ARC Review: A Cozy Thriller

To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai

Publication Date: July 18, 2023

Summary from NetGalley:

To exonerate her best friend, one woman must mastermind a jewelry heist during the wedding of the season in this hilarious romantic-comedy caper from the author of The Dating Plan.

Simi Chopra is on a bad-luck streak. She’s lost yet another job, her student loan debt won’t stop growing, her basement apartment is a certifiable flood zone, and now her best friend has been accused of stealing a multimillion-dollar diamond necklace. To put it lightly, she’s desperate for a break—that’s right when Jack waltzes out of the bushes and into her life.

Jack is just as charming as he is mysterious. When he offers to help her find the missing necklace and steal it back, Simi jumps at the chance to clear her friend’s name and collect the substantial reward. But every good heist needs a crew. All she needs to do is transform a ragtag group of strangers into an elite heist crew, infiltrate a high-society wedding and steal the necklace from a dangerous criminal before the happy couple say “I do.” Meanwhile the bride is keeping secrets, a detective with a slow-burn smile keeps showing up at her door, and the ultimate robbery might not be the wedding con, but the way Jack is stealing her heart.

ARC provided by Berkley Publishing via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This was an exciting and fabulous read. I really like the characters, although Simi initially annoyed me, and the plot was fast and furious. This will make a great summer read, and yes, I would definitely call it a cozy thriller.

Simi is a great character, although her habit of sharing way to much information, and just rambling on when she was nervous, annoyed me at the start of the book. But she did eventually grow on me. She is very smart, but does have issues with focus and staying still, so no desk job is going to work for her for long. She does eventually find her way, as she learns how to plan a wedding and a heist. She is the girl with the plan, and she can come up with alternatives when things go wrong as well. I loved her relationship with her bestie Chloe, who would help each other hide the bodies if necessary.

This is a romcom as well as a cozy thriller, and I just loved both of the men who are vying for Simi’s attention. Jack is quite the scoundrel, and there are a few chapters from his point of view, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Detective Garcia was also a delight and I loved how he kept just showing up, to ask Simi questions. I won’t say that there is a love triangle, as it is pretty obvious who Simi will end up with, but I loved her reactions to both men and there was lots of fun flirty banter.

Everyone of the characters on the heist crew, were also fun and feisty. I adored them all and I even enjoyed our criminal bad guys who were very intimidating all the time. I loved how they all came together to pull off the heist and worked well together for the most part, even when they were sniping at each other.

The story was so much fun. It was a little slow to start, and again I found Simi annoying at first, but if you stick with it, you will have a great time reading this. It eventually picks up the pace and there are lots of twists that will keep you guessing as to who has the necklace. You do have to suspend some disbelief, though as there are some pretty implausible things that go on, but isn’t that the fun part of a thriller?

I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend you add it to your summer reading list. It would be a fun one to read on a beach or poolside. The ending was left open enough that I am hoping for a sequel, as it would be so much fun to spend time with this ragtag group of characters again.