I LOVED this book!!

Simi Chopra does not have the best of luck. Her basement apartment is flooded, she recently lost her job, her parents keep on trying to marry her off, and her best friend has been accused of stealing a $25 million dollar necklace. While trying to save her friend, she bumps into a mysterious man named Jack.

Jack while being mysterious, is also charming. There is something about him that Simi is attracted to. Jack offers to help Simi find the missing necklace and steal it back in order to clear her friends name. Simi jumps at the chance, but first she needs a team. Her new ragtag crew is made up of strangers and in just a few days, they have to become an elite heist crew, infiltrate a high-society wedding, and steal the necklace from a dangerous criminal. The crew has a plan but they face a few bumps along the way. From a bride keeping secrets. a detective who keeps showing up, mysterious characters, and Jack trying not only to steal the "Wild Heart" but also Simi's heart.

This book truly has it all. There is romance, mystery, and suspense. It is not only a great romantic comedy novel, but one about a found family. I fell in love with these characters. This book kept me guessing until the end and had me laughing the whole way through. I HIGHLY recommend this book!

Oh my gah! To Have and To Heist caught me by surprise. I’m not usually a fan of “heist” novels, but I loved this story! Simi Chopra is witty, strong, a little bit awkward, but all around awesome!
The FMC Simi and her best friend, aka her “ride or die”, Chloe are very relatable! l connected with Simi because she is sassy, loyal, and boy crazy.
With attractive men at every corner, I didn’t know who Simi would end up with. I’m not disappointed with her choice 🙃
One of the most surprising thing about this romcom is that I was left a tiny book hangover. 😅
The audiobook narrated by Soneela Nankani is a performance not to be missed! Thank you @prhaudio for the ALC

What I loved about this novel:

Found Family
Ocean’s 11 vibes
Friend Goals

Ocean's Eleven meets The Wedding Planner...

Simi Chopra, part of a large, complicated, loving and loud family, finds herself having to defend her best friend, who is being blackmailed into stealing jewelry worth 25 million. From a mobster.

How? Become a wedding planner!

The book is billed as a romance, but really, the romance takes a back seat to the heist shenanigans, until the very end. Simi's crew includes her eighty year old ninja of a landlady Rose, the mysterious Jack who she met hiding from the cops in the bushes when he took her captive, Cristian the womanizing gigolo who works at her dad’s tailor shop, Anil the dorky nerd her parents are trying to marry her off to (who still lives with HIS parents), Emma her race-car Uber driver, and the big, brooding and dangerous Gage who acts as the muscle of the group. But he loves animals.

It's the gang that really made this story work. It's funny, Simi is wish-fulfillment competent and brave. The gangsters are real creeps, and it gets pretty violent toward the end, but romance wins. I hope the author is planning to revisit this group!

Simi Chopra’s day goes from bad to worse starting with a flood that results in her to move back in with her parents who are determined to marry their ever ageing daughter off to a nice boy for the purpose of producing babies, before culminating in her attempted rescue of her best friend Chloe that ultimately leads to her arrest!

This was a fantastic rollicking adventure of a romcom as a wonderful group of oddballs band together with Simi to extricate Chloe from the prospect of a stint in the big house for a jewel heist she’s been set up to take the fall for. Among the crew are Rose, an octogenarian channelling her inner Tom Cruise, Chloe the white hat hacker, Anil aka the Butcher and the tech expert, wheel woman Emma who doubles as an Uber driver, Christian a gigalo or life coach as he prefers. The muscle is brought by badass Gage and the thief, the mysterious Jack aka Oliver Twist who has a habit of appearing at inopportune moments and then disappearing at the first sign of danger – the A Team they ain’t! Along the way they’ll encounter mafia weddings and elephants , stolen jewels and runaway brides, danger and double crosses all in the pursuit of justice….. and of course a share of the reward money. With some fantastic dialogue, even if Simi appears to suffer from verbal diarrhoea whenever she’s faced with a badge in the shape of the swoony Detective Garcia, this was a great introduction to Sara Desai’s books and a part of me hopes it’ll become a series I loved these characters so much.

