REVIEW: Heart of the Steal by Avon Gale and Roan Parrish
Responsible, disciplined William Fox channeled his love for art and his faith in the rules into being an FBI Art Crimes agent. Right and wrong, justice and injustice—the differences are clear, and Will has spent his career drawing a line between them. Maybe his convictions have cost him relationships, but he’s not willing to compromise what he knows is right. Until the night he meets Amory Vaughn.
As the head of his family’s philanthropic foundation, Vaughn knows very well that being rich and powerful can get him almost anything he wants. And when he meets endearingly grumpy and slightly awkward William Fox, he wants him more than he’s wanted anything. Vaughn is used to being desired for his name and his money, but Will doesn’t care about either.
When Vaughn falls back on old habits and attempts to impress Will by stealing a painting Will admires, their nascent bond blows up in his face. But Vaughn isn’t willing to give up on the glimpse of passion he saw the night he took Will apart. Before Will knows it, he’s falling for the man he should have arrested, and Vaughn has to realize that some things can’t be bought or stolen. Love has to be given freely. But can a man who lives by the rules, and a man who thinks the rules don’t apply to him, ever see eye to eye?
SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW, BEWARE OF SPOILERS.
Dear Avon Gale and Roan Parrish,
There was a reason why I was a bit hesitant to get this book and it spent a few months on my Kindle before I attempted to start it and actually forced myself to get beyond chapter one. The blurb was pretty clear about the “unprofessional professional” trope, but I suppose I hoped that the authors could write something that at least would make me swallow this trope. No such luck.
Will and Amory meet at the art related party which Will’s sister Charlotte (aka Charlie) was hired to cater. This is Charlie’s chance to get new clients, could make or break of her career, so as always she insisted her brother should come ( and if needed to help her out).
Will meets Amory, a super generous, very rich patron of arts ( he leads the foundation that supports many different projects) and lo and behold they have sex during the party amongst all the beautiful paintings – they are that attracted to one another. Only we don’t know yet to what extent Amory is attracted. Will especially admired one of the paintings and Amory wants to continue their um bidding friendship with sex, so what do you do when you want to WOO somebody?
I know, I know: YOU STEAL THE PAINTING THE GUY ADMIRED FROM THE PARTY AND DELIVER IT TO HIS DOORSTEP.
Only oops, Will’s profession is revealed, he works in the arts division of the FBI and he realizes that he now needs to go and arrest Amory Vaughn.
One guess as to whether he did. Oh he tried, but eventually one of them dropped his pants indeed, sorry I cannot be bothered to go and double check who. It was so ridiculous I started laughing.
As I said, I expected to be bothered by FBI agent’s conduct, but hoped to be convinced. What I really didn’t expect is to laugh and roll my eyes at hilariously bad characterization of Amory. Tell me again, why a super – rich patron of arts (he genuinely likes to support student artists and other people who struggle – not like his foundation is a fraud, he inherited it from his parents and spent a lot of time running it) needs to steal on the side? That’s a serious question, because the character was giving me whiplash. He says he cannot call himself a Robin Hood because he steals for himself, then he talks about all kinds of things he could do and he does not have to steal for years.
So is that super smart and super rich genius thinks that if he met the guy for the first time it is totally okay to reveal that he is a thief? Because Will gets it all right, it was hard not to get it. It was very weird.
Oh and hey, apparently since he cannot steal for years, now he needed to steal two paintings one after another. Why? I skipped to the end after chapter 12 and there was a monologue at the end, something about changing the world because of his stealing. I was irritated and frustrated and just could not bring myself to continue.
DNF.
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Gah. I didn’t buy this one, although I’ve liked both authors separately, because the title bothered me – yes it’s clever to riff on Trump’s book The Art of the Deal, but I thought it would take me out of the story too much.
Thanks for attempting this so I didn’t have to.
Cleo I almost typed in “Art of the deal” myself when putting the review up . I bought because of Avon Gale because I enjoyed her solo hockey books so much however her collaborations seem to continue not to work for me so very soon I am planning to stop.
