, after returning to her grifting family (the reason she was sent to prison in the first place). Jillian gives them an ultimatum: end the "family business" or face the consequences. Fearing for her safety, Jillian is convinced to hire a security guard, and well, you can probably guess where that is going:)

I was so excited for this book. I was expecting chaos, I was expecting 4D chess, I was expecting to be thrilled and bamboozled... and I just wasn't. It felt like the majority of this book was Jillian threatening to do something™ to force the family to go legit. There were also some chapters thrown in from Anika's point of view, which were interesting but sporadic. I almost would've rather just kept to Jillian's POV to make some of the twists a bit more mysterious. There were many subplots that didn't really pique my interest and weren't fully fleshed out, which was distracting from the main plot. 

The characters are fun, there are people you root for and people you love to hate, but a lot of them fell a bit flat. The romance was alright, it's a subplot and fade-to-black, so if that is/isn't your thing, there you have it. I did enjoy the banter. That was fun. Although, a solid chunk of it was "your family is messed up," "You don't know the half of it." 

The book is more about family relations than grifting and watching a family get their just desserts, which was disappointing based on the marketing. I think it was okay, but it didn't wow me. There was a lot of missed potential in my opinion. 

Fun, simple, and moderately wacky, Moorewood Family Rules is a lot more com than rom and a quick read.

Many thanks to Avon and NetGalley for sending me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)

Moorewood Family Rules A Novel

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