I had to dnf this book at 85% as no heist was in sight and I could feel myself getting into a reading slump. Unfortunately, I can't give a good review as I did not finish the book but have to write something for the sake of my ratio 🙈

If I could describe this book in one word it would be fun! It reminds me of a mixture of Ocean’s 11 and Artemis Fowl (minus the magic) with the addition of queer representation.
This book deals with the idea of found family and discovering oneself coupled and a casino heist. At first Jack comes across as a spoiled rich kid, but overtime we see him develop into a nuanced teenager trying to figure out his asexuality in an allosexual/romantic world. I think this would make a fun beach read.
I would rate this 3.5 stars if I was able, it’s nothing groundbreaking but certainly entertaining and fast-paced sort of like a movie.

Aces Wild is one of my most anticipated releases of 2022. I mean, you all know I love a good heist, and to make it ace on top of that? Perfect.

The blurb of this book compares it to Six of Crows, and while I don't think that's entirely inaccurate, it is a little misleading. This book reminded me much more of another one of my favourite books: Heist Society.
Do not go into this book expecting the grit and darkness of SoC. The humour, tone and writing are much more like a Riordan book. Which I absolutely love.

This book was really, really fun. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The characters are lovable, the writing smooth, the jokes funny enough to make me laugh out loud a couple of times.

I love the representation as well. An entire (Mini)busload of Aces, all with unique identities, including an aromatic ace and a nonbinary ace. Love it. Aces pursuing a romantic relationship. Love it.

It was overall just a really fun and quick read.

Ther were two flaws that presented it from being a full 5 star read though.
One: The whole book is based on our MCs desire to get his mom out of prison. The thing is, she is absolutely guilty. And I just do not feel bad for the multi-millionaire casinobowner with mob- ties who's a neglectful mother going to jail for fraud, just because she wouldn't have got caught withiut the interfaceof a rival. I just don't.
And the second flaw: The Heist itself was quite underwhelming. You know that point in a good heist novel, where you as a reader think everything has gone down the drain but then it turns out that was the plan all along? Well in this the narrator all but tells you that is what's happening. And just how a joke isn't funny anymore when you explain it, the story just wasn't as entertaining anymore at that point.

Do not get me wrong, I still enjoyed this bookba lot and definitely recommend you read it. I also can't wait to get my physical copy of it.

With an absorbing and exciting story, a humours and engaging voice, a relatable cast of characters and a whole heap of ace-spec badassery, the ARC of Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt is truly one of the best things I’ve read in the last five years and I almost couldn’t put the book down. This is a spoiler free review and you can get your own copy of Aces Wild on September 6th, 2022.

Perhaps I’m a little biased. It’s very rare that you get to read something that showcases one character that’s asexual, let alone a cast of them. Jack and his friends are part of an online ace support group, which in of itself is awesome. The novel doesn’t go into the nitty gritty details of what it means to be ace, showcasing these characters are inherently normal and don’t actually need much explaining. Get with the program, reader, we’ve got an epic heist to undertake!

Jack is a fantastic main character and, through his eyes, we see how lonely he is at school, but how deeply un-lonely he is when he goes online to talk to his friends. As someone that struggled to make deep and meaningful connections during my teens and 20s, but whose best friend in the world and platonic soulmate is someone I met on an online roleplaying forum, this spoke volumes to me. My best friend helped me to understand I was ace and, being queer herself, made me feel comfortable with her in a way I couldn’t with real life friends. Thus, Jacks nervousness at meeting his online friends for the first time absolutely resonated with me, so much so it made me cry!

Aces Wild is the book I wished I’d had as a teenager. I skipped a lot of YA because it was so heteroamatonormative. Too much romance, too much girls kissing boys, not enough awesome shit. Though there is a little romance in Aces Wild, as a romance-repulsed aromantic I still enjoyed it; it was sweet, and awkward, and I think if I ever ended up having a crush on an actual person and not an actor, or fictional character, it might go something like that.

While I’d guessed a few of the book’s bigger twists, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unlike multi-million dollar film franchises that like to pull the rug out from under the audiences’ feet just for shock value, Aces Wild actually follows through with its twists and they make sense. There were a few in there, still, that made me gasp and grin with delight.

