REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: SMASH & GRAB by Amy Christine Parker

Posted July 26, 2016 by Vik Booklover in Blog Tours, Book Love, Giveaways, Home, Our Reviews, ❤ Reviews by Vik ♡ / 0 Comments

Smash & Grab REVIEW

Smash & Grab by Amy Christine Parker

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: July 19th 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction

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Blurb v2
 
Ocean’s Eleven meets the star-crossed lovers of West Side Story. Grab some popcorn and get ready for an adrenaline-filled heist!
LEXI is a rich girl who loves a good rush. Whether it’s motorcycle racing or BASE jumping off a building in downtown Los Angeles, the only times she feels alive are when she and her friends are executing one of their dares. After her father’s arrest, Lexi doesn’t think twice about going undercover at his bank to steal the evidence that might clear his name. She enlists her hacker brother and her daredevil friends to plan a clever heist.
CHRISTIAN is a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. The local gang has blackmailed him and his friends into robbing banks, and he is desperate for a way out. When the boss promises that one really big job will be the last he ever has to do, Christian jumps at the chance for freedom. In fact, he’s just met a girl at the bank who might even prove useful. . . .
Two heists. One score. The only thing standing in their way is each other.

Told in alternating points of view, this caper is full of romance and fast-paced fun. Hand to fans of Perfect Chemistry, The Conspiracy of Us, and Heist Society.

Review Vik v2

4coffebeans

Looking for a fun summer read full adrenaline, twisty plots, and angsty love attractions? Well look no further!

Sometimes I love to delve into NA/YA reads and this shiny cover and blurb appealed to me. I was curious to the synopsis and more to how the book will pull off the subject of a bank heist and revenge/redemption in a NA setting. All while not juvenilizing the book as a whole.

I loved both the privileged and eternally bored adrenaline seeking group that included our main Heroine Lexi who like her opposite Christian was the driving force of the group. Christian too has his own group, a group of high schools who have close ties to Mexican Mafia, who are successful bank robbers thanks to his brains and cautious planning. By total fate he runs into our Adrenaline Junkie Lexi while casing a new bank to hit. However, Lexi is up to no good herself as she is on a mission herself posing undercover to clear her father’s name. It just happens her father was arrested for shady doings at his bank and Lexi is not convinced it was his doing entirely. So while the two try to play spy/robber they discover their attraction for each other is not the only thing they have in common. They both have plans to rob the bank but for all the different reasons. These kids might be HS kids but they are way mature and up to no good. Where are they parents??? Oh wait right nowhere around. In the end the only solution is to pair up both groups to create a mega group that can handle the biggest heist… but at what cost???

In the end, I was left satisfied. While some of the situations and problems that the group ran into got resolved rather quickly and conveniently, the story kept moving along at a fast pace. The most important for me when reading is not to get bored in pointless side story lines that do not drive the story and happy for me this book did not fall into that pattern. Each delve into character meant something. Each story while left you feeling “why so much overshare” made sense once all the pieces came together in the end.

While the story itself reads as a high fiction blockbuster movie heist it was still an awesome read. After all isn’t that why we read fiction stories?

Some of My Favorite Quotes

quote  We chase the thrills, but we don’t ruin people’s lives.quote
••••••
quote Alcohol and drugs can’t touch it. It’s 100 percent pure adrenaline and it’s amazing. Addictive. No matter what maneuver we have planned—this jump or the motorcycle race we pulled off in the spillway last month—the thrill never weakens. These moments are the only times I ever feel truly alive.quote
••••••
quote Sometimes people who are stuck in a really deep hole don’t see the point in trying to get out. The climb just feels too high. And when you want to escape, they get all freaked out because if you actually manage to get out, they’re stuck in the hole alone. quote
••••••
quote I kept wondering why she didn’t seem afraid of me and now I think I know. She’s not afraid of anything. This girl jumps off skyscrapers for fun. She’s successfully infiltrated the bank and managed to break into my phone without my knowing. She’s a force of nature. Forget the lions. I want to channel some of what she has. quote

AMY CHRISTINE PARKER writes full-time from her home near Tampa, Florida, where she lives with her husband, their two daughters, and one ridiculously fat cat. Visit her at amychristineparker.com and follow her on Twitter @amychristinepar.

Follow the Smash & Grab by Amy Christine Parker Blog Tour and don’t miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

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