This is a light book with a topic that is best not drilled into for deeper meaning. The lead protagonist is a smart-talking boy whose father is in prison for the very thing he sets out to do.
The legal boundaries of the narrative are blurred, and the whole situation is very filmy. Boone ends up with a deadline to come up with extra money, and he teams up with his ex to try and make up the deficit. This is a coming of age story of how Boone realises his potential, figures out what he is doing wrong with his life (minus the cons). The cons/scams are central to the plot.
The writing was fun and quippy. Some quips got old after a few iterations but not enough to make me dislike the book. It also took me a while to figure out the character’s age, given the behaviour and the speech patterns (even if he did mention his school). This always bothers me a little, but I am sure that it will be easy to ignore for most people. The relationships between some of the characters were deeper than I expected, which made for good reading. This is a one-sitting read and entertaining.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.
Superfluous Reading 