Lady Eve’s Last Con, by Rebecca Fraimow 🎧
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
What’s it about: Sisters Ruth and Jules Johnson have made their living as small-time hustlers on interstellar cruise lines, but Jules fell in love with Esteban, one of their marks. After Jules told Esteban who she really was, he abandoned her and their unborn child. Ruth decides to get revenge on behalf of her little sister: She’ll make Esteban fall in love with her, then break his heart and take half of what he owns. Ruth sets out to infiltrate a space station full of politicking socialites - heirs to the most wealthy and powerful families and businesses in the galaxy. Ruth not only catches the eye of her mark, but that of his hot and mysterious sister, Sol. As Ruth sets her plans into motion, she gets becomes more entangled with Sol and her secret troubles, and Ruth needs to decide between completing her revenge or following her heart.
Was it any good: Yes, because it was just fun. I enjoyed the world building. The novel explores late-stage capitalism in a distant future when humans have colonized space, so all our current woes about the rich getting richer and everyone else getting screwed is illustrated in broader strokes, which is pretty effective. Fraimow takes pains to draw in various cultures and how they would adapt to this future environment - the Johnson sisters have family on Earth in Brooklyn, are Black, and speak Yiddish. Ruth has to consider what her hair is doing in certain situations. And since I’m descended from a long line of chismosas (gossips, in Spanish) I’m a sucker for plots rich with social intrigue.
Highlights:
Girl on girl in space!
Black people in space!
Big sister, little sister drama 🥹
The girls are scamming!
& also
I’m still reading the entirety of Charlie Adhara’s bibliography. I wrote about the first book in her “Big Bad Wolves” (!!) series in my first newsletter. I’m on book four. I’m completely hooked. I’ll write about the whole series next week.