Double-Crossed
by Ali Vali
ebook
Published September 1st 2019 by Bold Strokes Books
Goodreads synopsis:
Hit woman and thief Reed Gable works for the highest bidder, no matter where the job takes her. An orphan of circumstance, Reed knows the streets of Las Vegas better than anyone. Growing up rough has gotten her to the top of her profession, and she plans to stay there.
Accountant Brinley Myers, a recent hire at the Moroccan Casino, discovers a money laundering operation orchestrated by the New York mob and suddenly her life and the people in it become collateral damage.
Reed has Brinley in her sights and is ready to close the contract when she sees Brinley’s son in the car with her. Even hard-hearted Reed can’t kill a mother in front of her child. Before Reed can come up with a plan to finish the job, she’s double-crossed. It’ll take all her street smarts to keep herself, and her surprisingly beautiful mark, alive.
***
3 Stars
This is the first book in the Vegas Nights series by Ali Vali.
This book was pretty complex in reality. The whole money laundering storyline was top notch. It was the back and forth between the families as they put out hits on each other in retaliation which made this book sing. You can tell this book is female focuses since a lot of the important positions in it were filled by women instead of men. I could totally buy that scenario but what I found lacking was the whole lesbian romance.
This is marketed as a female-female romance but I didn’t really find that to be the case here. Yes, there was an eventual relationship between the two leads Reed Gable the hit woman and Brinley her mark. But this story was more about the whole Vegas casino life and mob connections than their eventual hookup. The relationship is sprinkled here and there throughout the book but nothing really grabbed me and pushed me through the book to see if they would remain together.
Reed is a thief who occasionally supplements her income by doing hits. She has a screwed up and complicated past. The fact that she doesn’t kill Brinley is fascinating but I never really bought the whole connection between the two. There was a scene of momentary release in the middle section but there wasn’t much build up to it so I felt it fell a bit flat.
I have read a lot of romance lately and wanted this to be just as good but I came away feeling blah. This book did the whole mob/casino/money laundering storyline much better. I feel like you could have left out the entire female-female romance and this book would have been just as good.
I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.
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