I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I supposed I liked it more than hated it. I didn't really know what to expect so I was pleasantly surprised. But also a little bored. See how I'm conflicted? I enjoyed the audiobook narrator. I mostly enjoyed the story. I'm not sure I like where it's leading though, as far as love interests... But if I can get the other books for free, I'll continue. And hello, they're all available on KU yay!

If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d read a book with all asexual main characters where it would be treated as a normal thing, even if it does deal with some of the anxiety around coming of age and dealing with less visible identities. Even better, it presents multiple ways to be asexual, whether that’s also being aromantic, or still having crushes and romantic relationships. While the heist aspect wasn’t as exciting as the book seems to promise, it was still interesting to see how Jack and his friends went about their casino takedown, even if the ending wasn’t quite as satisfying as I would have liked. If ACES WILD sounds like your kind of thing, or you’re looking for an asexual, queer book full of Las Vegas shenanigans, this one’s for you.

ACES WILD follows Jack Shannon, seeming heir to the Golden Ages casino. After his mother is arrested and he figures out it’s due to a rival casino owner, he decides to bring his group of online friends, all asexual, to Las Vegas to take the casino down. As with the most realistic YA books, they don’t exactly succeed, although we do get to see how Jack develops throughout the story. Overall, it feels like the plot and the general storyline are developed more heavily than the actual characters. While there is an arc, I didn’t personally feel that Jack’s friends, especially Georgia, acted as much more than devices within Jack’s arc and Jack’s story.

Though this wasn’t the heist that I had originally imagined, I think it had some very interesting scenes with poker and exploring Carlevaro’s casino. I did enjoy some of the Arthurian allusions throughout though they weren’t as embedded in the story as I might have liked. It’s not the most shocking twist, but I was certainly taken by surprise and Dewitt escalates the tension well. As a whole, I did enjoy reading this book. It’s fun and showcases some character identities that are typically underrepresented in what felt like a genuine way. And I’ll be looking to see what shenanigans happen next.

A heist book featuring an all-cast of ace characters? Yes, please.
The story follows Jack Shannon, the heir to a Las Vegas fortune, while he tries to deal with his mother’s imprisonment and family troubles and at the same time tries, with the help of his ace friends, to avoid his mother’s rival Peter Carlevaro to buy the Golden Age, a hotel and casino that the Shannons have owned for generations. It features tech-savy 14 year olds, lots of blackjack-ing, iconic Las Vegas attraction such as the Bellagio fountain and illegal gambling and lots of humour. While I could see the plot twist coming from miles I was still very much entertained by this wonderful group of friends, and I found a well developed story and real, solid characters. I highly recommend it for an entertaining and fun read!
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It has ace rep and group discussion surrounding it which is always good to have. Everything else? Underwhelming, disjointed and boring. The premise was good in theory but failed in execution. The story is basically Jack and his group of friends/found family (he doesn't deserve) with very limited characteristics who hung out and continuously terrible at being secretly nosy around Vegas. Jack has temper tantrums, Gabe is tall, Lucky is little, Remy goes by "they" and Georgia is...there. 🤷🏾‍♀️ They all read more like middle schoolers. The plot twist/reveal? 🙄 The book could've been simply named only "Aces Wild" instead because the "heist" didn't really happen until the last minute. Honestly felt like waste of time.





Thanks to NetGalley and Peachtree for providing a copy for an honest review.

“As if meeting your best friends in person for the first time weren’t stressful enough, I had to throw in a healthy dose of subterfuge and criminality.”

So….. I wouldn’t call this a heist book. But it is a beautiful book about a group of asexual teens who met online and meet in-person for the first time at the fancy Vegas hotel Jack’s mom owns. But it’s not just an exciting vacation for the teens….. Jack’s mother has been arrested and Jack recruits his friends to help him beak into a secret Vegas gambling club run by the notorious Peter Carlevaro to uncover leverage to help his mom.

Although Jack and his friends are searching for something, they don’t know exactly what or exactly where it is- which is why I don’t see this as a heist book.