Though the ace-rep isn’t all encompassing within the book (there’s no mentions of other ace-spec labels in the text), this is a huge stepping stone for ace fronted media. The asexual stuff is super ingrained into the story without it shouting in being in your face, the ace characters are all different, all multi-faceted, all awesome. There’s a discussion about “aren’t you too young to know you’re ace?” which I absolutely loved! The book hit all of the emotional notes incredibly well and had me tearing up in a few places, laughing quite a lot and having a whale of a time with the Aces Wild team.

If you, like me, are lamenting the fact that there isn’t enough ace-spec rep in media, then Aces Wild is the book for you. It’s witty, snarky and packs a powerful punch. The ace-spec characters are awesome, and I grew to love every single one of them throughout the novel. If some of your closest connections are with people online, then this book is most definitely for you; it’ll give you the warm and fuzzies for people you wish you could hug tight. All in all, Aces Wild is a really fun, really engaging and really ace book, and I can wholeheartedly recommend that you get it when it comes out!

Review appears on my website, here: https://acereading.wordpress.com/2022/04/18/aces-wild/

If you slap A HEIST on the cover, title and blurb on a book, I am going to read the book expecting... a heist. It's not a lot to ask for. I did not feel that any of the events of this story, which mostly involved standing around gambling hoping to overhear some stuff or eating, constituted as "a heist".

I'm deaf, and I was really uncomfortable with the one deaf character, who uses hearing aids, being used as a tool for the plot - they hack an old hearing aid of Jack's sister to use as a mic. Mobility aids, hearing aids are really important to a disabled person's identity and I really hated them being used this way, and Jack pretending to need a hearing aid at all. Also his sister had no markers - no deaf voice, no difficultly hearing.

Some of this story might have been saved if I loved the characters. A group of asexual teens should immediately just grab me but I can't tell you much about most of the characters. Jack was self absorbed, Remy was cool simply because they're non binary apparently, I can tell you nothing about Georgia, Gabe switches between irrationally angry and really friendly and Lucky was the only one with a personality.

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed. Time to go binge watch BBC's Hustle again.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review)

All you need to know about Aces Wild is that it features an all ace found family, a non-binary supporting character/LI, an accurate portrayal of internet friendships, and a good ol’ heist

If you’re coming into this novel excited for the plot I would probably say,,,, don’t (though the ending saved it a little bit). The selling point of this novel is really the found family, representation, and vibes!

Overall, Aces Wild was an admittedly not perfect but a very fun and quick read and if the blurb interests you, I say go for it ;)

This book had me at HEIST! And it 100% did not disappoint. I could not put it down, and I hope there's more coming from this author soon!

I had an EXCELLENT time with this one.

Gonna start by saying there was not a ton of heisting but the heisting that did happen felt very on-par with, you know, a collection of contemporary teenagers who've never done this before and that was more important to me than actually having a full-scale intricate heist.

My favorite aspect was the meeting-internet-friends-in-person one - as someone with really close online friends it made me so happy and I loved the group's dynamic so so much! They were so close and also had all the traditional trappings from my own experiences such as the oldest being 18 and all the others (mostly 17) constantly teasing him about being ancient. I kept laughing not necessarily because it was funny but because it was so familiar.

Also they are ALL ASEXUAL! First of all, I'm still flabbergasted (in the most positive way) as to how this even got published, but also meant we got relatable gems such as "I don't see how anyone has time for sexual attraction" and the aroace member of the group being the one to dispense relationship advice. While I didn't think the romance was strictly necessary in adding much to the story, it was very light, and I did genuinely appreciate the discussion of how you can still be ace and have romantic attraction and how navigating crushes and/or a desire to have a relationship is SO confusing when everything around you is based on an allo model and you don't have that framework and have to figure everything out on your own.

The voice was also refreshingly unique and I really liked the sarcastic narration style and all of Jack's little side commentary. It was enjoyable to read and made me laugh!

I also liked Jack's relationship with his sisters and his complicated feelings towards his parents! His development and voice overall felt very "teenager thinks he's slick (even though he's largely not) but also he's really insecure and needs therapy and has to try really hard to keep up a front" which was so nice and definitely "I know people like that".

I loved this so much, more books about aces and online friendship groups please and thanks!

Thank you to NetGalley and PeachTree Teen for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm absolutely tickled that someone wrote a book about a bunch of asexual teenagers who become temporary detectives/vigilantes. The world needs more asexual representation and this book was a delightful contribution. Lucky is my favorite!

I love how romantic attraction was just a subplot in this story and it was only along the lines of "I think I like this person and that's super confusing. What am I supposed to do about it?!"

