REVIEW: 'Heart of the Steal' by Avon Gale and Roan Parrish
Title: Heart of the Steal
Authors: Avon Gale and Roan Parrish
Published: July 11, 2017
Publisher: Philtre Press/Self-Published
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Erotic Romance
Length: 306 Pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; Law Enforcement; Humor; Romantic Comedy; HEA
About Heart of the Steal Responsible, disciplined William Fox channeled his love for art and his faith in the rules into being an FBI Art Crimes agent. Right and wrong, justice and injustice—the differences are clear, and Will has spent his career drawing a line between them. Maybe his convictions have cost him relationships, but he’s not willing to compromise what he knows is right. Until the night he meets Amory Vaughn.
As the head of his family’s philanthropic foundation, Vaughn knows very well that being rich and powerful can get him almost anything he wants. And when he meets endearingly grumpy and slightly awkward William Fox, he wants him more than he’s wanted anything. Vaughn is used to being desired for his name and his money, but Will doesn’t care about either.
When Vaughn falls back on old habits and attempts to impress Will by stealing a painting Will admires, their nascent bond blows up in his face. But Vaughn isn’t willing to give up on the glimpse of passion he saw the night he took Will apart. Before Will knows it, he’s falling for the man he should have arrested, and Vaughn has to realize that some things can’t be bought or stolen. Love has to be given freely. But can a man who lives by the rules, and a man who thinks the rules don’t apply to him, ever see eye to eye?
Heart of the Steal is a standalone romance with a happy ending. It features a Southern gentleman who thinks he’s always right, a buttoned-up FBI agent who secretly likes his buttons unbuttoned, and wall sex. And desk sex. And picnic blanket sex.
5 HEART READ
REVIEW:
By the end of the first chapter, I was sure Avon Gale and Roan Parrish’s Heart of the Steal would earn five hearts, it was that witty! For example, this quote: “Keith Oakley was not the kind of man who had art because he appreciated it. He was the kind of man who had art because it appreciated.” From there, the rest of the novel just got better and better.
Amory Vaughn, raised to take over his parents’ philanthropic endowment, is wealthy, spoiled, clever, and the epitome of social manners. “My path had been laid long before I was born, and my only job now was not to trip as I put one handsomely-shod foot in front of the other. My parents were kind people, but I knew they viewed their work as noblesse oblige rather than a project of passion.”
He’s also a romantic, longing for love, imagining an ideal mate. “No matter how far apart on the grounds we drifted, the connection between us thrumming like a plucked harp string, vibrating us back together.”
At a boring function, Vaughn notices socially awkward William Fox, watching him hungrily, as an erotic object, not a money bag. Vaughn pursues Fox, resulting in an explosively risqué encounter in front of a painting they’ve admired.
To make an impression, Vaughn steals the painting, leaving it in front of Fox’s apartment with an invitation to dinner. Can you see why I was hooked when the first chapter ended with Fox sulking, “Now I had to arrest Amory Vaughn.” Only in the next chapter do we learn Fox works for the FBI’s Art Crimes Division.
And when Fox and Vaughn eventually date, the dour, honest, astute, meticulously self-sufficient, but sensually inventive Fox begs, “I need you to not be…who you are…I need this to not be a terrible joke where I’m a cop and you’re a robber.”
I was delighted to be introduced to new phrases. “Catholic preferences,” means “an appreciation of variety.” A “susurrus of leaves” sounds just like what it means.
But Gale and Parrish’s parlance also made me guffaw. “These are not eggs, William. These are a nightmare that chickens have.”
They made me sigh. “William wanting me was one thing. William wanting me to have him? That was everything.”
And they surprised me, conveying experiences I’ve never been able to put into language. “The words lodged in my throat like too many people through the same doorway.”
Amory and Vaughn’s characters remain true, the two men circling each other, captivated by their differences, changing reluctantly. “Only Vaughn could hear me say ‘yard sale’ and respond as if they were the same as estate sales.” Yet the couple is sufficiently wise to fear whether they can bridge their dissonant cultures, ethics, and points of view.
Gale and Parrish foreshadow the couple’s conflicts with such care, I found myself cringing, imaging when and where their inevitable showdown would occur, as if a ghoul with a machete was about to materialize. The reality was far subtler and more profoundly revealing than I could have guessed. I’ve rarely read a plot as vibrant.
Readers are treated to a thorough exploration of manipulation as part and parcel of bonding. Is manipulation inherently evil, since we can maneuver to make others happy, as easily as to vanquish competitors? Does control affect trust differently in love than in business?
Readers receive brilliant philosophical contrasts between absolutists (people who believe ethics are clear-cut) and relativists (those who believe we should factor circumstance into moral decisions.) Perhaps I overreach in noting that Heart of the Steal sounds a bit too much like Trump’s The Art of the Deal.
Lately, with polarized families torn asunder, I wonder if Gale and Parrish were suggesting how this country might be able to find common ground. Heart of the Steal certainly offers a cathartic alternative. “Sometimes we have to bend a little bit-compromise what we think we know-for love.”
So, let’s summarize: Learned new words, check. Laughed a lot, check. Charmed by characters, check. Excited by the plot, check. Left to ponder my own values, check.
A sparkling five stars to Gale and Parrish, and my deepest thanks.
A copy of Heart of the Steal was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by A Novel Take PR, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
Meet the Authors
Avon Gale wrote her first story at the age of seven, about a “Space Hat” hanging on a rack and waiting for that special person to come along and purchase it — even if it was a bit weirder than the other, more normal hats. Like all of Avon’s characters, the space hat did get its happily ever after — though she’s pretty sure it was with a unicorn. She likes to think her vocabulary has improved since then, but the theme of quirky people waiting for their perfect match is still one of her favorites.
Avon grew up in the southern United States, and now lives with her very patient husband in a liberal midwestern college town. When she’s not writing, she’s either doing some kind of craft project that makes a huge mess, reading, watching horror movies, listening to music or yelling at her favorite hockey team to get it together, already. Avon is always up for a road trip, adores Kentucky bourbon, thinks nothing is as stress relieving as a good rock concert and will never say no to candy.
At one point, Avon was the mayor of both Jazzercise and Lollicup on Foursquare. This tells you basically all you need to know about her as a person.
Avon is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan at Handspun Literary Agency.
For more from Avon be sure and visit her website.
Roan Parrish lives in Philadelphia where she is gradually attempting to write love stories in every genre.
When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.
She is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Handspun Literary Agency.
For more from Roan be sure and visit her website.
