The Long Con by Jenna Voris
Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for the gifted ARC of this glitzy little chaos bomb of a novel.
You ever read a book that feels like it was written just for the drama? Like, pure drama for sport? That’s what The Long Con delivers: sapphic tension, high-stakes heists, and enough “I hate you—but do I?” energy to fuel a telenovela. Jenna Voris clearly understood the assignment: give the girls crime, banter, and trust issues—and then trap them on a yacht. Honestly? I was seated.
Chloe Bly is a broke cater-waiter with Olympic-level sticky fingers, knocking off rich hotel guests in Miami to pay off her family’s mountain of medical debt. She’s not doing it for the thrill—okay, maybe a little for the thrill—but mostly out of desperation. She’s smart, sharp-tongued, and armed with two loyal besties (Logan and Priya, both absolute scene-stealers). Everything is going fine-ish until she gets caught mid-job. End of the line? Not quite. The hotel owner, an eccentric billionaire with a grudge, wants to hire her instead—for a heist on a rival’s ritzy island resort. The prize? A stolen Hotel Excellence Award. No, you didn’t misread. The MacGuffin of this entire scheme is a literal award for rich people hospitality.
But wait. The real kicker? She has to work with Harper Parisi—her nemesis, her competition, her emotional terrorism in designer heels. Harper is rich, flawless, and annoyingly good at conning people out of their wallets and their common sense. She’s also been crashing Chloe’s scams for months and sparking all sorts of feelings that Chloe would very much like to ignore. Which, naturally, means they’re going to be spending every waking moment together. In a high-pressure crime setting. While pretending not to want to kill—or kiss—each other. Good luck with that, ladies.
The set-up is golden. The Miami backdrop is sweltering and vivid. The found-family vibe among Chloe’s crew adds just enough warmth to balance out all the moral ambiguity. And the pacing? Zippy. The book wastes no time throwing us into the action, with sharp dialogue and quick scene shifts that make it feel like watching a Netflix series you didn’t mean to binge. I was all in from the first chapter. And let’s be honest, we all came for the enemies-to-lovers tension anyway.
But here’s where the con gets a little shaky: for a book called The Long Con, it’s weirdly… short? Everything takes place over the span of a few days. I expected a months-long, Ocean’s Eleven–style build-up with intricate plans and twisty fake-outs. What we get instead is more like “Spring Break Heist: Emotional Damage Edition.” Still fun! But a bit undercooked in the strategy department. And that title? Misleading enough to feel like it might be the con.
Romance-wise, the tension is definitely there—stolen glances, sharp insults, accidental proximity—but the payoff lacks the heat promised by that “sultry” label. There are a few makeout scenes, sure, but not enough groundwork to sell the emotional shift from “you ruined my life” to “maybe you’re my life now.” Some of their emotional beats hit, but others felt abrupt, like the plot was sprinting toward a resolution it hadn’t earned yet.
And then there’s that twist. If you’ve read it, you know. Chloe pulls off a reveal that should’ve had major impact, but it stumbles because we’re in her POV the whole time and… she just never thinks about it? At all? That’s not a twist, that’s narrative gaslighting. It’s one thing to misdirect readers—it’s another to completely omit a character’s internal logic until it’s convenient for the plot. It felt like a con, but not in the way I wanted.
Still, for all its wobbles, The Long Con is a fast, flashy, chaotic good time. It knows what it’s doing—leaning into the drama, dressing it up in sequins, and throwing it onto a yacht. If you’re here for serious literary depth or airtight logic, this probably isn’t your ride. But if you want bisexual disaster energy, rich people takedowns, found family, and chaotic sapphic heists? Jump aboard.
Voris has serious talent for banter, atmosphere, and character voice, and I’ll absolutely read whatever she writes next. Just—maybe next time, make the con longer, the kiss steamier, and the twist make actual sense?
“People always say the best cons are built on truth. But they forget the most important part: it only works if you know which parts to leave out.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for the sheer fun of it.
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