This pains me to say it as someone who hates TV/movie adaptations as a rule but this is one book I’d love to see on the big screen but only if they didn’t cut a single part.

This was SO FUN! I loved this book so much! It was light hearted, funny, and the wedding crew was such a unique mash up of characters!

I had felt some Finley Donovan vibes mixed with Dail A For Auntie humor and it was just so enjoyable!

Obviously nothing can be taken seriously in this crazy heist book, but that was the point! This took me out of my head, made me laugh, and just enjoy the ride!

✨ Review ✨ To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai; Narrated by Soneela Nankani

The perfect blend of heist + romance + comedy!

This is the second book by Desai that I've read and I loved it! This one reminded me a lot of Alisha Rai's Partners in Crime in how it blended thriller and romance and a South Asian main character!

Simi's in a string of bad luck, but she'll always help out her best friend Chloe. Early in the book, she speeds to help Chloe who got set up in the theft of a priceless necklace from a Chicago museum. Simi stumbles on Jack in the bushes, and somehow becomes a heist leader to get Chloe free. Along the way she gathers her own crew of misfits, plans a wedding, and all sorts of shenanigans ensue.

I loved the audio narration, and I laughed frequently throughout -- especially at all the fun characters it brought in. Definitely the perfect beach or vacay read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: thriller/mystery + f/m romance
Setting: Chicago
Reminds me of: More diverse Oceans Eleven + Alisha Rai's Partners in Crime
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ heist stories
⭕️ rom-coms that are on the more comedic side of the scale
⭕️ Chicago / Lake Michigan settings
⭕️ misfit found families

Thanks to Berkley, PRHAudio and #netgalley for advanced copies of this book!

The ultimate romantic comedy with a side of shenanigans and hijinks. This novel was so much fun! Oceans 11 meets Finlay Donovan with plenty of chemistry, tension, and banter. This book is a great time

What a fun romcom!

While this wasn’t my favorite book from this author, I still thought it was super fun! This book follows a group of newbs trying to pull of the heist of a lifetime, but finding family and love along the way as well.

What I liked:
-the group of characters and how they learned to all love each other
-the humor was unexpected and just hilarious

What I didn’t like:
-I felt like it took to long to get to the heist itself. I found myself putting this book down often because I wasn’t 100% interested

Overall, this was a super fun read but it did take some effort to push through. But I still can’t wait to read more from this author!

I huge thank you to PRH Audio and Berkley Romance for granting me access to Sara Desai's latest novel, To Have and to Heist! Working with Berkley Romance and PRH Audio makes me so happy! I love the titles they offer and I love even more that I can alternate between the text and the narration to keep listening as I move throughout my day!

I have read all of Sara Desai's books and this one has a mystery, heist, and crime twist on the romance. This is a fun book, but it Is not my favorite. I found the characters a bit one note. Simi is lost and her life is one debt after the next with financial woes weighing her down. Her best friend calls her in a panic when she's caught inside a museum after a necklace is stolen. As Simi rushes to help her try and get out of the museum, she meets Jack, a mysterious man seeking to steal the necklace and return it to its "proper owner". Together they're concoct a way to get the diamonds back with a hodgepodge crew. I know why this is listed as a romance and mystery, but it felt more mystery and leaned toward the cozy side for me (which I love). However, I was hoping for a Sara Desai romance and finished this one feeling a bit unsatisfied.

I should also note that I exponentially enjoyed the text for this one over the audiobook. The audiobook to me highlighted how at odds the romance and mystery were with one another. Reading the ebook, I felt a lot less irritated by Simi and her bestie's cyclical spiral about what they were doing.

I'll be keeping my eye out for Desai's next!

4.5 stars!

This was such a delight! I both read and listened to the audiobook, and not only was it a cute romcom to cleanse the reading palate, but I loved that it also had the added suspense of a heist too.

