Lady Eve's Last Con

Starred review from April 22, 2024
Fraimow (The Iron Children) paints the far future with a Gilded Age aesthetic in this breakneck adventure that hits every beat it should and still manages to surprise. When Evelyn Ojukwu, a debutante from the distant Kepler colony, lands on the old-money satellite New Monte, she immediately catches the eye of Esteban Mendez-Yuki, heir to a corporate fortune. Demure, proper Evelyn is everything Jules, the last girl Esteban courted, was not—a fact she’s well aware of, since her real name is Ruth and she’s actually Jules’s sister. Ruth and Jules spent years running scams on the rich passengers of interstellar liners. Now Jules is pregnant with Esteban’s baby and heartbroken over his abandonment and Ruth’s ready for her biggest score ever and the sweet vindication of making clueless Esteban pay. Then she meets Esteban’s charming and far-too-smart stepsister, Sol, and feels herself start to fall in love. Sol knows something’s fishy about “Evelyn,” and as Ruth tries to charm Sol off the scent, her growing feelings land her in deep trouble—both with her heart and with the criminal syndicate determined to collect on Sol’s debts. The aristocratic milieu that Fraimow explores will put readers in mind of Bridgerton in space—and it’s exactly as fun as that sounds. Spiced with clever sci-fi touches that make the romance feel fresh and exciting, this is compulsively readable and totally delightful. Agent: Bridget Smith, JABberwocky.

May 1, 2024

DEBUT In this interstellar SF story, con artist Ruth Johnson has invaded the swanky satellite New Monte to fleece one particular mark, Esteban Mendez-Yuki (the corporate scion who seduced her little sister and left her pregnant and crying), by trapping him into a marriage contract he'll have to pay big money to get out of. But Ruth didn't count on the high-level crooks who have their own beef with the Mendez-Yuki megacorp, and she absolutely didn't plan on falling in love with her mark's dangerous, gorgeous stepsister. It will be the con of a lifetime if Ruth can pull this game off--or it will be game over for them all. A high-flying sapphic romance riding on a high-speed hoverbike of a confidence caper among the spoiled rich, wrapped around a conflicted heroine who discovers that she has a heart after all and can't keep up the game, in spite of the stakes. VERDICT Readers who have fallen hard for the recent run of SF caper mysteries, such as The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal, Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis, and You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo, will find similar thrills in this debut.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.