Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a prequel to the Eric Beckman book series which is fine because I have not read any of the other books in the series, so perfect right? The main character in this book is Viviana Petki, a skilled jewel thief. So is this book about her different jewel heists? Well, no actually.Yes there is a jewel heist right in the beginning of the book, but that was just the catalyst for everything that happened in this book. In order for her to make it through customs she had to hide the diamond in someone else’s suitcase…little did she know that this would change everything for her.
Author: Al Macy Page #: 228
Star Rating: 4 out of 5
As I mentioned, Viviana puts a very valuable diamond in the suitcase of a fellow passenger and has to try to locate him. With the help of a private detective she is able to find him and retrieve the diamond. That part was the easy part, the hard part was realizing that she was falling for the guy. Here you would think that the book would fall into the realm of a romance novel but thankfully it did not!
The rest of the novel revolves around the mob trying to blackmail Viviana into helping them with a crime and how she manages to turn the tables on them, well for a little at least. Of course that isn’t all! There is a time machine, an autistic cousin who has a gift for unlocking even the most complicated safes, and of course a twist that even I did not see coming.
The only thing I do have to warn you about is the fact that most of the book is written in Viviana’s voice. Only reason that I mention this is that every once in a while you will hear one of her thoughts and it will be in broken English. The first time I thought it was a typo but nope. As long as you are aware of that you shouldn’t get distracted by it.
Pros:
- I really liked Viviana! She really was not this cocky thief, she just stole because of her kleptomania. She actually had a heart of gold, which could be seen by her interactions with her cousin.
- I loved that the book had an Autistic character! Viviana’s cousin had autism and her interactions with him were fantastic. She understood that he was not dumb and got angry when her boyfriend called him “retarded”, because he was neither of those things. I thought it was great showing how Viviana wished that her boyfriend would understand how special her cousin was.
- The story itself did keep you guessing. Just when you think something was resolved you would get the rug pulled out from under you! This was a lot of fun! Just when you thought the situation with the mob is resolved BAM! something happens and the situation just gets worse.
Cons:
- I personally hate when rape/attempted rape is used in a book to partially explain why a female character behaves a certain way. In Viviana’s past there was an attempted rape that changed her life…because of course it would *insert aggravated sigh here*. Granted it was the doorway to what caused her to change but seriously it was annoying. Her family already ran this “camp” where they taught things like espionage etc. Why couldn’t that be the reason why she was trained in combat etc? I mean she was already participating in these “camps”. Why did it have to be an attempted rape that lead to another immediate bad thing….which lead to her focusing really hard on becoming bad ass. Seriously that entire section just annoyed me because it was not needed
Overall:
I enjoyed the book and plan on checking out the official first book in the series. I mean how could I not? Especially with how it ended! I need to know what happens with Viviana! If you are looking for a fun thriller to read I recommend you check this one out!
The Owl's Book Nest 