Uptown Thief by Aya de León

Uptown Thief
by Aya de León
Pages: 352
Date: July 26 2016
Publisher: Dafina (Kensington Books)
Series: None

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 5 to 11 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Kensington Books for an honest review.

I read something somewhere, in a review?, in a book description? That said something like ‘Ocean’s 11 with women.’ Do not go into this book thinking that or you will be disappointed.

There’s another book that had that tagline attached to it. It was a Michael Crichton book from long ago, released under the John Lange name. That one is both a lot closer to being ‘Ocean’s 11 with women’ than this book while also being incorrect. There the storyline involved a group of people setting up to rob a hotel (I think it was a hotel). The book followed them as the planned, then as they robbed the place. It was actually quite neat. Just one thing – everyone in that gang in Lange’s book were men. So, why that tagline of ‘Ocean’s 11 with women’? Because there was in fact a group of women who robbed the place. They just did it under the noses of the male group – but it is something of a ‘disappointment’ in that the story didn’t follow them so much as it followed the male gang.

Right, so this book here. For one thing, the action that occurs does involve and follow women, so that’s one up on that unnamed Lange book. But the book is not a group of women who rob some location and go through thrills, suspense, and the like. No, the book is about a latina woman named Marisol Rivera who had a rotten childhood (mother died, father wasn’t around, then grandmother died; got left with an uncle, who sexually abused her; she, Marisol, did what she could to protect her sister; which included, once the uncle was gone, becoming a prostitute at the age of 17 to get enough money to pay the rent and bills. She, Marisol, is now in her 30s (or is it 40s? I got confused about her age) and is the executive director of a health clinic in Manhattan. Serving the poor, specifically (has this reputation though I’m not sure it is actually part of their official motto) sexual workers. Also, because the economy went into a downturn, and various grants and the like dried up or were pulled, Marisol again needs a way to pay her bills. So, she opens an escort service. Rich people can ‘donate’ to the clinic, get a tax write-off for that, and then get a ‘gift’ from the clinic (as in an escort).

Somewhere along the line that ‘Ocean’s 11’ has to come in, right? Well, that has to do with two facts. The escort service is not able to cover all the bills, and Marisol spots a few people she wants to ‘punish’. Rich CEO’s who were involved in a Mexican sex traffic ring – got put on trial, and got off (I think the judge dismissed the case or something). So, she robs them. Right off the bat that’s different from Ocean’s 11 – where a gang robs a casino. Here the ‘gang’ (a small group of Marisol’s most trusted people) robs several locations. As quietly as possible. And there’s a ton of other stuff happening in this book. So, if it had been a series of robberies, I might stretch things to include this under some altered tagline of ‘Ocean’s 11 with women’, but no, it isn’t that. It’s more of a slice of life book that just happens to have, as the main character, someone who robs rich assholes.

So, Marisol – because of the abuse from the uncle, and because of the fucking for money, she is not one who has the ability to have a natural relationship from men. She does have an ‘itch’ though. A huge number of times, she’ll head uptown to an immigrant area, pick up a man, and fuck him. With her in control.

Both of her criminal and relationship life is put in jeopardy, though, when a man from Marisol’s past turns up in the form of Raul. A man who grow up in the same neighborhood (which reminds me – for the shit life Marisol had growing up, she sure has a lot of nostalgic feeling for her ‘old community’).

When a pimp wandered near waving a gun and calling for his whore to come out, things got complicated at the clinic. At a benefit for the clinic, Marisol mentions needing some extra security. Raul steps up and offers his services. He becomes a temporary security guard. He has a certain background, being that he had been a NYPD officer. He’s an ex-cop now, though. One that still consults with the city. Which is part of the complication on the criminal side – Marisol robs people, an old friend begins working at the clinic and is an ex-cop. Then there’s the romantic side – for the first time in maybe ever, Marisol might be willing to try a relationship, she has lustful feelings toward Raul. Though there are complications – he’s an ex-cop, she’s a criminal, and she also has that past sex worker history (and current, for that matter).

One of the neat things about this book is how LGBT friendly the book is. Two of Marisol’s top friends/thieves/escorts are lesbians (they are each other’s girlfriends). And another character in the book, much less important character-wise, is transgender.

Marisol, though, is very much heterosexual and spends a lot of time, and I mean a lot, humping men. Well, I do not mean to make that seem like it goes to porno levels. She humps men. Every once in a while. And, at times, graphically.

To a certain extent this book took me somewhat longer than normal not because of anything to do with the book itself, I mean quality wise, but because it involves MF relations. I had to ease my way in, and then through at times. Taking breaks here and there.

There is one very big flaw/problem with the book that could have had something like a negative impact on the star rating, if the book was not an arc. Because it is, I do not push up or push down the rating in any way because of it. ‘It’ being the part wherein the formatting in the copy I read is kind of messed up. As in, it isn’t really formatted. Sentences/paragraphs/etc. are smashed together or have double spaces within the same sentence as in:

Not an exact quote:

‘That taco is very

hot don’t you think?’

