The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond
A magically gifted con artist must gather her estranged mother's old crew for a once-in-a-lifetime heist, from the New York Times bestselling author of Stranger Suspicious Minds.
Dani Poissant is the daughter and former accomplice of the world's most famous art thief, as well as being an expert forger in her own right. The secret to their success? A little thing called magic, kept rigorously secret from the non-magical world. Dani’s mother possesses the power of persuasion, able to bend people to her will, whereas Dani has the ability to make any forgery she undertakes feel like the genuine article.
At seventeen, concerned about the corrupting influence of her mother’s shadowy partner, Archer, Dani impulsively sold her mother out to the FBI-an act she has always regretted. Ten years later, Archer seeks her out, asking her to steal a particular painting for him, since her mother's still in jail. In return, he will reconcile her with her mother and reunite her with her mother’s old gang-including her former best friend, Mia, and Elliott, the love of her life.
The problem is, it’s a nearly impossible job-even with the magical talents of the people she once considered family backing her up. The painting is in the never-before-viewed private collection of deceased billionaire William Hackworth-otherwise known as the Fortress of Art. It’s a job that needs a year to plan, and Dani has just over one week. Worse, she’s not exactly gotten a warm welcome from her former colleagues-especially not from Elliott, who has grown from a weedy teen to a smoking-hot adult. And then there is the biggest puzzle of why Archer wants her to steal a portrait of himself, which clearly dates from the 1890s, instead of the much more valuable works by Vermeer or Rothko. Who is her mother’s partner, really, and what does he want?
The more Dani learns, the more she understands she may be in way over her head-and that there is far more at stake in this job than she ever realized.
This was one of the books my sister got from NYCC at the Penguin Random House Booth when she took a quiz. She read it first and then she gave it to me. It is an ARC and I have not compared it with the final print. The book was released February 13, 2024.
I'll go into the reasons I liked it. However, there are issues with it that I'll explain with spoilers below.
I'll start with the good:
I loved Dani's dog, a boarder collie named Sunflower. She's a gem. She is exactly what you want in a dog. Loyal, protective, and follows your commands. And boarder collies are so smart and so adorable. Sunflower is the star of the show.
I love the cover art. The color scheme is eye catching. I like the cartoon of Dani and Elliot popping out of frames to steal the paintings, and sweet Sunflower.
I like the unique premise of the plot. People with magic plan art heists; a daughter turned in her mother to the FBI; and there was the Dorian Gray-like-painting aspect. It could have been executed better, but story idea is unusual.
The Poissant family history. I loved the parts that had to do with Maeve Poissant and her diary entries. I wanted more of Maeve.
These minor characters: The Curator and the Ex-Wives. The Curator was mysterious and wise. (Why did she call Mia "dragon-keeper?") More of The Curator, I say. The Ex-Wives were comically amusing.
Brad, I thought he was going to be too good to be true, but he really was a good guy. And Dani was an idiot not to pick him.
The actual heist was pretty creative with the aerial performers: Mia faking an injury, Liz covering the art with the silk ribbons, Dani using her ice pack on the sensor, and putting the painting under the stretcher into a fake ambulence. That was cool.
The quotes. I'll list some below, even if they are from the ARC.
The needs improvement:
The magic is subtle, which I guess is ok, but there doesn't seem to be an organized society. There's no ruler, no enforcers, no charters. Who decided the magical world is a secret? And most of the people with magic seem to live a life of crime, with the exception of Brad who is good at numbers and rich.
Why was it never explained how the arrangement of the paintings in the Fortress created a power source?
Everyone seems to conveniently have the right magical abilities for stealing art, except for Elliot. His ability of finding people or things if he's close by serves no purpose for this group. So he seems to be there because Rabbit had pity on an orphan boy.
Of the whole group, Dani has the most useful skill to steal art: make a perfect copy.
There is no chemistry between Elliot and Dani. They were so boring. I don't even understand why they were even in-love. There were no flashbacks to show what used to be between them and nothing in the present to demonstrate a rekindling. They were the end game just because the author wrote it so.
Dani should have picked Brad. A good, moral, rich man who had a magical talent for numbers. He offered her a good, legitimate job.
I feel like there was no big leap in character development because the characters end up where they began. Only instead of stealing art they're replacing it with Dani's forgeries. I mean, I guess it's a way to atone, but in the end they're all fakes. So Dani should have taken the job Brad offered.
I know it's an ARC and I have not compared it to the final print, but the final showdown needed fine tuning. I was a little confused and some more detailed explanations were needed.
- Was Archer "Force choking" Elliot?
- How was Rabbit able to comfort Elliot as he was choking?
- How was Elliot's voice not hoarse afterwards?
- What was technically going on with the magic of the second copy of Archer's painting? Was it a second "horcrux"?
- What was their cover story for the FBI? That was totally dropped!
This isn't a needs improvement, just a character study of Dani's mother, Maria. What a piece of work. She's a bad mother. Not like a bad Mother-F**k*r. Like just a bad mother. At first I thought, "Okay, she might be immune to Archer's demon powers of influence, but that doesn't mean she wasn't groomed from a young age." Which then creates sympathy if she was manipulated from childhood to love her abuser.
But by the very end I changed my mind. Her actions and words showed she chose Archer freely because she was greedy for power.
Maria was so cold towards her daughter and her love was conditional. Page 324: "You'll listen to what I tell you to do. You'll be a good girl, honey."
All Maria did was use Dani and her extended family. She does not get any Mother's Day gifts.
Overall, it's not perfect and it's not as fine tuned as it had the potential to be. I liked it and I didn't struggle to finish so I thought about giving a 3, but took away a quarter of a point because of that ending.
2.75 out of 5 Paintings
Favorite Quotes from the ARC. I hope they made it to the final print.
Page 25 - Once you stopped making new memories with people, they became like a book. You could revise the story, but in the end, it turned out the same.
Page 66 - The art was a series of shockingly bad abstracts, but probably expensive. They should've stuck with horses that looked exactly like horses, running across too-green fields.
Page 136 - Rabbit worked to the music of three and only three artists: Dolly Parton, John Prine, and Prince Rogers Nelson. The three Ps, the royal principalities, the purple and the practical.
Page 187 - I wished in the moment I had not read Mary Shelley’s book about the modern Prometheus. I felt a kinship with the monster-galvanized, possibly a danger, and also in danger.
Page 280 - She didn't know if art had feelings or just the emotions of the people who made it, reflecting out to the viewer. But she did think art liked being seen. It liked people looking at it. No matter how they judged it.