Moorewood Family Rules by Helen Kay Dimon is a hella good time.

Ex-con heroine
Con-Artist family
Witty dialogue
Family dysFUNction
Sexy Bodyguard

All this and more pulled me into this entertaining book.

My one gripe is that I wanted more of Jillian and Beck.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

I really enjoyed this read and found it to take some unexpected twists at some points in the story, but were definitely well written and made the story so much better. I don't want to write any spoilers in my review so I'll keep it short and sweet. This read is a great con artist story and I highly recommend.


**Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book to leave my honest review**

This novel wasn't what I expected but was very enjoyable. I will say right away that I would have loved to see more of the romance, a bigger bang of a conclusion, and more consequences for some characters. But, even with those things leaving some room to be desired the story is a fun one that has con artists, double crosses, family feuds, grief, and romance so there is plenty to keep things moving along throughout the story. It is hard to tell more about the story besides the description on the book without giving anything away, but I think this is an easy read that will entertain most readers.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this novel, all opinions are my own.

Moorewood Family Rules by Helen Kay Dimon
Asking your Con-Artist family to go legit, that’s just good TV right there! I would 1000% watch that if it was ever turned into anything of the sort. I really liked the characters, and the supporting characters for that matter. Dialogue was witty, and family dynamics was very entertaining. Overall a light and fun read that was quite enjoyable.
Many thanks to Helen Kay Dimon, NetGalley, and Avon and Harper Voyager for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Helen Kay Dimon. Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Moorewood Family Rules comes out April 25, 2023.

Moorewood Family Rules focuses on a family of con artist who are about to get a rude awakening. Our main character being Jillian a women they sent to jail for three years to save themselves, and now that she is back she is ready to get revenge (honorable mention to the fact that she arrived home out of a helicopter). Jillian makes it very clear very fast that she will not be tolerating the grifter lifestyle anymore, and is willing to withhold all of the family money to get her way. To keep herself safe from her family members with questionable morals she hires a body guard to keep her. As the scheming and ultimatums continue Jillian not starts to figure out who she actually wants to be, in addition she starts to figure out that she may want to keep her bodyguard.

Honestly I thought that this book was a really fun and easy read, and even though I expected more of a heist situation what actually happens was just as fun to me. The book really explores the dysfunction that is in the Moorewood family, and makes it funny while doing it. Alot of the family is really just the worst, with like a couple of good ones mixed in. Jillian to me was a really strong female character, she was able to hold her own and by the end I really think she came into her own. I loved her relationship with Beck her bodyguard, do I think that there could have been more of them absolutely but it was still a good romance. If you are looking for a fun, cute and at times heartwarming (rare times) I highly suggest Moorewood Family Rules.

Fun, clever read about a family of con artists, and the de facto leader, Jillian, who is determined to go legitimate. Members of her family aren't so keen, and are willing to (possibly) kill her to stop her.

With twists and turns, and a number of allies, Jillian needs all the help she can get to turn this family to the straight side.

A little slow in places, but a fun read overall.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

This was a quirky fun read with a storyline that you don’t see often. It was a bit slow in parts but overall a good read if you are looking for something light.

*Thank you Netgalley & Avon/HarperCollins for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review

very enjoyable book! I couldn't anticipate what was going to happen next and it kept me guessing!

thank you to the author and publisher for providing this ARC on netgalley for me to review

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. I enjoyed the book. Usually I can guess what is going to happen next. With this book I did not. There were twists and turns that I did not see coming. I loved the character of Beck. He kept me intrigued throughout the story. Everyone needs a Beck in their life !

Clever story full of characters and family and what not. I enjoyed it but felt it could have been edited a bit better. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!!

Thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for this eARC.

The book revolves around Jillian Moorewood, heiress to her mom's fortune, returns home from prison to her con-artist family. She's trying to make them stop conning, and go legit, but they're stuck in their ways and trying to kill her for her fortune. The synopsis also talks about a partnership with a crooked but lovable great aunt, and mysterious hot body guard helping her get her own life and family back in order.

Synopsis and cover are fun, but the actual book fell very flat for me. This book was described as hilarious, and "Knives Out and Ocean's 8 meets The Nest". Personally, I've only watched Knives Out and it's nothing like Knives Out and it's also unfortunately not at all funny.

Up until 70% of the book, nothing really happens. It's all background and not even fun background, just like family drama background. When I think about a book about a con-artist family, I want to at least read about some cons they pulled off, but this doesn't give any of that. For me, the book didn't really pick up until 70%, which is disappointing. There are also too many characters with similar names (Astrid and Anika?) which made it confusing because I honestly didn't care enough to remember who is who. Also, this book might have been more interesting written in first person perspective of Jillian, Anika, and Aunt Patrica instead of third-person (limited(?) sorry haven't taken an english class in a while) of Jillian and Anika.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

I was hoping for a classic-style mystery along the lines of The Maid by Nita Prose, but I didn't connect with any of these characters from the start. The plot somehow seemed to drag a bit, even though the action was high, so I'm not sure why I wasn't hooked right away. I'm sure some readers will love it, but it just wasn't the writing style (POV style)/character type I could get into.

