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The Orchid Caper
A down-on-her-luck burglar. A trust fund college kid with something to prove. Will they outfox a master thief?All eighteen-year-old Darlene wants is to rob the joint. College guy Ian comes home too soon. And some ill-timed flatulence brings them together. Darlene thinks she’s toast. Instead Ian gives her a job offer, leading a heist team to steal a rare species of vanilla orchid. Only catch, she’s swiping from one of the best thieves in the biz. With her dad’s store on its last legs, Darlene needs the cash she’ll get when the job is done. Ian's in it to win a bet. Can their rag-tag team pinch the flower right under their mark’s nose? And can they remember not to eat beans for breakfast?The Orchid Caper is the first in a humorous YA action/adventure series. If you love action with a sense of humor, this is the book for you.Join the adventure and buy a copy now!
172 pages, Paperback
Published May 11, 2017
About the author
Connie B. Dowell
48 books109 followersConnie B. Dowell writes young adult fiction and nonfiction. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Georgia and a Masters of Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University. She lives in Virginia with her husband, where they host a history podcast, One Hundred Centuries, and both consume far more coffee than is probably wise.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 29, 2018
Midterms were a terrible time to begin planning a heist, but honestly, would there ever be a good one?
* *
2 / 5
My biggest problem with The Orchid Caper was that it was marketed as a YA novel when it would have done much better as a children's novel, I think, due to the rather simplistic plot. It's a YA group heist novel focused around Ian, who's trying to get a one-up on his brother by stealing something of value to him, who recruits Darlene after she unsuccessfully tries to burgle his house.
Wonderful. I'd thought with Darlene gone, surely we wouldn't have any more flatulence issues. At least this monstrosity was silent
It was reasonably funny. Darlene is caught by Ian when attempting to rob his apartment because he comes home early, she jumps into a cupboard and then farts. Whilst amusing, it was one of the first scenes that indicated that this book might be more childish than adult. Then there's the cast: Ian, a rich boy at college, Darlene, teen thief a little lost in life, Chad, a college botanist, Clyde, an amateur ballet security guard, and Judy, Darlene's cousin. The cast are one of the good points of the book; the characters have little unique details, like Clyde loving ballet, and differing voices. The book is written in first person and has lots of POVs, so many that it becomes annoying and frustrating. Whilst each character is distinct, all this first person makes it hard to connect with each character.
There are so many coincidences in this book you'll be tripping over them. Darlene's cousin is a computer expert, her sister's boyfriend is a security guard, the guy down the hall is a botanist with a focus on orchids. The list goes on. There's no great sense of depth because every vaguely interesting problem is solved within pages by a useful coincidence. The pacing is also a little slow at the start, but picks up in the second half when the heist actually takes place. Whilst faster and more action-packed, I didn't think the heist was particularly well planned or realistic, but I may have just been spoiled by excellent heist novels like Six of Crows!
There is a nice focus on family and relationships. Darlene has tricky dealings with her sister who has been a thief since they were children, often manipulating Darlene into doing jobs for her. Then there's Darlene's father who owns a gas station and repair shop that are failing due to a lack of money, but her father won't take out a bank loan or accept money from anyone. I liked the tight-knit nature of Darlene's family and their complex goings-on.
Overall, I think The Orchid Caper would be a bigger hit with a younger audience. It's funny and light-hearted, but not particularly clever.
My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book
Read this review and more on my blog: https://atlasrisingbooks.wordpress.co...
* *
2 / 5
My biggest problem with The Orchid Caper was that it was marketed as a YA novel when it would have done much better as a children's novel, I think, due to the rather simplistic plot. It's a YA group heist novel focused around Ian, who's trying to get a one-up on his brother by stealing something of value to him, who recruits Darlene after she unsuccessfully tries to burgle his house.
Wonderful. I'd thought with Darlene gone, surely we wouldn't have any more flatulence issues. At least this monstrosity was silent
It was reasonably funny. Darlene is caught by Ian when attempting to rob his apartment because he comes home early, she jumps into a cupboard and then farts. Whilst amusing, it was one of the first scenes that indicated that this book might be more childish than adult. Then there's the cast: Ian, a rich boy at college, Darlene, teen thief a little lost in life, Chad, a college botanist, Clyde, an amateur ballet security guard, and Judy, Darlene's cousin. The cast are one of the good points of the book; the characters have little unique details, like Clyde loving ballet, and differing voices. The book is written in first person and has lots of POVs, so many that it becomes annoying and frustrating. Whilst each character is distinct, all this first person makes it hard to connect with each character.
