Dysfunctional families are nothing new. You have the "crazy uncle", the "black sheep", the one that parties a bit too much. Those are normal, sure. When HelenKay Dimon introduces the reader to the Moorewoods, an entirely different definition of dysfunction is created. The Moorewoods were formed when a con man married a rich socialite. That con spawned into another, and another, and another. Pretty soon the whole family is adding more to the family fortune with these cons. They are just that good. That is until the new leader of the family, Jillian, is arrested by the FBI and sent to jail. What she was really doing when arrested was trying to get her family to go legitimate. There is more than enough money to invest in things that would yield a ton of money, and there is no stealing and conning involved.

All of the other members of the Moorewoods (who by the way all live in the same house!) want nothing to do with this reformed life proposition. When Jillian returns from prison, she gives them an ultimatum: change your ways or get kicked out with no more money. Because of some attempts at taking Jillian "out", she hires a bodyguard, and the whole family goes crazy. There is manipulation, deceit, epic banter, and love for self and family. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say this: I HOPE so much that there is another book starring Jillian and the bodyguard.

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC!

The cover of this book is stunning and caught my eye, which lead me to learning about the premise of this story, which sounded SO promising! I love Knives Out and Ocean's 8 so I couldn't wait!

While the overall story was slow, Jillian and cast of characters were fun, and the Knives-Out-style humor was definitely there. The first 60%ish felt like it dragged, but the ending was worth it.

Overall, I wish this book had a little bit more going on with as exciting of a premise it possesses.

It has to be said, the cover is absolutely gorgeous and really caught my eye. I love the comic cover style that is so popular right now.
The story was a little slow and while it was action packed, the action lacked OOMPH. The characters were actually really interesting, but I didn't feel like I got to know any of them very well. This felt more like a prequel to a slew of books about each character where you get into more depth and detail, but it was a bit lacking in this book.
If you like family drama and light mystery, you might enjoy this one!



Thank you to netgalley for an ARC to review.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book- Jillian is part of a dysfunctional con artist family and took the fall for them. Now she’s out of prison and back to get them to clean up their acts or get out. The romance aspect was rushed and not well done. I also did not particularly connect with any of the characters. All in all an interesting story line that could have been developed better. Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for and honest review.

Moorewood Family Rules is about the conniving Moorewood Family that make their living off of conning wealthy individuals into a relationship and then stealing from them. The one person that will attempt to stop their ways after 3 years in prison is finally out and ready to take action. Introducing Jillian,..the martyr of the family that controls the finances of everyone living in her house. With a full house of cons the people that she looks to includes her sister, Kelby (a long time family worker), and a new ugly hot body guard (Beck). As Jillian attempts to stop her family from their unhealthy ways she finds herself being threatened left and right by her twin cousins (Anika and Astrid) and her uncle Jay. As the family starts to turn against each other, Beck and Jillian are busy finding out which of her family members turned her in and got her sent to prison. As the two work together the growing attraction to her body guard changes her from seeing him as ugly hot to potential boyfriend material.

I give this book 3/5 starts because I found it to be a slow and dragging read. I wasn't shocked by the surprises that were made in the book and it didn't leave me with questions that I was dying to have answered. It involves a who done it element to the book with mild spice or thrills.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC.

After a three year prison sentence, Jillian returns home to her family’s estate and her con artist family, who aren’t exactly thrilled to welcome her home. I was really intrigued by the premise, and the book was a fast-paced, easy read, but I wish we’d had a bit more time to let the characters and their relationships develop. I wasn’t quite as invested as I hoped to be. But Beck, Jillian’s bodyguard, was my favorite for his moments of humor! I also hoped for more surprises and unexpected twists. Overall, definitely a fun beach read that I’m sure readers will enjoy next summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded so good. A criminal family? A con gone wrong? One daughter out for revenge? All of it sounded so good. However, when it came to the actual book... I was extremely disappointed.

I did not care for any of the characters. None of them were developed enough, it was like none of the characters in this book were actually main characters with distinct personalities. I finished the book and still could not tell you the difference between Astrid and Anika. The bodyguard was a really strange character I was expecting (and hoping) would play into the plot and become evil, but that didn't happen. And the romance aspect? I hated it. It happened way too quickly and it was horribly done. For someone who doesn't trust anybody, Jillian sure seemed to trust him way too much way too quickly. There were so many characters and none of them shone.

I can tell you how the story began and a little about how it ended, that is about it. It was so boring to read and did not hold my attention at all. I didn't care about the characters and I didn't care about what happened. The ending happened and I never got excited about Jillian's revenge nor did I understand it all. The plot was very poorly developed and the conflict was an afterthought. In fact, for me, everything about this book seemed like an afterthought: nothing seemed like it fit in, and everything was just haphazardly thrown together in a way that would never work.

This was one of the worst-quality books I have ever read. The characters, plot, and quality of writing were so surface-level and just plain boring. I understand this is an ARC and there are changes that are made before the book is published, but the changes that would need to be made for me to enjoy this book are so much greater than would be made for the published version.

If you like super quick reads with absolutely no emotional or storyline depth, you won't be disappointed. All others...

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for an eARC of this book.

This book definitely had a novel concept --the attempts of a woman to get her family of con artists to go legit after she took the fall for their crimes. The execution was a little lackluster though.

I found Jillian annoying at first but she grew on me -- I definitely wasn't hating it by the end. However, although Jillian is the narrator for 80% of the book, at times that is interspersed with the POV of one of the side characters, which never really proves to be fully functional within the book. The side characters were all very much fine: no complaints but I wouldn't say they were particularly memorable.

The story lacked backstory -- at times, the characters would describe events or definitively comment on something in a way that implied prior experience and the readers would be curious as to the background to the story but it kind of just never comes up again.