I’ve seen many rapturous reviews of this/these author’s books, almost unanimous in their praise. So I picked up this one, even though the cover really bothered me, which I felt was rather shallow on my part. I haven’t read it yet and am even less inclined to do so now. Thanks for saving me some time.
Darlynne if you are not bothered by the characters behaving the way I described you may end up enjoying it !
Have you read the Shadow of the Templar series by M Chandler? It’s a series with a somewhat similar setup, that I love unconditionally, that *does* grapple seriously with the “unprofessional professional” trope.
I mean, the whole portrayal of FBI behavior is ridiculous – freely admitted by the author – but that’s one line that is very carefully observed; and [spoiler-ish] once crossed, has meaningful repercussions.
Hapax yes yes I did actually ! Totally agree , it deals with the consequences .
Hapax, also as I said I expected to find issues with the portrayal of FBI agent but wanted to be convinced. Thief’s portrayal got to me more I think because it felt so very , I don’t know , not grounded in anything .
@Sirius: I’ve never liked books/movies involving theft, not even Oceans 11, etc., not even charming ones a la Cary Grant or David Niven, because it’s just wrong.
My other beef is if an author is going to write about an FBI agent or a bodyguard or whathaveyou, then some research or knowledge is required. Perhaps I shouldn’t really care, it’s fiction after all, but *I’m* not the one who elected to write a character about whose work I know nothing. Sorry, I just DNF’d a book everyone else raved about where the bodyguard almost immediately threatened to spank the woman he’s protecting. In what alternative universe does this happen? Why go this route if the author has no interest in making it believable? Arrrgh. /rant
@Darlynne: Right, I was bothered too, but I can never be sure how close the tastes of the commenters run to mine you know? On one book we can agree on another we probably won’t, so it is hard to predict. I have a friend whose tastes are like 99% same, so when she likes something or she doesn’t , I can be almost sure my reaction will be the same, but this is a rare thing to happen :).
I can deal with the fictional thieves, all depends on the execution. Convincing motivations would have been nice. And yes, I like my romance characters to take their jobs seriously – I am usually bothered when I can imagine ( as somebody else said, not me) – a cop, FBI agent, etc “in the clown suite” and boy the suit fit Will to the T as far as I am concerned.
At times I can be convinced though – when the book makes them actually face the consequences of their idiotic behavior, or when it is clear from the beginning that the story does not mean us to think that believable FBI agents will show up as characters. Like the series that Hapax mentioned for example, I loved those.
I mean, for some reason ( and I am not being sarcastic here), apparently TRUE LOVE in romance often makes men forget about their duties and obligations and become idiots. I am just not interested in that.
This book did not have any of that for me.
Sirius? Hi. Yeah, DNF-ing is not fun, but necessary at times. May I suggest a palate-cleanser? Lilah Pace’s superb duology, His Royal Secret and His Royal Favorite. I’ll leave it up for you to decide if anyone’s being unprofessional there – YMMV, but *my* mileage went one hell of a long way. Oh, to read it again for the first time! I can’t but you *can*. (And so timely, too, given upcoming events across the pond.)
No stealing – except hearts.
I love Roan Parrish so much, but this was DNF the sample even. I blamed the other author, but maybe they’re okay alone too? So bizarre.
@Shannon: It is! Maybe no matter whose individual style we prefer, their collaboration just did not work for either of us :).
@Eliza: I could have swear I had at least the first book. WIll check thank you.
This is just for fun if anyone is interested in real life art theft stories . I subscribe to Washington Post and saw this article today . Obviously different circumstances etc, but still interesting imo :
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/marc-chagall-painting-stolen-from-new-york-apartment-recovered-by-fbi-after-30-years/2018/04/12/15514510-3da9-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.a5d24034b85f
Hah, this is ALSO a DNF book for me — and I’ve loved almost anything Avon Gale has written! So I guess I chalked it up on maybe not liking the collaboration style, other than the story not working of course. I DNF’ed around 43% (based on my review as I checked it: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2060375567)
I almost bought this book – I was so excited for it because I love Gale’s hockey series and, honestly, thieves have a place in my heart – but I’d read a few reviews, all pretty much agreeing with you, and I decided to give it a pass. I really hate when people with a job to do gets their brain rewired by/for sex, so it definitely looks like I made the right decision.