There were a lot of fun antics in this book, and quite a cast of characters too. I do love a good caper, but in my opinion, this one left a little to be desired. There were some really slow parts, but the exciting bits did come close to making up for those. I tend to prefer a little more romance in the books I read, but to each her own. This was an enjoyable book, especially if you’re a fan of creative twists!

Thanks to the Publisher for an ARC of this book.
It took me a while to get into the story-- there were a lot of characters and the POV would change and throw me off. It felt like a lot of chaos, and while I can usually appreciate twists and turns, it didn't feel right and purposeful enough. Plus it also has a cheesy romance, which I'm usually good with, but it felt one dimensional. I also felt at times like this was a sequel, like I was missing backstory that was casually mentioned. The last portion felt more engaging than the first, but overall, just a three star rating.

If there is one word to describe this book, it would be “fun.” Right off the bat, I loved the authorial voice: It flowed easily and drew me right in with the funny remarks and quick immersion into the plot. The idea of the story was intriguing and unusual. It set up a lot of anticipation as to who, how, and what was going down. Because make no mistake, our heroine was going to see that the bad guys (her family) were, indeed, going down.

We meet Jillian, fresh from 39 months in prison, ready to literally and spectacularly descend upon her unsuspecting family who put her there. She debarks from her helicopter on the family mansion’s spacious grounds in the midst of a party where they are laying the groundwork to swindle and con their latest victims. They are not happy. But Jillian is less so. They had promised to go straight in return for Jillian taking the fall for them with the FBI. Now she’s back, she has their number, she holds all of the cards, and she’s had 39 months to contemplate her revenge. And maybe, just maybe, set them on the straight and narrow. Nah. Not happening.

It turns out that her family are not only professional grifters and con artists, but that in an emergency they will not stop at murder. And Jillian’s arrival is definitely an emergency. If some may balk at murdering a family member (that would be against the family rules) they won’t hesitate to send her back to prison. Enter Beck, a very grumpy, sexy, and intimidating bodyguard, hired by one of her loyal allies.

Although the romance is nice and provides a topper to the satisfying ending, the main focus is the battle of wits between Jillian and her family. In the process, we also get the occasional point of view of one of her half-sisters. There are, of course, some twists and turns and surprises. Some of her family are revealed to be truly perfidious, others not so bad. The book did seem to lose a little steam about halfway through as we learn that Jillian is not quite so “together” as she first appeared. Having Jillian gaining insight and having to work on her own issues provided some depth and layers to her character. But it did seem to stall the narrative a bit. I missed the implacable focus of her mission to teach her family the lesson they so richly deserved to learn.

Fortunately, the sensational set-up was matched by a strong conclusion and the book regained most of the momentum it had lost towards the end. All in all, it was light and entertaining and I enjoyed it.

4/5 ⭐️

If a book starts with the FMC landing a helicopter on the lawn of her family’s estate after getting released from prison, I’m immediately going to be hooked.

I love media that takes place in one location, and seeing how authors/filmmakers can create a dynamic environment with a very small setting, and what better place than a Bellevue Abe mansion? Reading all about the schemes Jillian’s family gets into within those gilded walls was FASCINATING and I stayed up way too late reading so I could learn who sent Jillian to prison and how she was going to get her revenge.

I pride myself on being able to figure out mysteries and twists in books, but this one took me by surprise!

This book was an overall delight and I need about a million more books with the Moorewoods.

I enjoyed this fun, mysterious, swoony tale of Jillian Moorewood.

It was so fun to see such an absolute chaos filled bunch of dysfunctional cast of characters (and they are all related)!!

And to have a bodyguard trope (fast becoming a favorite) with Beck.

I knew I was going to like Jillian’s character from the beginning. It started off strong and kept my attention for a while. I loved the concept of the book. I did feel like there were a lot of parts that were drawn out, like it could have been shorter or there could have been something more involved.

When I finally got to sixty-seventy percent of the book, it really got my attention. Storyline started moving quickly, and at that point I had to rad on through to finish the book.

The romance portion was a distraction, but that part felt too fast while everything else took a long time to explain or plot out.

Overall, there were some really exciting and funny parts to the story. It was easy to read. It got me interested in the author’s other work.
Thank you ARC for your generosity and allowing me to read it early.

I ended up DNFing this book very early on, about 10%. It didn't capture my attention, and I had very little interest in following the characters. I couldn't tell the difference between half the characters because they didn't seem to have unique voices or motives, and it was very flat.