REVIEW: Moorewood Family Rules by HelenKay Dimon

In Moorewood Family Rules by HelenKay Dimon, Jillian Moorewood knows that her upbringing was probably quite different from most. On the outside, her family appears to have money, affluence, and moves in all the right social circles. On the inside, however, the majority of her kin are one step away from disaster with their outrageous grifting. And oh, how Jillian has paid to keep them all safe. Fresh out of prison after thirty-nine months, having taken the fall for their cons, she’s admittedly one hundred percent ticked off that they didn’t go on the straight and narrow like she thought they all agreed upon. Instead, Jillian arrives home to find an even bigger mess. And she instantly has her safety–and her life–threatened. Hiring a bodyguard seems silly. But as the head of household and keeper of the family fortune, it’s definitely necessary.

“I thought we had an agreement. No more cons… I went to prison and in return, the family went legitimate. Does any of this sound familiar?”
“Technically, you requested that arrangement, but no one actually agreed to it. In writing.”

There’s just a couple of problems with the bodyguard Jillian ends up hiring: he’s way too good looking and charming, plus their fun banter could prove to be a distraction while she’s supposed to be keeping an eye out for vengeful family members. One such person is Jillian’s cousin Anika. A woman who’s run her fair share of cons–and who is in the midst of one currently. But she’s had her eyes opened to just what her twin sister Astrid and their father Jay are capable of over the years. And Anika is growing tired of the games. When her plans to settle down with a (rich) likable guy, getting the best of both worlds as she enjoys his doting and his money, backfires, she’s sent reeling. She knows she can’t grift forever. But is going (somewhat) legit even possible for a Moorewood?

‘Anika couldn’t ignore or inhale her way out of the desperate clawing sensation inside her. If this was what having a conscience felt like, she preferred not to have one. Doing the right thing kind of sucked.’

Moorewood Family Rules was a highly entertaining blend of family saga, subtle humor, grifters gone wrong, and two vastly different romances at play–all told with HelenKay Dimon’s eye for detail and solid storytelling.

“We all have our assigned and learned roles in our families, but that doesn’t mean the roles can’t change, Jillian. You have the power to switch roles if you want to. You decide.”

Content Warning: View Spoiler »Murder (historical), terminal illness, suicide (mentioned), personal threats/attempted murder. « Hide Spoiler

I was pretty much sold on Moorewood Family Rules when the blurb mentioned this was akin to both Knives Out and Ocean’s 8. I mean…right? And boy was it ever. Yet even with the sneaky con jobs, the stylish characters, high family drama, and romances, HelenKay Dimon put her own unique spin on things. While I found myself wrapped right up in the crazy theatrics and the laugh-out-loud moments, this might not be the right story for every reader. With its dry humor and half of the Moorewood family out to harm–whether physically or monetarily–the de facto head of their fortune, Jillian, there were a few dark moments for sure. But Dimon carefully wove in enough dry humor and heartfelt scenes to nicely keep it all balanced out.

It was interesting that we had two different POVs: Jillian of course, and her cousin Anika. Jillian was an absolute hoot. Newly out of prison, she was definitely not impressed with her family’s inability to keep their promise of leaving their grifting days behind. And rightly so. She took the fall for all of their cons. It led Jillian to become rather martyrish throughout the story, so some readers might get frustrated with that aspect. But she had her heart in the right place.

And speaking of Jillian’s heart, whew did she lose it bigtime over her bodyguard Beck. (I don’t blame her!) He made for an awesome hero. A standup guy who focused all of his attention on her safety while keeping an eye out as well for the few family members Jillian trusted, Beck won them over easily. I got a kick out of how he didn’t bat an eyelash at how quirky the Moorewoods were. And I loved that he didn’t judge Jillian for some of the decisions she was forced to make. That certainly meant a lot to her.

Anika, on the other hand, was tricky to understand in many ways. She was on the “bad” side of the family and had done her fair share of con jobs–she was actually in the midst of one when the story began. But seeing the family and their twisted history through Anika’s eyes certainly put a whole other spin on things. I do have to say that with the changes she made in her life and her realization of how sad it was that so many of the Moorewoods would turn on each other, Anika started to redeem herself by the end of the book.

QOTD: Can you think of any novels you’ve read with con artists or grifters featured prominently?

Book Info:

Publication: Published April 25th, 2023 | Avon |

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.