Fun, light, and fluffy. I just wish there had been a little more for the characters to do. Wandering about looking for a stamp the entire book was a little anticlimatic when the main character is a professional thief.

Amazing

What an amazing read, I absolutely LOVE Ivan he is such a funny, giddy yet protective character oh I need an Ivan in my life. Aiden was the sweetest but I loved his doctor moments :) this series so far has been amazing so well written and fun but with a good dose of heat and danger! I can’t wait to read the next one.

Fabulous!

Ivan and Aiden were absolutely fabulous! I loved Ivan in the first book and was excited to see him fall in love. Aiden was his exact opposite but the same in the way they cared about people. Remi was adorable and I loved the teasing and banter amongst this found family. I definitely recommend this book and the first book in the series!

✨ Read for the 2020 KU Shitathon™ challenge - [Yearly Edition] - over at Maraya's Cave Of Freaking Wonders ✨

♠ Plan B: #1 of 3 -- Month: November ♠

3.5 Stars

3.5 stars

its a good addition to the series, i am more excited for Kyou's book so i wasn't looking forward to reading this one at the beginning, but i am glad that i was mistaken and this book was worth the read.

ivan is a ride and aiden is a good match for him, to calm his wild antics down.

i knew where the stamp would be stashed it was easy to tell right away, but that didn't deter me from continuing the book. i enjoyed this group of assassin/thief's/hackers/mercenaries.

now on to kyou!!

2.5

I don't know...I feel like Sherwood kind of phoned it in on this one. It seemed like there was even less plot than in the first installment and I wasn't as into the relationship between Ivan and Aiden. Everything was way too easy. Of course, Sherwood worked to explain why exactly Aiden was so cool with a bunch of criminals, but I just had a harder time believing it.

Something that also bothered me was how quickly Ivan trusted Aiden and told him everything, including his compatriots' real names. Um, hello? The first book did nothing but stress secrecy and protecting Remi, but then Ivan throws everything out there after a day? It didn't feel right.

I also got the sense that this book was up its own ass a little bit. It revels in its own series with all those wink, wink, nudge, nudge moments. That's probably the author's effort to read newbies into the series if they're starting with the second book, but since I read the two books one after another it was unnecessary and felt like the book was trying too hard with in-jokes and appreciating its own characters.

The more I thought about this book, the more I feel that the first book had similar flaws, but the couple plus the kid hit that sweet spot I'm looking for so I was blinded to its problems. I'm still interested in reading the third book because Kyou's relationship with his love interest is already so strange and different. I think that'll be a fun one. I never was as invested in Ivan as Ari and I think the author wasn't either.

What to say about this book...? Most of my feelings toward it are positive. And one's a tiny bit less so. But I want to start with a warning, just because I read a review by someone who could've benefitted from it. Besides, the author gave it in the synopsis, too.

Basically... don't take the book seriously. I know that doesn't seem like a big proclamation. But the book—the series, really—makes no attempt to seem serious or realistic. It follows a team comprised of a thief, an assassin, a mercenary, a hacker, and a nine-year-old. And they're all fairly nice and don't hurt innocent people. At no point does the author make claims about attempting to imitate the behaviour of actual criminals. You just have to read about Ivan and Aiden's meet-cute to know that.

Ivan is a master thief. He's taken a job to steal a stamp worth a lot of money. The woman who owned the stamp left her collection to her grandson in her will. That's Aiden. Except Aiden's doesn't have the stamp because his greedy uncle contested the will. He took anything he could get his hands on and left Aiden's with an apartment devoid of furniture, and no money.

Ivan, when he breaks into Aiden's house to steal the stamp, sees that it's empty. And with the help of Kyou, the hacker, finds out what happened. And he feels so bad for trying to steal from someone who has nothing that he sticks around to wait for Aiden to get back home. In the meantime, he buys Aiden furniture! And this happens at the very beginning of the novel, letting the reader know what they're getting into. And it's how the book continues to be—funny, a little bizarre, and definitely cute.

The rest of the novel focuses on looking for the stamp, Aiden and Ivan's super sweet romance, and making sure that Aiden's protected from anyone else who might come looking for the stamp. Also, Ivan and the team try to help Aiden get back what his uncle took from him.

It's a very lighthearted novel. I love the characters in this series. And I love the non-serious, zero-angst tone. But it can also be a bit of a problem. The middle portion of the novel, for example, was too uneventful. It lacked tension and conflict. I kinda wanted someone to kidnap Aiden just so things would pick up. And things did pick up soon after. But about 20% of the middle part was a tad dull.

Overall though, I really enjoyed the novel, just like I did the last one. And I can't wait for the last book to come out. I want Kyou's story so badly. Let's hope it comes out soon.