The Confidence Game

White-Collar Crimes #1

by Alex Berg

She’s a thief. He’s a grifter. Game on.

For Natalia Levin, life as a professional art thief is everything she hoped it would be. She travels the world, the pay is fantastic, and she gets to work in sweet, sweet solitude. But when a rival crew reaches out about joining forces to steal the one painting she’s always dreamed of, that’s an invitation she can’t resist.

Natalia figures it’ll be easy to keep the new crew at arm’s length, but her plans hit a snag when she meets their smooth-talking grifter Diego Cabrera. He’s a liar, a con man, and too slick for his own good, but he’s beguiling and handsome and one hell of a storyteller. Too bad she’s going to screw him over, anyway…

But as Diego cranks up the charm, Natalia’s finding it harder and harder to keep up her charade. Not because she can’t outwit him, but because she’s starting to do the one thing she told herself she’d never trust him.

With passions igniting, Natalia is starting to realize she’s made a terrible she put her heart on the line while playing a confidence game.

Genres: Romance, Ebooks, Contemporary

316 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2022

About the author

Hi. I’m author Alex Berg. I write contemporary romances and rom-coms. My novels tend to feature clever, capable female protagonists and flawed male protagonists with hearts of gold. I try to keep them fun and flirty, with plenty of banter and even some thrills along the way. Most of them are dual POV, but there are some exceptions to the rule. And of course, every single one comes with a happily-ever-after ending.

In addition to romance, I love crime and heist novels, mystery novels, and anything that tickles my funny bone. To learn more about me and my books, visit alexpberg.com/romance.

Reviews

[luz · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐
Like a roller coaster (not exactly in a good way), it had potential and was entertaining at times but didn't work as a whole

[Kaitlin Barajas · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf-ed because while the premise could’ve been so good the characters and the writing g was so bad. it kills me when people switch from first person to third person 😭

[Moony (Captain Mischief) MeowPoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 23%
Nope, could not hold my interest.

[ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

No idea what really happens in the book. 30% in and i don’t think it’s my cup of tea. Not one bit interested😭

[Kathryn Goodspeed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have many thoughts about this book - it did what I wanted it to do. It was a quick, fun read. But it could have done it so much better.

The concept was there and it was strong: guarded girl learning to love and cocky guy with a heart of gold all centered around a heist. But the execution was lacking. The romance was spot on but the stuff surrounding it wasn’t. For me, the stuff around the romance is SO important. But this felt more like a rough draft than a finished work (and that’s before considering the literal grammatical errors).

I loved some parts and was a little disappointed/rolled my eyes HARD at others. Overall, an ok read from a free “stuff your kindle” event.

[Barbara Strickland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read

The story was interesting and so were the characters but the story dragged just a little all the way through so at times it felt flat and taking too long to get to the point.
However it was a very good ending, amusing to have our female lead save the day with her quick thinking and it was nice to know that the group maintained their relationship as a group despite the fact it may lead to further nefarious adventures.

[Bette J Bold · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a fun book to read. I enjoyed the characters who were a con man, a thief, a hacker and a driver. The group was assembled by the con man in order to steal a famous, very expensive art piece.
the book had some well placed humor and romance. As a person who had a very good grammar teacher I must say that the author's grammar and sentence structure was great.

[Janet E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting story

I liked the characters. They were flawed, but likable. I would recommend this book because it is exciting. There ate times you will hold your breath because you don't know if everything is going to work out.

[Andreea Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. I really liked the characters. A con man, thief, hacker, and get-away driver team up to execute an art heist. Sparks fly and romance ensues, making things complicated.
The version I read on Apple books had quite a few spelling mistakes.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this tale of thieves. Enjoyed the story of romance.

[Gabrielle Paquette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book. I'm not such a fan of the "insta love" plotline but I loved the art part of that book and all of the heist parts as well!

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotta Have Confidence

An interesting heist/love story. The characters are multidimensional with flaws and all. The story drags in part but is mostly exciting.

[Ier · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's okay, but the plot felt weird.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Natalia (a thief) is recruited by Diego (con man) to join his team of thieves which includes Miriam(hacker) and Eddie (driver, muscle). They plan to steal The Scream from an Oslo museum. Diego is in debt to a Russian mobster, intends to sell the Scream to the Russian after the theft. I actually learned a lot about art and the Scream, never knew there were multiple copies. Book is worth reading not only for the schemes ( and there are multiples in this story ), but also about the art world.