A Beautiful Heist by Kim Foster

There's a lot to like about this book. You have a tough heroine who steals things for a living, believing she's righting an old wrong. Her jobs had me on the edge of my seat. They were heart-stopping. Many times I didn't think she would make it. I loved her sense of humor and sarcastic wit too.

"...was there a specific reason they made church pews so damn hard and uncomfortable? I mean, stained glass here, gilded whatnot there--surely there wasn't a lack of money in the budget."

There's a romance with fellow, very hot thief. There's a good side story about morals and whether what she does it bad or good and is she still a good person even though she does something bad? Her dad and dead sister play into this a lot. I appreciated the points this brought up and the things it makes you think about.

The narrative switches seamlessly between first person and third, depending on who it's following.

It's a terrific yarn, really, as this woman dodges the FBI, the IRS, a Russian casino-owning family, a former thief turned author, and also tries to get a promotion within the company of thieves. This was rather cute. I loved a peek into the lifestyle and gadgets: gloves with blood-packed fingertips for one.

In the middle of it all is a Faberge egg and some possibly religious artifacts.

I enjoyed this, very much, but I have some quibbles. I found the entire Brooke thing just kind of crazy. This lady just seems to stalk her and make trouble for her every which way, and in the end this sub plot left me feeling very unsatisfied. I also didn't buy the lady FBI agent showing up everywhere. It seemed so obvious to me something wasn't right. There were just too many coincidences. The romance...I'm disappointed with the heroine. One man risks life and career to help you but you end up in the arms of another? No....that's not where I was was hoping this would go.

The ending overall is very vague. I'm still not sure what all these people had to do with everything, how everyone is connected, why Cat is praised when in the end, she was empty-handed. I'm beyond confused. I get this continues into another book, but the ending left me with more questions than answers. I also found the "I have to keep stealing to avenge my sister's death" side story a bit lame.

But quibbles aside, I enjoyed this action-packed read featuring a strong heroine and I look forward to book two.

Four bikes. I received this on netgalley.