While at other times I was not always certain who was saying what because of things being mushed together, as in:

Again, not an exact quote:

“How are you doing?” She looked at the floor. “Are you doing that thing later?” She asked.
“The tacos are hot.” She moaned.

Most of the time I could tell, in context, that ‘Are you doing that’ was actually someone else speaking; though occasionally I wasn’t certain.

Again, though, I do not – because it is an arc – remove anything from the rating because of that issue (though I would if this wasn’t an arc). I assume that I got a digitalized version of the paperback, as opposed to an ebook file.

One last thought – language. I began reading this one at the same time I was reading Clare Ashton’s Poppy Jenkins. Which I mention for one reason – while I was reading ‘Poppy Jenkins’, people I know who were reading it at the same time were making comments about all the Welsh words popping up. And I? I was reading that and this book here. No, there are no Welsh words popping up in this book, no there were instead a bunch of Spanish words. I probably should have mentioned that any way – the part where a bunch of Spanish gets used. But I specifically am mentioning it here for a reason I once mentioned in another book with mixed languages (not the Poppy book, but a Heyer book).

I have no inherent problem with a book filled with mixed languages; characters speaking two or more languages at the same time in the same sentence. The specific problem I had was, like in a book by Heyer about the British fighting in Spain, this book here included several occasions when a character would start talking and the author included helpful notes like ‘in Spanish’. As in, the character was speaking in Spanish, but the words were printed on the page in English. I liked the fact they were there in English so I could read along. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the part where, remember the reader has already been told that the characters are speaking in Spanish, Spanish words would begin to appear in the sentences.

How exactly am I supposed to ‘take’ that? Spanish words popping up in a Spanish conversation that has already been specified to be translated into English. Are those words extra Spanish-y? So that’s why they appeared in Spanish? And to clarify, I’m not talking about the Spanish words that pop up before and after this specific event I’m talking about. I’m specifically talking about when the main character went to Cuba, and several occasions conversations occurred during which the author noted that the conversation had been translated from Spanish into English . . . yet still contained, here and there, Spanish words (Note: until I went to look for examples, I had forgotten that ‘in Spanish’ actually popped up in previous sections to the trip to Cuba; there are 17 occasions when ‘in Spanish’ is used in the book).

Quote from book:

“Quieres otra?” he asked
“No thanks,” she said in Spanish. “But I’ll buy you one.”
He raised his eyebrows, but then leaned back and smiled “Como no?”
She told the bartender in Spanish. “A rum and Coke.”

1) Why are his words in Spanish? Well, no. Both of their conversation are in Spanish. Why are his words only in Spanish, while hers, which, remember that ‘in Spanish’ part, are also in Spanish, but get translated?
2) Why does ‘in Spanish’ keep getting repeated?

By the way ‘Quieres otra’ apparently means ‘do you want another’. And ‘Como no?’ means . . . I don’t know what it means. Google translate is telling me it means ‘as?’. Hmm. Okay.

“I need to be on top,” she said in Spanish. “Bueno,” he said. me talking now – this is an example where the formatting got messed up – both of their lines are right after each other without a break

Here it makes sense to mix things up. I would not have known what ‘necesidad de estar en la cima’ (I have a large feeling that isn’t what ‘I need to be on top’ is in Spanish, but that’s what I get from Google), but do know Bueno = good.

Though here is what I meant specifically about mixing:

“Welcome to Cuba!” he said in Spanish, kissing her check. “Sorry we couldn’t . . .”
“our house is no Hotel Palacio, pero mi casa es tu casa.”

Gah. Okay, the mixing took place several paragraphs later. Still, same talker, I assume he is still speaking in Spanish after that ‘in Spanish’ mention, especially as they are in Cuba and everyone there speaks Spanish. So, why is pero mi casa es tu casa in Spanish in a part that is already supposed to be translated into English from Spanish? I know, from here or there, that ‘casa es tu casa’ is ‘my house is your house’ (or something like that), though I didn’t realize it needed the mi to make it ‘my’, and had no clue what pero was until I looked it up (means but – as in ‘but my house is your house’).

*shrugs* I never learned Spanish, so 99.9% of the stuff in Spanish just flies over my head unless there is some mention of what it means (several occasions someone will say something in Spanish, then within a paragraph or two, what they meant is said in English – somewhat rare, though).

I liked the book. I recommend this book. Do not expect constant action and thrills and suspense. Or, for that matter non-stop sex (there’s plenty of graphic sex, just not non-stop – oh, and, other than kissing, I believe all the sex is between a man and woman; no lesbian sex here; bah, I just recalled that there was one incident when the two girlfriends got busy while their ‘dates’ were asleep. I forget how graphic that scene was, though. Looking for ‘in Spanish’ is easy; searching for ‘lesbian sex scene’ to see if it is graphic or not does not actually work, heh).

Overall – An enjoyable book. I liked it. Just be aware that there’s graphic depictions of male-female sex, and that it isn’t a ‘thrill-a-minute’ type of book, but more of a ‘slice-of-life that occasionally includes robberies; and those robberies can occasionally be suspenseful’.

July 11 2016