📖𝗧𝗼 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗼 𝗛𝗲𝗶𝘀𝘁
✍️Sara Desai
🗓️7.18.23
💘Romantic Comedy
★★★★½

𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵:
💎 all the banter
🤝 themes of friendship
🗺️ adventure
😂 a funny read

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 @𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘺𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 @𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦_𝘱𝘳_ @𝘱𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘰 #𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥

An unlikely crew, a last minute wedding and the jewelry heist that can save them all. 

Review: This book was such a good time. It was genuinely fun to follow along with Simi and her ragtag team of unlikely jewelry heisters. I know that’s not a real word but it’s fitting so go with it.

The story goes like this - In order to exonerate her BFF Chloe for a crime in which she was framed, Simi masterminds a jewelry heist during a wedding. Y’all can I just say we should all be blessed to have a Chloe or Simi in our lives. These two were BFF goals, down to bring the bleach at the first sign of a body. I loved them so much!

Every high stakes heist needs a crew, right? Simi corrals the most unlikely crew imaginable including BFF Chloe, her eighty year old landlady Rose, the mysterious Jack who she met hiding from the cops in the bushes when he took her captive, Cristian the womanizing gigolo who works at her dad’s tailor shop, Anil the good guy her well meaning parents are trying to marry her off to who still lives with his meddling parents, Emma her need for speed Uber driver and the big, brooding and dangerous Gage who acts as the muscle of the group. This cast of characters was the BEST! They added so much to the crew and the book. You can’t help but become enamored with them all. I wanted to be part of their crew while reading.

Y’all this book has that well meaning, fumbling good guys getting caught up in very bad things vibe that I have come to love. There was a lot going on and I was there for it all. If you enjoyed books like the Finlay Donovan series and Dial A for Aunties, you won’t want to miss this one. I can’t wait for more from this crew!

If Oceans 11 were crossed with the Stephanie Plum series and add in South Indian matchmaking Aunties, you’d get To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai.

It’s a thoroughly entertaining good time filled with humor, adventure, and a side of romance that I couldn’t get enough of. This motley group made me laugh and smile so many times. Like in the Stephanie Plum books, I couldn’t decide if I wanted Simi to end up with the good guy (cop/detective) or with the somewhat bad guy (who let’s face it is the hottest).

Simi is the bff we all need. She’s willing to go to great lengths (including finding and retrieving a stolen necklace) to prove her best friend’s innocence. To do so, she only has to infiltrate a high society wedding and steal the necklace from a dangerous criminal.

It played tribute to the great heist scenes from movies but instead of professionals it was a rag tag quirky cast of characters who became found family. They stumble upon success more than anything else which is both endearing and highly entertaining.

Based on the epilogue, it looks like we’ll get another book in this series. I can’t wait to see what this heist crew pulls off next. Please let there be more books in this universe!

To Have and to Heist is Ocean's 8 plus a romance what more can you ask for. I love a ragtag team joining together for one reason or another, and this book had everything I was looking for. Desai brought the perfect amount of action, while keeping it funny and charming! I loved this cast of characters. It was definitely not the most romance driven novel, so keep that in mind if that is something you don’t tend to gravitate towards. I usually like more romance, but this was such a fun page turner that it didn’t even matter. I definitely recommend!

This was my first book my Sara Desai and I was not disappointed! I love her writing style. This book was action packed, funny and dramatic all in the best way. It gives Oceans 8 vibes with more comedy.

Simi’s character was my favourite out of the group. I loved her determination and dedication to her friends but especially Chloe, everyone needs a bestie like Simi + Chloe!

This book was very refreshing in a comedic and absolutely chaotic way. I enjoyed how fast paced it was and how it is mostly narrated by Simi who thinks as fast as I do sometimes and is a complete babbling mess when nervous/anxious. I loved the character development from being a follower to a leader and finding her voice to speak up for what she wants. I love that she’s so ride or die for Chloe and that Chloe is for her.