@Amy @ A Thousand Worlds: I will be honest, I truly thought my opinion is the minority one ( not as if I went and read tons of reviews though) and I don’t mind that – each review is one’s person opinion only and all that, but yes that’s how I feel.
I understand that there is a balance in romance because we do need to see true love prevail against all odds, but can’t that happen without the character forgetting everything else they stand for. I am sure I said it before, but in Romance it is often that the character’s profession showcasts who they supposed to be as human being. Cops who truly care about serve and protect, doctors, I don’t know take your pick. Every time when I read the book like this I am thinking – oh so he truly does not care about helping people all that much, doesn’t he? And the words from the blurb about Will being “responsible and disciplined”? Yeah no, I don’t think those words applied to him at all. I can see if the character walks away from the chosen profession at the end to be with somebody he loves I guess, but show me that it costs him something at least. Show me that he leaves a part of himself behind. That’s how I feel anyway :).
@Ami: How funny that we arrived at the same result even if from the different directions :). But I actually agree when I am thinking of it, the plot was not that exciting. It is just I was too annoyed with the characters and concentrated on that.
My reaction was exactly the same as yours Sirius, except I didn’t bother flipping to the end. And yes, Lilah Pace’s prince books are wonderful palate cleansers for everything ever.
I had snagged a copy (way back when it first went on sale) without bothering to read the sample first. Roan is one of those authors whose works I’ve consistently enjoyed since her first book. Had no idea about Avon’s style.
And then, I read about 15% in. TBH, I was severely underwhelmed by the plot and kinda eyerolling at Amory Vaughn. So I asked a friend about spoilers which then led me to DNF the book.
OTOH, I get the idea of a cute romp between characters who are at opposite sides of the law. But, otoh, I haaaaaaate people not being competent at their jobs.
Thirding the thumbs up for Lilah Pace as someone whose writing will help you get rid of any bleghs from reading this book.
Ariadna, I usually try very hard not to make assumptions about authorial intent unless I have some textual evidence to back up my interpretation , so I was kind of hesitant to even put it in my review where Amory is concerned, but now I am thinking it does have some support even if it was only mentioned couple of times so here it goes. Couple of times it was mentioned that Amory looked like Lucius Malfoy, so I was thinking could that be as simple as authors deciding to use this as characterization shortcut? Here we have grey, amoral character and does it matter if what he is doing in his chosen work makes no sense to me? Say the words Lucius Malfoy and lots and lots of people will know the basic make up of such personality.
Des Livres I found the first Lilah Pace’s book on my kindle . Will try it . Thanks guys.
Re that comment about authorial intent: did the book really have Lucius malfoy references for an MC? Early in the book? That is so fricken’ (I would prefer to use another word, but don’t want to offend DA) lazy.
I think it’s fine to have that sort of towards the end of the book when the characters are fully established, that sort of thing can be quite fun – but as part of the set up of the book, (unless it’s fanfic), but otherwise…I am surprised that gale and Parrish, both experienced authors, would do such a thing.
Yes since I only read twelve chapters and it did not come up in the chapter twelve for the first time ( as far as I can remember ) I think it was done early in the book.
@Des Livres: The Lucius Malfoy likeness was used to describe Amory and, on a lesser extent, some aspects of his personality.
I do recall Roan having secondary characters describe the main couple as two v. specific actors (one from the Supernatural TV show and the guy who plays Aquaman in the Justice League movie.) Per what I remember from reading a few interviews, Roan was the one who wrote Amory. You can extrapolate from there.
Oh dear.
@Des Livres:
Clarification to my reply to you (because I was typing while watching the news and totes forgot to type the whole thought out)
When I said this I do recall Roan having secondary characters describe the main couple as two v. specific actors (one from the Supernatural TV show and the guy who plays Aquaman in the Justice League movie.), I was talking about Roan’s 2nd book (Out of Nowhere) and not this book that she co-wrote with Avon.
I’d meant to state that Roan has, at least once, fancast her own characters. So the Lucius = Amory thing is pretty likely.
Apologies if it was confusing.
No worries Ariana. I think I vaguely recall it from that book.