Young Rich Widows

This book started off flying. I was glued... Then it felt like too much was going on and it was too much for me. It was an entertaining read but I felt like it missed the mark in the last half.

I have an Audible+ membership for my commute to work. I discovered early on that there wasn't a lot that interested me when it came to their ‘freebies,' or things included in the membership.

BUT. I saw that Layne Fargo was involved with this story, and I already love her as an author, so I knew this would be good.

This is a campy 1980s mobster story with heart, if that makes any sense. A plane crashes that forces four very different (but badass in their own right) women, to work together, and eventually really start to trust each other. They have to fix the mess their departed spouses left them with, which includes finding missing money (4 million), wolves, and toxic torts.
It was beautiful to watch (listen), and I was all in for the ride.

I had fun with this, and it made me actually look forward to my commute.

Wild NYC 80s Romp. I really can't say enough great about this book. The fact that I was able to read it at least partially in a not-so-smoke-filled cigar lounge made it even better personally, if only because it made it that much easier to get "in character" as a dude of the era. (Btw, even though I *was* born in the early 80s, my God, to have been able to be a young adult in that era... the 2000s of my own 20s were wild, but I'm pretty sure that era would have been even more fun. :) ) Moving on...

Seriously, this starts out with a bang... nearly literally... and while the action itself doesn't start picking up as much until at least the 1/4 to 1/3 or so mark (and *really* in the back half, when it becomes almost a different book), here really is quite a bit to enjoy here. The ladies are clearly distinguished characters - likely stemming from likely having one author handle each? - and the initial "come together" scenes are done particularly well given the overall setting and specific events that have taken place to this point. From there, it becomes a somewhat classic tale of people who think they know each other - and largely hate what they know - being forced to work together to achieve some common goal... before shifting from that into a more action/ thriller tale that Michael Bay would have loved to shoot.

The entire "New York, 1980s" setting hits particularly well as well, complete with the strippers and the drugs and the largesse of the lowlifes, and... well, what I was going to say there gets a touch too close to spoilers, so let's just say that truly everything about this book simply SCREAMS "1980s NYC", to the level that you begin to suspect that at least some of the authors had to have at least a version of lived experience here. Yes, it is *that* real and *that* visceral, at least in the side of NYC in this period that it chooses to show.

Overall a book that starts slow but picks up steam, one that people who don't like multiple POV stories should check out anyway, as it is truly well done in this particular instance. You'll be glad that its sequel is now ready - I know I was, as I was able to finally start my Advance Review Copy edition of the sequel moments after finishing this book - and yes, you really are going to want to start it right away as well.

Very much recommended.