The plot, however, I have no complaints against: it is entertaining, well structured and built up nicely. The romance was slightly surprising, to be honest, and then a little bland, but I did enjoy certain elements of it. The love interest was never really fleshed out fully, but he didn't really have to be.

Overall, this is a very fun book; a great way to distract yourself and be entertained. I also think it would make a magnificent movie.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book had a fun premise and the blurb sounded great, but the actual story was slow, a bit dull and lacking action: I wanted to read about the cons and heists the family pulled off b it it didn’t get much into that, even though it’s the main point of most of the book. The love story fell flat and the family drama was okay but not super interesting. Pacing was slow and it didn’t pick up until the final quarter of the book. I nearly DNFd about halfway in but I wanted to give it my best effort. It did get better and mor exciting but sadly this book is not for me!

Gosh...I'm really bummed about this one. I went into it with such high hopes and it fell flat for me. It was slow paced, I couldn't connect with the characters and found myself skimming to get to the end.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The title and premise for this book (based on the description) had me dive in with the highest of hopes! Who doesn’t love a family drama, with all the crazy stuff that comes with it. Add a bunch of family rules, and the possibilities are endless. With that in mind, I was very disappointed in the book. It was too long, and moved too slow. . At any time, I felt I could have put it down, walked away and not finished it, but I did plug along since I owed a review. I wanted to love it but never really connected with the characters. I will rate it 3 stars, but would do 2.5 if I could.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins publishing for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so much fun! It has a full cast of quirky characters, crazy family dynamics, questionable love stories, a gorgeous Rhode Island mansion setting, and a hot bodyguard! I love stories about rich people behaving badly, and this one takes the cake.

Jillian Moorewood comes from a family of con artists, thieves, and swindlers. She's the family's scapegoat and goes to prison for her family's misdeeds. Now, she's out and she's in charge. Who can she trust and who's out to sabotage her again? All of the characters are of questionable character, and it keeps the reader on edge through the entire book. I couldn't put it down!

If you want a fun, light, entertaining, humorous, quick and easy read, this book is for you! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of a family of con artists and the one family member, who served prison time, and now wants them to go straight. The con artist and family dynamics parts of the book were so good, but unfortunately the romance fell flat for me. I think it was insufficient banter?
In any case, you will probably like this book if you liked The Riches (with Eddie Izzard & Minnie Driver).

Loved this book! I couldn’t put it down!

Not only does she have to deal with mooching relatives and a prison sentence being thrown in her face every three seconds, Jillian Morewood is being forced to hire an extremely attractive, protective bodyguard.

Kill. Her. Now.

That is, if her family doesn’t manage to do it first.

I really enjoyed reading this, especially the plot! Jillian’s family members were very similar and it was hard to differentiate between them at times. Also, the synopsis is very wordy and gave a little too much of the book away.

This story pulled me in from the start. This family puts the “fun” is dysfunctional. With an entire family of characters to love to hate, I dove into the twisted history of the Moorewoods. I’m not sure how to describe this page-turning family drama/comedy except to say that I read it in a day and loved this zany family’s story. It has elements of family drama, humor, and romance and is easily one of my favorite reads this year.

Jillian is out of jail and ready to make her con artist family go legit. At least that's the plan, anyway. But she's going to do it with a SPLASH! Jillian's arrival back at her mother's home, or the family compound, rather, has ruffled her extended family's feathers and put them all in a tizzy. You'd think the family would be more welcoming to the person who went to jail for them. There's her Uncle Jay (her father's brother-the con artist side) who is in the middle of a scam of Izzy, a seemingly rich socialite. Cousins, Anika and Astrid, Jay's daughters. Anika, who has hooked herself a beau with an inheritance and Astrid, who is the self proclaimed "brains" of the family. They're still up to their scheming ways and resentful that Jillian is trying to make them earn their money without scams in order to fulfill her dead mother's last wishes.

Jillian is at a loss of how to make her family know that she is serious about cutting out the scams, until she starts threatening to limit their money supply and kick them out of the house. That's enough to make some members do ANYTHING to stop her, even threatening her with death or more jailtime. Because of her dysfunctional family, her mother's advisor hires her a bodyguard who, in Jillian's opinions, has too many opinions of his own. The story gets even more complicated because Jillian wants to know who ratted her out to the FBI while also hiding secrets of her own.

This book was so fun to read, entertaining while also walking you through Jillian's internal struggle dealing with her mother's death, conflicting feelings regarding family loyalty and responsibility. There is also the spicy relationship between her and her bodyguard which brings a fun added element to the story. Ultimately, Moorewood Family Rules has you rooting for Jillian and her wild and crazy family.

This was a really fun book. It took a minute to get all the characters and their relationships straight, but once I did I really liked it.

What a fun twist on a story - our main character, Jillian, has just returned home from prison and this smart, likeable character is ready to force her family away from grifting in a straight and narrow life. Unfortunately for Jillian, not all her family members are onboard this idea and they DEFINITELY are not okay with giving up their lavish lifestyle. The characters are fun, their unique personalities move the story along and you are never quite sure who is hoping to eliminate Jillian from the equation to save their lifestyle. This book was a really fun read and I recommend it to anyone looking for something different and fun.

This book is so much fun! Thank you so much NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

This book was super different. I love that the heroine is an ex-con, I love that the family is full of con artists and that they are all super dysfunctional. I found myself laughing out loud a bunch of times.

Loved some of the plot twists in the story. This felt a little bit like watching Dynasty. This book I’m definitely buying it when it comes out.

Also, Beck? My favorite character!

A fun and clever story! I loved the idea of asking your con family to go legit with an ultimatum. I found it enjoyable to try and figure out who was trying to hurt Jillian and who was actually on her side. The twists and betrayals kept the story line moving. Overall a good book!
Thank you Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC!