Reed is a thief and sometimes hit woman in Las Vegas.

She finds herself staring at not just her target, Brinley, on day, but also Brinley's son Finn. And she can't kill them. Instead, she brings the mother and son to her own house and starts trying to figure out how to get Brinley back to her life.

At the same time one of her other hits is like a domino, and suddenly people are dying, the cops are involved, and even a big wig (mob wise) from New York appears. The question is, can Brinley, Finn, and Reed stay out of the worst of the fray.

I'd read one of the Cain Casey books (and plan to read the others), and this novel's feel was definitely a lot like that, even though the characters were definitely different. They were still written so that they 'bad guys' we were supposed to root for weren't totally horrible and had enough redeeming qualities that I didn't feel icky rooting for them.

There was one part that I had a very big problem with though. A private folder on a public computer in a library. Nope. No, No, Nope. We literally have software that prevents that, and not even genius sidekick Oscar (loved his character by the by) could change that, and another nope to breaking in at night to the library. I know of libraries that have motion sensors, definitely cameras, all sorts of security systems. I know that it's fiction, but, we librarians are very serious about the privacy of our patrons and making sure that no one's privacy is broken when they use the computer (or that the computers are used for not legal things).

It was a fun read, and it looks like it's the start of a series, which is the most exciting part I think.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books. ( )

Double Crossed by Ali Vali
Las Vegas Nights #1

Reed Gamble and her friend Oscar had a hard childhood. They have stayed together through it all and established a lucrative business taking things. Sometimes those things are the lives of people but usually take things instead of lives. One day Reed’s moral compass is tweaked and she makes a decision she then needs to deal with. What was that decision? Not to fulfill the contract to kill…

Brinley Myers….

Brinley is a single mother who has just moved from Louisiana to Las Vegas hoping to make more of her life while getting away from the biological father of her son. Landing in a plummy job that will provide well for her and Flynn she settles in and begins an audit for the casino she just started working for. Little did she know that the job, the audit or something else would put her in the cross hairs of…

Reed Gamble…

This was an intense action-packed story that might have some questioning what Reed and Brinley could possibly have in common or find to admire in one another. And yet, I could see how the two might gravitate to one another. Reed was a person true to her friends and evidently had hard boundaries she learned about in this story.

This book had more than one mafia family, plenty of intrigue, a succession of murders and eventually a HEA for Brinley and Reed. I now wonder if Oscar or someone else will star in book two of the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars ( )