Jack was really interesting but we didn’t get much from him until about 50% in which was disappointing, but perfect for the mystery bad boy man we had as the love interest.

The rest of the crew is so endearing, I knew Emma was the getaway driver from the moment we met her and was surprised with Rose.

The plot itself is so chaotic and fictional that you can’t help but throw away logic for most of it. Believe it or not it all made a lot of sense at the end and was tied up very neatly.

There were lots of twists I wasn’t expecting, but I did have a lot of hypotheses, all which were very wrong lol. I do think that it could have done without the romance
/smut and just been a comedic work of fiction or at least longing glances and briefly touching hands and it would have been able to stand just as well. I enjoyed the found family of absolute weirdos with unusual but necessary skills. It’s like if six of crows met you, again (Kate goldbeck) and decided to pull off a modern day heist.

Overall 3.5 stars but round up to four :)

Thank you Valentine PR and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review 🫶🏼

OMG I loved this book!!!

This book was laugh out loud funny but also had romance and an incredible plot line! Simi the main character is so relatable to us all down on her luck and drowning in student loan debt! But she is also such an incredible plan. The heist element of this book made for such a unique and fun experience. I also could not get over how much I loved the heist crew and found family aspect of this book. They all had incredible personalities which made for such lovable and fun side characters.

Romance, plot and humor this book has it all!

-please note the spice/romance is more fade to black but the tension and build up is superb!

[3.75/5⭐️] In order to save her best friend, Simi Chopra needs to pull off a jewelry heist during a high profile wedding. Jack falls into her lap with the plan to solve all her financial problems and clear her friend’s name with an offer that is too good to pass up. In order to pull it off, Simi and Jack assemble a crew of strangers and transform them into a heist crew ready to take on dangerous criminals.

I love a good heist story, and this was so fun! The meddling aunties and wedding planning element gave this story the atmosphere I’ve come to associate with Sara Desai books with the exciting twist of the heroine in danger. There were times when Jack’s character really frustrated me, but ultimately I really enjoyed their connection!

You’ll Find —
Good Girl x Bad Boy
Matchmaking Aunties
Interracial Romance
Found Family

Thankful for the opportunity to read a gifted digital review copy!

This is a highly entertaining romcom that has interesting characters, great banter, and shenanigans, as well as a Heist. Simi is really not having the best time in her life right now. Her apartment burned down and she’s back living with her parents but what really is the worst is that her best friend is the suspect in a jewelry theft. In order for Simi to get her friend out of trouble, she has to organize a heist at an upcoming society wedding with a bunch of misfits. She meets Jack who offers to help. There are so many funny hijinx and fantastic banter throughout this book. The characters are funny yet you are rooting for them at the same time. The beginnings of the romance between Simi and Jack is in chanting and delightful. The Heist itself has so many parts that keep you guessing, yet highly entertained throughout the book. this is my idea of a perfect romcom. There are characters that you route for, funny banter, and of course, so many shenanigans.

This book was such a wild and brilliantly fun ride.
The heist element and the quirky group of people the FMC is surrounded by makes for a vivid experience. I love the friendship and the way Simi is ready to exonerate her bestie, she stops a nothing. Very Devy and Olivia Pope of her. I love strong FMCs like Simi.

This is the perfect book to escape into. Adventure, laughs, steam, so dang good. It needs to be made into a movie asap!

REVIEW FOR TO HAVE AND TO HEIST

4 Stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkeley Publishing for the advanced copy!

Sara Desai has become an auto buy author for me after reading The Marriage Game, The Dating Plan and the Singles Table. When I saw this book coming out I knew I had to get my hands on it! It was fun, heart pounding and had a great cast of characters. I won't lie, it was kind of slow at times and took me a little longer to get through, but it reminded be of a blend of Oceans 8 and Fast 5, but Indian. I would have liked more background on some of the characters, namely Jack, but I think the ending set it up nice for a potential sequel.