Great ace representation! Including friends that are asexual, aromatic, and non-binary. I really liked that in this midst of everything, Jack wrestles with how to navigate his first crush as an asexual teen, combating the misconception that asexual people are cold and don’t have feelings for other people. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term ‘asexual’ it refers to someone who doesn’t experience sexual attraction. They may still experience other types of attraction (such as, romantic attraction, aesthetic attraction, emotional attraction). For example, one of the characters in the friend group is asexual and aromatic, meaning they don’t experience sexual or romantic attraction.

“The thing about asexuality was that it was complicated in ways I was still figuring out. Just because you didn’t experience sexual attraction didn’t mean you didn’t experience romantic feelings. But those romantic feelings didn’t look like they did in the movies because, well, Hollywood didn’t make movies about ace people. Period. So they could be a little hard to figure out.”

Vibes of: found family, teenage mischief, lgbtqia+ friend support, criminally rich family
——————
Thank you to @netgalley and Peachtree Teen Publisher for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a sweet and funny story revolving around a group of online friends who met eachother because they were all aspec.
I loved the writing and although it was a bit chaotic at times, the action was well paced and Jack’s narration was delightful. Each character was written so well that you could easily connect with them, and they never felt flat or too similar. The ace rep was also amazing, and I loved how it was a story with ace characters, not about them because i loved reading about it casually, not it being the main point of the book.
I was also really glad that we had an aroace character, as well as two who explored their romantic feelings for each other.
All in all it was an amazing book with a gripping story.

2.5 Stars

Thank you to Peach Tree Teen and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

When Jack's mom gets arrested for shady dealings in Las Vegas, he invites his online (and also Aspec) friends to come help him take down the man that he swears got his mother sent to jail.

This book was unfortunately a disappointment. I know a lot of people read and reviewed before me and I was so scared because the concept of this is brilliant and the idea of 5 aspec MCs is a dream. I thought the plot was missing some things and the writing style didn't really grab me the way I wanted it to.

Now, there were some issues in the originally release netgalley arc that I heard have been changed and updated. I thought that the version I downloaded came after these changes and was supposed to be more up to date, but I didn't notice? There were still some problems with it. The whole hearing aid part is uncomfortable and least and ableist at best. There were a few discussions about being asexual which I think was one of the complaints I read about? They weren't super in-depth, which I thought was fine--but it did feel like every one of the friends were sex-repulsed. I would have liked for there to be mention that that is not representative of all ace people. Jack said he looked like "a prisoner of war" at one point after getting hit in the nose and that's..... bad. That is bad. I don't know how else to describe it.

I think without the problematic aspects of this book it would probably be 3 or 3.25 stars for me. The problems did take it down a bit for me. I would love to see more books with multiple aspec characters so one like this doesn't feel so heartbreaking if it ends up falling short.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, and Child abuse
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Infidelity
Minor: Injury/injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, and Blood

Thank you to Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for sending me an early copy of this audiobook! All opinions are my own!

From the very first chapter, this book was so much fun! I was absolutely sucked in by the writing style. It was so funny and entertaining and really easy to relate to the characters. It feels like you're watching a comedy heist movie, and I loved those vibes so much.

At first I thought the characters would be hard to keep straight, but they were all so unique and so well written that I had no problem! They are all so loveable in their own ways, and I adored each and every one of them. Not to mention the diversity in this book! There's representation for LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and disability, and it was all so well written in the way that it's so seamlessly written that it all feels absolutely perfect together.

The beginning of the book felt a bit slow to me, but once it really got going, I was hooked! And then the major plot twist at the end!!! When I say that my jaw literally dropped, please believe me. I was not expecting any kind of extra plot twist like this, but it was absolutely perfect.

If you're looking for a fun, diverse read, this is the book for you!

CW: incarcerated parent, death of a grandparent (off-page, mentioned), acephobia, fire

I would like to thank NetGalley and Peachtree for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Aces Wild: A Heist has a very unique plot concept. None of the YA books I have ever read in my life dealt with the high-stakes, adventure to maintain a Las Vegas casino family legacy. Add to it an online friend group and interestingly complex family dynamics, you get yourself an interesting story to get through.

