One Last HeistRating: 2.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Mack and Toshiro have been in love with each other since they first met as teens. They’ve been married for years and still can’t get enough of each other. They play together, laugh together, and love together and one adventure is more exciting than the next. They don’t consider themselves criminals and Mack likes to compare them to Robin Hood as they steal from thieves and return the stolen property to its rightful owner. If they happen to pocket a little, or a lot, as payment along the way, it’s all in a day’s work.

But life is changing for the men as Mack has a degenerative eye disease that’s causing him to lose his sight and he thinks if he ignores it maybe it will go away. Toshiro has his hands full managing Mack as well as the needs and moods of his autistic sister, who is also part of the family business. The men think nothing can touch them until they are thrust into a world of betrayal where the person Mack least wants to admit ends up as the most likely suspect. The race is on to find the answers as failure could cost them everything.

This is a difficult review to write since this book had a haphazard and thrown together feel to me. The basics are there, but the delivery and the structure of the story really did not work for me. The start had potential as Mack and Toshiro have a great dynamic. They are so in love with each other, never tire of each other, and after years still can’t keep their hands off of each other. This was a whole lot of fun until it just wasn’t anymore.

The book is slow and I kept waiting for the action to ramp up. It’s a mystery/heist book, but finally at 60% I realized the action was not going to be forthcoming. There were things happening, but it was all subdued and nothing about the story was compelling or held my interest and what was depicted on page was too basic with a lack of detail for the larger story trying to be told.

Mack’s father was also a thief and he’s been in prison for years. Mack also has a mentor, Rafe, that no one else likes, and has proven himself to be untrustworthy, yet Mack has a stubborn blind spot when it comes to this man. The group travels and executes heists, but how they were finding these jobs and what exactly they were doing with the items was all murky.

The chapters are divided into alternating POVs from both men, but the tone was more narrative. I never got the feeling that we were solidly in either of the men’s heads and it read more like a narrator was telling us about them. This style did not allow me to engage with either character or the larger plot. The story itself just moved along from one scene to the next and although there were injuries and kidnapping and betrayals, it all read as one scene after the other with no impact. There was a lot of story laid out that didn’t all connect well for me.

The beginning had promise as the initial dynamic between the men was interesting, but at the end of the book the story was lacking in most areas and I did not feel reading was time well spent.

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