There are so many coincidences in this book you'll be tripping over them. Darlene's cousin is a computer expert, her sister's boyfriend is a security guard, the guy down the hall is a botanist with a focus on orchids. The list goes on. There's no great sense of depth because every vaguely interesting problem is solved within pages by a useful coincidence. The pacing is also a little slow at the start, but picks up in the second half when the heist actually takes place. Whilst faster and more action-packed, I didn't think the heist was particularly well planned or realistic, but I may have just been spoiled by excellent heist novels like Six of Crows!
There is a nice focus on family and relationships. Darlene has tricky dealings with her sister who has been a thief since they were children, often manipulating Darlene into doing jobs for her. Then there's Darlene's father who owns a gas station and repair shop that are failing due to a lack of money, but her father won't take out a bank loan or accept money from anyone. I liked the tight-knit nature of Darlene's family and their complex goings-on.
Overall, I think The Orchid Caper would be a bigger hit with a younger audience. It's funny and light-hearted, but not particularly clever.
My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book
Read this review and more on my blog: https://atlasrisingbooks.wordpress.co...
June 3, 2017
I read and reviewed The Poison in All of Us, a historical mystery by the same author. Since I liked it, I requested an ARC of this novel from the author in return for this honest review.
This isn't a mystery because it's from the perspective of a teen thief who is a perpetrator. So I would call it crime fiction. Darlene is in constant rivalry with her sister Annabelle who is also a thief. She is continually trying to prove herself and not succeeding very well.
My favorite characters were Darlene and Annabelle's grandmother and her friend Rita, who were both unexpected.
The author intended this novel to be humorous, but it's not my type of humor. My taste in comedy runs more to clever dialogue and satire. This was more like situational comedy. At least The Orchid Caper was short. I thought it was cute.
This isn't a mystery because it's from the perspective of a teen thief who is a perpetrator. So I would call it crime fiction. Darlene is in constant rivalry with her sister Annabelle who is also a thief. She is continually trying to prove herself and not succeeding very well.
My favorite characters were Darlene and Annabelle's grandmother and her friend Rita, who were both unexpected.
The author intended this novel to be humorous, but it's not my type of humor. My taste in comedy runs more to clever dialogue and satire. This was more like situational comedy. At least The Orchid Caper was short. I thought it was cute.
December 10, 2017
Zany mystery. My first time reading this author. It was good and I look forward to reading more by her! Little brother trying to prove he's as good of a thief as his older brother by stealing his rare orchid!
September 19, 2017
Loved it! Funny, quirky characters, fast & easy read! I want more in this series!
November 7, 2019
A goofy, light-hearted read that demands you to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the funny, folly-filled adventure of Darlene and Ian, as their crude and high-brow ways, respectfully, collide in an amusing way. This read is like caving to that craving for poutine, a good idea in the moment, but you don’t really gain anything valuable from it in the long run.
Note: This review is based on an advanced text of The Orchid Caper by Connie B. Dowell.
Book Breakdown
It’s a build-a-crack-theft-team, cue training montage, odds-are-against-us-but-we-can-outsmart-them, oh-no-we-can’t-good-thing-we-are-lucky kind of novel. Ian is a new-money thief, Darlene comes by her skills honestly, together with a rag-tag crew these two amusing characters are both out to prove something to the world.
Darlene is skilled and kind, but lives in the shadow of her cousin, Annabell. Ian is cocky and thinks himself pretty clever. They work together and learn from each other, and find out that people are more than their first impressions. With a common goal and a little guidance from a good coach people with raw skill can be transformed into a somewhat competent team.
There are a lot of good elements combined in this book, humour, a good attempt at character development (though a bit two-dimensional), and a few hard and fast life lessons scattered throughout the novel.
The story is fun, easy to read – sometimes a little too simple – but generally moves at a good pace. It’s a relatively short book and a very quick read. A great afternoon beach book, could easily be read in one go.
In my Opinion
The characters are amusing, they have strong character traits and equally strong opposite traits. I love that this book challenges some stereotypes like security guards can be passionate about dance. However I think it often goes a bit too hard in portraying two opposite ideas and nothing more when in reality it’s rare for such clear opposition to exist, people are more multi-faceted than that.
The plot is well paced, nicely developed, but really super unbelievable! The redeeming link to reality being that both Ian and Darlene come to learn new things about themselves through the experience of working together – Ian learns he can ask for help, and Darlene learns to trust her abilities and that failure is just a chance to try another way. In fact, the life lessons that crop up all throughout the book were one of my favourite features of this read!
Humor plays a big role in the novel which I liked, but I have to warn you the fart jokes got old fast for me… :/
Final Thoughts
The Orchid Caper is the perfect book for you if you are seeking a funny, removed from reality, quick read! It’s simplistic, sometimes crude, and I must admit, lacking in substance.
