Review: Bad Boy Con Man by Sloane Howell

I've been wanting to read this novella for so long that I actually look at it once in a while and decide if I'd take that final push or not. I have many apprehension because the title suggests con and con is a subject I'm definitely obsessed about.

I may have some references about a tv drama series: The Leverage and maybe a little snippets from Legends of the Blue Sea because Lee Min Ho was a con artist there. (That's two Lee Min Ho reference for this month in a review. lol!)

So, Grayson is a con man. I actually liked the introduction. Con is a confidence game and so I can imagine and play the scenes in my head of how he grifts and con at the same time. The only thing that was a bummer was that the marks were too easy. Everything happened so smooth and sailing. Maybe because I wanted there to be a glitch.

Anyway, he received an email about a job that only he, and another person named X, could do. So since encryption and stuff, and the pay was big, I'm thinking this is the big score. If he did this job, he could be set for life. So the scene is something I'll compare with Season 5 finale episode of The Leverage because of the concept of the hard drive, something I could comprehend without the nerdy talk.

So, observations:

➜ If I used Parker's wordings: Grayson is sloppy, a little undisciplined but something that can be work with, rough around the edges, and cocky.

➜ Grayson is a professional criminal. And that I like. Meaning he only has eyes for high valued items and his work needs precision, strategic planning and intellegence.

➜ He's observant, but my bad if I compare him with Lee Min Ho's character who can do a con so flawlessly. Grayson is keen to details but he did everything half-assed because he likes shortcuts. The recon he did expended little to no effort from him.

➜ Follow up on the recon, and the sloppiness, it's how he ended up being outconned.

➜ There's insta-lust but the insta-love didn't work for me except maybe if he creep stalk Amelia for days instead of mere minutes he did on facebook.

➜ I felt Amelia was like Sophie, she seems to be a grifter working for that company but never did have an end game which is kind of lame considering she did outconned Grayson. Plus, she goes by different name, and well, Nate proposed to Sophie but he never did know what's her real name.

➜ Amelia is the big score.

This seems like a "it's me not you" kind of relationship. One thing I was afraid of if I read this book is I'd end up over analyzing things and I did. The scenes were definitely hot, but every little thing and detail, I end up scrutinizing. The plot is simple though and fits for a novella, but my over active imagination wanted this to be longer and have a bigger conflict and probably make the stakes higher.

Part of the Alpha Bad Boy Series Box Set.

Bad Boy Revelation (Alpha Bad Boy, #1)