Moorewood Family Rules by Helenkay Dimon
Knives Out and Ocean’s 8 meets The Nest in this hilariously twisty novel by award-winning author HelenKay Dimon, about a woman who returns home from prison to her dysfunctional con artist family and tries to get them to go legit.
One day a con man met an heiress, wooed her, married her, had two kids...and kept on conning. Jillian Moorewood is the oldest child from that meet-cute-gone-wrong marriage. The stable one. The sensible and dependable one. The one who protects and fixes. The one who went to prison to save their sorry butts. Now, thirty-nine months later, she’s out and she’s more than a little pissed.
Finally home she finds the scheming clan in full family fleecing mode. They all claim they
didn’t really agree to Jillian’s previous go-legit-or-else ultimatum before she went away. They viewed it as a “suggestion” then ignored it. So, business as usual. But Jillian is done with the lies and fakery. She demands the whole messed-up crew clean up its act, and this time she’s not kidding—she has the leverage to make it happen.
Problem is, her life is in shambles, but with the help of a great aunt (crooked but loveable), a bodyguard (who is a nice surprise after three years in prison), and a few allies (all working undercover), Jillian starts to put her life back together. She kicks out a few mooching relatives living under her roof, sets limits on everyone’s access to the money, ducks from their various attacks, and sees if that bodyguard is maybe interested in sticking around for a while. For the first time, she’s Jillian Moorewood, her own woman, and she’s ready to figure out who she is.
About the author
Helenkay Dimon spent the years before becoming a romance author as a . . . divorce attorney. Not the usual transition, she knows. Good news is she now writes full time and is much happier. She has sold over thirty novels, novellas, and shorts to numerous publishers. Her nationally bestselling and award-winning books have been showcased in numerous venues, and her books have twice been named "Red-Hot Reads" and excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine. But if you ask her, she'll tell you the best part of the job is never having to wear pantyhose again.
Review
‘Moorewood Family Rules’ is a fun and entertaining read that I flew through in a few days. I didn't realise that when I picked this up it was YA but that didn't put me off at all. It was light and fluffy and a fun read.
Jillian Moorewood is the eldest child in a family of con artists! She is the sensible one, the one everyone turns to sort out problems. The one who went to prison to save the family. Now, 39 months later she is out of prison and heading home to the family. And she is pissed. When she went to prison she told the family to go clean but they are still scheming as much as ever! Jillian is done with them and has the leverage to force them to clean up their acts. Problem is her life is in shambles but she has some support from her great aunt, her bodyguard and a few allies that are undercover!
This was a fun book that was giving me ‘Revenge’ vibes! The author manages to create great characters in this family and at times I was laughing out loud at their antics. This is one dysfunctional family. I think the only decent was Trent. I didn't really gel with the romance side of the book but I'm not really a romance girl. But the story of the family, their infighting and banter was the heart of this book. Yes, they are messed up but some of them do actually care and Jillian even has secrets of her own!
Let me know if you pick this one up!