My only hang up is that the biggest plot twist wasn't really a plot twist because I saw it coming a mile away but hey, maybe I'm just getting better and figuring that kind of stuff than I used to be. I do read a lot!

thank you to NetGalley for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review!

i would like to disclose that while i am queer, i am not acespec so please see ace peoples reviews on the representation of that.
the characters were so fleshed out and so relatable. i loved each of them individually. with any semi big friend group in books, especially when there’s only one pov there’s the risk of the characters not having defined personalities, of them all just becoming friend™️. but each of them were their own character with a separate personality and i could easily tell them apart. this author also knows that queer people travel in packs because having an entirely queer friend group is so realistic.
now i know next to nothing about vegas so i can’t say anything about casinos or how any of that works but the author did an amazing job of explaining it.
the representation:
so much queer rep. the main romance was a friends to lovers of boy and a nonbinary person who are both ace and it was so believable. they had a chemistry that very few book couples have where you know they would get together and stay together irl.
i also just want to say i appreciate so much the representation of online friends as being real friends.
that plot twist was a goood one. like one that made sense because the author takes the time to weave it in subtly into the book.
i just need to talk about how much i love jack. back before this book had a blurb he was described as an ace kaz brekker and that absolutely stands although he’s a bit nicer. i love him because he is messy. he makes dumb decisions and hurts people and is a spoiled rich kid. and he’s ace. unapologetically. he isn’t out to his family which is realistic to a lot of people. but he is to his friends and falling in love does not change anything about that.
the ya market does not have enough ace characters and i am so happy there’s another one out there(come september).
if you’re queer(especially acespec), like the aesthetic of casinos, like messy characters, like heists, or like healthy friendships in books you should absolutely read this.
if you’re none of these you should still read this.

I didn't love this, but I am really glad it exists and think it will find its audience. There has been so much more great female asexual representation in YA recently, but I haven't really seen much male asexual rep, so it is awesome to have a YA adventure story like this for teen boys on the ace spectrum!

Thank you to netgalley and Peachtree Teen for the e-arc!

I’ve been looking forward to this one since it was announced last year. I have to say that instantly fell in love with Jack. He was so funny from the start. From the blackjack club at elkhollow to his friend group to his family, it’s very obvious he’s loved. There were many times I laughed out loud from his observations most notably when he found out a friend hacked him and his first thought was “omg did they see the fan fiction?” Very very very relatable.

I had fun reading this! I definitely went into it expecting Ocean’s 11 with asexual teens and didn’t get that but I still had fun. The merry band of asexual teens, self named Aces Wild, were sweet! But I do think they could’ve been fleshed out a little more. Gabe was my favorite though.

I also liked what the author was trying to say about asexuality and live in regards to Jack’s feelings for Remy but I think it fell a little flat? I didn’t hate it! It just kind of didn’t satisfy me with how it ended.

But I did enjoy the twist about who Jack’s father was even though I kind of nailed it from the start.

Overall I enjoyed this! It was a fast read. Vegas was a fun backdrop, I liked how the author wove Vegas into the story. I also enjoyed Kerry, Jack’s sister, she was a sweetheart.

Anyway. Jack is my bestie now! My funny little guy.

This book is delightful and truly one of the most fun reading experiences I've had in a while. Aces Wild is compulsively readable, and hilariously chaotic while somehow also managing to pull off smooth heist shenanigans and grounded character dynamics.

Jack Shannon's world has fallen apart when his mother, the owner of a large hotel and casino in Vegas, is arrested. Jack is sure he knows who is trying to frame her: a business rival and old lover. What else is the son of a wealthy family full of liars and gamblers supposed to do but get revenge? In a whirlwind of high stakes worthy of a poker game, Jack assembles his heist crew: his fellow asexual nerdy friends he met online. Can they get his mother out of jail so everything can go back to how it was? And what on earth is Jack supposed to do about the feelings he's developing for one of his friends?

I loved this book more than words can comfortably express. Not only is it funny and easy to read (I devoured most of it in a single sitting), but it's also impeccably paced and tightly plotted. Oh, and of course, it delivers the appropriate chaos levels you'd expect from teenagers trying to pull off a heist. Aces Wild feels like Ocean's 11 except so very queer and equally if not more fun. It's truly a joyride of a book.