Dewitt does a great job with illustrating the glitz and glamor, as well as its stark contrast, to the lives of the powerful Las Vegas resident. With Jack serving as a narrator and adding his own commentary to the Las Vegas scenery, DeWitt is able to have the reader feel as though they are in the story themselves.

I also found the all asexual group of teenagers to be an interesting plot element. Not only did each of the characters highlights different experiences of being asexual and/or aromantic, each of the characters brought their own personality and style into plot and you can really tell in DeWitt’s writing.

Overall, I would keep an eye out for this book if you’re someone who loves classic Las Vegas stories or are looking for a fresh perspective on the friend quest trope.

dear publisher,
I apologise for the delay in giving feedback, however, I just couldn't get into the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!
On his last day of school, Jack Shannon learns his mom, the owner of a large casino in Los Vegas, has been arrested. After traveling to Vegas, Jack then makes a series of impulsive decisions that leads him, and eventually his online group of all asexual friends into a series of casino related hijinks to try and help him clear his mom's name.
I absolutely loved this book. It was a quick, fun read that had me at times laughing out loud and on the edge of my seat. I loved the diverse representations of the spectrum of asexuality, and the non-binary community.
I gave it four stars though because despite being labeled as a "heist" novel, there was not a lot of actual heisting until the very end of the book.

Didn’t have a lot of expectation going in, except that I was excited to read something with Ace representation and I love heist stories. This revolves around Jack who’s mom ended up arrested and is being held thanks to a local crime boss. This story did not disappoint with the Ace Representation, showing a variety of different types. Also loved that this was a story that had asexual characters and not about the characters being asexual. It’s probably a small distinction, but I enjoyed the story didn’t necessarily revolve around their sexuality beyond what kinda brought them together. The writing was funny and I liked that it kinda felt like you were having a conversation with the narrator Jack.
The only part I didn’t like was a lot of the action seemed to happen off screen and there wasn’t as much of a heist as I was expecting. But it was an overall good read and I really enjoyed it.

A bit chaotic, but enjoyable! The heist can at times feel a little convoluted and longform, with a slightly confusing timeline/series of motivations, but on the whole the plot holds together well. The characters are all interesting, with Remy being a very sweet love interest, and there's just enough info on blackjack to keep a reader interested and learning without it being boring. Unfortunately the Arthurian references, both diegetic and nondiegetic, are a bit much and feel more forced and painful than clever, and we see little of Jack's reasoning for being so devoted to certain ideas. I read it about a week ago and can't pull much more than that, which cements its status in my head as a very middling book: not bad at all, worth the read, but also not a first choice in heists.

I really enjoyed this! It was so fun, a unique story, and had such a great range of characters. I thought it was really well crafted as a story and I really loved and was invested in all of the characters.

Jack Shannon is a normal teenage boy living a normal teenage life - well, if by normal you mean running a secret blackjack ring the the basement of his private school while his family owns a highly renowned hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Everything changed when his mom is arrested for her ties to organized crime, and Jack is left going back to his childhood hotel suite to try and figure out a way to help. See, Jack knows what happened - his mom was sold out, by her rival casino owner and jilted lover Peter Carlevaro. He knows there must be dirt to dig up the man, and to find it he recuits his closest friends, who just so happen to be the asexual support group scattered across the country he met through fandom forums. Together they hatch a plan to infiltrate an under-the-table gambling club and find the key to Carlevaro's secrets in order to find justice for Jack's mom. A key rule you shouldn't forget - aces can always be wildcards.

