WhiskeyintheJar reviewed Jewel Me Twice by Charish Reid
Heists and heat
3 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
After five years of not seeing her, Magnus had to know what trouble she was up to.
It's been five years since Magnus walked away not only from their crew but from Celeste. Now, an antiques store owner by day, but not able to give up the thrill of thieving, Celeste works with Bea, a young woman she's befriended and trained. When a job has Celeste running into Magnus, and the death of their mentor, Dr. Doris Grant, has them working together again, the heat reignites between them. As they go on a stealing treasure hunt that Doris set-up for after her death, they'll have a second chance to decide what's really important and what they want out of life.
And rather than see the woman he cared for …
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
After five years of not seeing her, Magnus had to know what trouble she was up to.
It's been five years since Magnus walked away not only from their crew but from Celeste. Now, an antiques store owner by day, but not able to give up the thrill of thieving, Celeste works with Bea, a young woman she's befriended and trained. When a job has Celeste running into Magnus, and the death of their mentor, Dr. Doris Grant, has them working together again, the heat reignites between them. As they go on a stealing treasure hunt that Doris set-up for after her death, they'll have a second chance to decide what's really important and what they want out of life.
And rather than see the woman he cared for jeopardize her life again, he left them all behind.
Jewel Me Twice started off with a little bit of movie True Lies and Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibes that instantly captured my attention. The danger and heat simmering when Celeste and Magnus run into each other for the first time in five years while on a job, was definitely felt. The tension continued when they get delivered a red envelope alerting them that their mentor and the one who recruited them into her crew of thieves, has passed on but wants the old crew to get together at her home, where she'll send them on one last treasure hunt. It was, oddly, when the treasure hunt began that I thought the flow lost some of it's way. Celeste gets left Doris' diary and we get sections of what she had wrote. It becomes obvious that Doris feels some responsibility for how everything went down after a job failed that caused Magnus and Celeste to split. Doris sending them on the treasure hunt is her way of getting them back together and giving them their second chance to get things right.
Did they truly know each other? Beyond the intimacy they shared?
Celeste and Magnus were older characters, forties, that were more set in their ways. There was some towards the end realizing how each was at fault for how things ended but Celeste's chip on her shoulder was a bit too real for most of the book for me. Her attitude towards Magnus fooled me even as the reader and I started to feel that she did only want Magnus for bedroom scenes and didn't have or want that deeper emotional connection with him. Some of her antagonism is from Magnus growing up rich, even though his parents died in a car crash when he was young, and knows he didn't start his thieving career from necessity, like her. There's also friction from Magnus not liking how Celeste takes chances and Celeste thinking he's too controlling on jobs. They have some working out about these feelings but I still felt the bulk of their relationship was bedroom scenes that, albeit, read on page hot but not emotionally grabbing and giving the depth I like and have me believing and connecting with their relationship.
Along with Bea, there were two other secondary characters from their old crew, Lawrence and Santiago that brought some outer world rounding out; Bea and Santiago very much feel like they could be set-up for their own book. While they travel to Estonia and Sweden, we don't really spend a significant time there to really feel the settings and they were pretty efficient at their jobs, so, except for the last one, the heists felt more like a blip (since I'm personally obsessed with them, I have to mention, Fabergé egg bonus moment!). The last job brought in a princess and Interpol agent with some tangents that I felt didn't quite fit. I thought this started off strong but there was some not fitting quite right pieces, the riddles, treasure hunt, emotional connections, diary entries, that ultimately hurt the flow for me.