However, it also brings up themes of family, love, and truth in a surprisingly nuanced way. Jack's relationship with the truth is shaky at best, something that comes back to bite him on more than one occasion. Speaking of Jack, he was a fantastic main character to guide us through the story. He's a little cocky and a little screwed up but in the best of ways. His snark hides a much softer side that I was happy to peek out every once in a while.

Its characters are where Aces Wild truly shines. This misfit crew of ace teens made falling in love with them incredibly easy. As expected in a heist story, each of them comes with their own strengths and hidden talents and discovering everyone's role was a blast! As a fellow asexual who has made a lot of online friends through fandoms, I felt so represented in these friendship dynamics! The feeling of meeting your online friends in person for the first time, the chips and soft drink fueled extravaganza of it all was captured so vividly that my heart ached a little. Teenage me would have felt so seen by this book and I am forever grateful it gets to exist for all the other ace teens out there!

I was so sad to say goodbye to all of these characters at the end of this book, I would've followed them on any future adventures. Now, all that's left for me to do is scream about this book and tell all my friends about it...and maybe hope for a TV adaptation because I want this chaos crew on my screen!

A group of aces teaming up for a casino heist? Found family trope? All the secrets and lies. Plus an entire crew of asexual teenagers. Doesn't it sounds like the perfect read?

Jack Shannon's life falls apart the day Aileen Shannon was arrested for illegal activities. But something seems off. Decided to dig out the whole truth of the situation, Jack gathered a crew, 5 chaotic yet funny friends together on a mission.
With Peter Carlevaro being their main suspect of the situation.

They have three goals: get in, get what they were looking for, and last: get out without getting caught.

Thank you @Netgally for providing me an e-ARC!

This was a good book! I feel it is slightly let down by the six of crows comparison because it isn't similar at all, this is a lot more about friendship than the heist itself. To be honest the goal of the heist wasn't always very clear and I would've liked more actual gambling/heist scenes/poker/blackjack etc, but I appreciated the full asexual cast and this was very readable; Jack had a solid narrative voice.

There’s so much to like about this book. Finally, we get significant ace representation! I think this is great because people who are ace finally get to see themselves represented, but also, lots of people I know seem to not understand what it’s like or what it means to be ace, and this book shows what it’s like to explore one’s sexuality as an ace person. I also love heist stuff, and especially with the pandemic, I can relate to having most of my close relationships being with online friends and to the shock of later meeting them in-person. This was a quick, fun read that had me biting my fingernails, and I won’t stop talking about this for the next week.

*E-ARC received from Netgalley*

“...sometimes you have to break a few ethical standards to make an omelet.”

Jack Shannon isn’t afraid of skirting the rules. Growing up in a Las Vegas hotel and casino (which his family happens to own) taught him that sometimes, not everything is completely legal. When Jack’s mom is arrested for said illegal activity, he turns to his group of online friends to distract him… and perhaps to help take down another big name in Vegas who had a hand in sending his mom to jail. Jack flies all his friends out to Vegas and soon enough all five of them become embroiled in the world of underground casinos and possible mob connections. Did I mention that Jack and his friends are all asexual and are learning about their identities along the way?

Aces Wild is one of my new favorite reads of 2022. As someone who also heard the word “asexual” for the first time at 16, this book made my heart so happy. I, like Jack, never really knew what I “should” be wanting from a relationship. I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel. His struggle with his identity feeling romantic love but no sexual feelings hit me hard. Dewitt hit the nail on the proverbial head with the ace/aro representation, specifically noting that someone can be asexual but still experience romantic feelings and have crushes. As we are warned at the beginning of the book, this is not a romance. We do, however, get to see characters gain more of an understanding of their sexualities and romantic preferences which I absolutely loved.

Now for the heist! The pacing began a bit slow, but picked up as soon as Jack’s friends all arrived in Las Vegas. These kids are witty, smart, funny, and just brave enough to try taking on a multi-million dollar hotel and casino tycoon. The only reason my review sits at a 4.5 and not a perfect 5 is because a good bit of the heist planning is spelled out for the reader. There are a couple of notable mastermind reveals and twists, but for the most part we (the audience) are told most of the steps. Aces Wild is marketed for people who enjoyed Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo; I think that remains true, however SoC is most known for the characters’ great reveals that the audience had no idea were happening behind the scenes.

Overall, Aces Wild was a delightful read and I’m so glad I got the chance to read it!

*This review also appears on Storygraph and Goodreads