Aces Wild reminded me a lot of another YA book I picked up last year, Immoral Code by Lillian Clark. Both books feature a group of teens who take matters into their own hands to right a wrong they've deemed unacceptable. Immoral Code is written from the perspectives of almost the entire group, and at times I wished Aces Wild had done the same, because it felt like the rest of the crew were a bit underdeveloped. But simultaneously, I acknowledge that this is entirely Jack's story, and being in his head the entire time was a choice I could get on board with. From his point of view we see his struggles first hand - 1.) he knows his mom's business practices haven't always been legal, but he still feels the need to come to her aide and expose Carlevaro for his role in everything, 2.) he knows he needs his friends in order for his plan to work, but he doesn't think they can understand exactly what he's going through, or what he stands to lose if they don't succeed, and 3.) he knows he has feelings for Remy, but he doesn't want to complicate their friendship, he hasn't felt like this for anyone else since he is asexual, and he doesn't know if Remy even feels the same, to name a few. As a reader we start to feel fo Jack, and root for him and his rag-tag group of accomplices to succeed in taking down a big crime boss of the Las Vegas strip. It was certainly more character driven than action-packed, and I could have done with more pages in order to have to a better combination of both aspects.

The book is called Aces Wild, so I just want to make sure I touch on the asexual representation. Each member of Jack's friend group - Lucky, Georgia, Gabe, Remy, and Jack himself - all identify as asexual. They came together through different forums helping each other figure out their identity and being there when needed from various places across the country. Throughout the book there are discussions about "being too young to know your sexuality," "not knowing what to do when you start to have feeling for someone as an asexual" and "how asexuality can intersect with other parts of your identity, including gender, race, and romantic orientation." I feel like these characters and discussions are used both to allow asexual readers to feel represented, and allosexual readers (especially those unfamiliar with asexuality) to better understand the sexual orientation. I am excited to see what other readers think when this book is released.

In conclusion, yes, Aces Wild is a heist story. The main heist occurs in the last quarter of the book, and that might not work for you, which is perfectly okay. But at its heart, it is a friendship story following a group of teens who band together and, against all odds, expose a bad man for all his wrongdoings. Jack starts off the book telling us to tamper our expectations, that this is not, by any means, a love story, but I'd have to disagree and say that love for your family, your friends, and [maybe] potential partners has the power to make you feel like anything is possible. *Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Peachtree Teen, for the e-copy, all thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Aces Wild lacked some of what the description foretold, but was still entertaining. A group of asexual main characters (previously unheard of as far as representation) and a heist - these two things were definitely part of the story but it felt like the narrative was banking on the reader being so starved for the representation that they would forget that there wasn’t much substance or character development.

I was so excited to read a book with so much ace representation and that was so well done! They addressed the different types of asexuality. I also loved the found family aspect, but there was so much missing. I cannot tell you a whole lot about who the characters are.

This is not the Six of Crows type novel that many said it was. There wasn’t much of a heist, it doesn’t happen until the very end. There’s hardly any tension either.

(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for honest review.)

absolutely loved Aces Wild! from the different representations within the LGBTQ community but also just the storyline and the characters, it was all so well written and such a joy to read!

i think my favourite characters had been Remy and Gabe, i felt the most connected to them but i genuinely liked all the characters!

the story was full of little twists and turns which made it so much more fun to read! i also loved the big twist/reveal at the end (even though i had guessed it, it was still brilliant)

overall, such a fun read and i definitely recommend to absolutely everyone, side note: anyone want to plan a heist? 😂

Jack's mother is going to jail, so naturally he enlists the help of his high school friends to take down the man responsible for sending her there. After all, who better to take down the criminal mastermind who owns half the Vegas strip than a group of asexual teens who've never even met in person?
Aces Wild is incredibly funny-- I laughed out loud at multiple points-- and had some great twists and turns. While the fact that all the main characters are ace is absolutely important to them (it is, after all, the foundation of their friendship), it isn't central to the plot; this is a story about a group of kids who happen to be ace, organizing hijinks and heists. It's a kind of representation that is at once quiet and loud, and I loved that.
This is a book about blood family, found family, and the choices we make regarding them (with a whole lot of gambling and lies along the way).

Aces Wild: A Heist initially interested me because it boasted actual Ace representation, and I’m happy to say it did not fall short. But being Ace was not the real focus of this story. Family, both blood and found, is the focus of this story. I found it to be a quick, entertaining read, though I wish a few characters had been fleshed out just a little bit more so we knew more about them and their backstory. Overall I would absolutely read this again and recommend it both YA and adult readers.