This is a hard one to rate because although I can tell the story is meant to be a fun bit of entertainment and nothing serious, I think when I read the book I was looking for something more, and was a bit disappointed that this book didn’t deliver that.
Check out more reviews at dreamteamreads.com!
Note: This review is based on an advanced text of The Orchid Caper by Connie B. Dowell.
Book Breakdown
It’s a build-a-crack-theft-team, cue training montage, odds-are-against-us-but-we-can-outsmart-them, oh-no-we-can’t-good-thing-we-are-lucky kind of novel. Ian is a new-money thief, Darlene comes by her skills honestly, together with a rag-tag crew these two amusing characters are both out to prove something to the world.
Darlene is skilled and kind, but lives in the shadow of her cousin, Annabell. Ian is cocky and thinks himself pretty clever. They work together and learn from each other, and find out that people are more than their first impressions. With a common goal and a little guidance from a good coach people with raw skill can be transformed into a somewhat competent team.
There are a lot of good elements combined in this book, humour, a good attempt at character development (though a bit two-dimensional), and a few hard and fast life lessons scattered throughout the novel.
The story is fun, easy to read – sometimes a little too simple – but generally moves at a good pace. It’s a relatively short book and a very quick read. A great afternoon beach book, could easily be read in one go.
In my Opinion
The characters are amusing, they have strong character traits and equally strong opposite traits. I love that this book challenges some stereotypes like security guards can be passionate about dance. However I think it often goes a bit too hard in portraying two opposite ideas and nothing more when in reality it’s rare for such clear opposition to exist, people are more multi-faceted than that.
The plot is well paced, nicely developed, but really super unbelievable! The redeeming link to reality being that both Ian and Darlene come to learn new things about themselves through the experience of working together – Ian learns he can ask for help, and Darlene learns to trust her abilities and that failure is just a chance to try another way. In fact, the life lessons that crop up all throughout the book were one of my favourite features of this read!
Humor plays a big role in the novel which I liked, but I have to warn you the fart jokes got old fast for me… :/
Final Thoughts
The Orchid Caper is the perfect book for you if you are seeking a funny, removed from reality, quick read! It’s simplistic, sometimes crude, and I must admit, lacking in substance.
This is a hard one to rate because although I can tell the story is meant to be a fun bit of entertainment and nothing serious, I think when I read the book I was looking for something more, and was a bit disappointed that this book didn’t deliver that.
Check out more reviews at dreamteamreads.com!
May 31, 2017
I received a free copy of this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review.
Here goes:
This book was...interesting. The plot was, for me, too simplistic for a YA heist novel; I feel that it could have worked better as a children's novel. It was made up of coincidence after coincidence and just didn't ring quite true for me.
It also felt rushed - I finished it overnight, in about 4-5 hours. For a YA novel, I would expect the subplots to be fleshed out a little bit more. There were too few scenes between Darlene and Annabelle for me to really feel the antagonism between them. However, I could readily believe Ian and Aidan, and their wager felt (ridiculous as it seems) more realistic.
My other issue was Darlene and Ian, the main characters; I didn't like them. I couldn't relate to either of them. Darlene felt too ditzy for me and Ian was just...irritating. Despite this, they both had distinct narrative voices, with Ian being well-spoken (to the point that I felt he'd swallowed a thesaurus) and Darlene using more common terms.
That being said, the rest of the cast was BRILLIANT.
Clyde was actually my favourite by the end because I can relate to him personally - I do ballet. I know how few men do ballet in day to day life and how it can actually enhance your stamina. As someone who has done it for years, I loved him as a character. (Also, kudos for the actual ballet terminology being used; that was a nice touch).
Chad was possibly the only character that managed to make me crack a smile. A favourite scene of mine is where he is holding a conversation with a lady and simultaneously trying to figure out if she could be his great-grandma. He reminded me a lot of Leo from the Heroes of Olympus series, to get an idea of his character.
Rita reminded me strongly of "Gangster Granny" - she fills that stereotype very well. I think I cracked a couple of smiles when reading her and her no-nonsense attitude.
Another person that didn't get fleshed out enough was Judy - I feel that she could have been one of my favourite characters, had she been given a bit more screen time.
The beginning of the book felt flat for me; however, when I got past about the 40% mark, the pace picked up and I found that I could enjoy what I was reading without picking it apart. The heist itself was enjoyable to read, and I do love reading books with a team of characters, all with different skills to bring to the table.
Little bits of it made me smile - I especially liked the moment where Darlene is recounting the missions that Rita sent them on and apparently they had to switch over the cartridges of black and blue pens as a joke.
In all, I'm giving this book a solid 3/5 - I enjoyed it, but there were a few issues (for me) that I couldn't overlook.
Here goes:
This book was...interesting. The plot was, for me, too simplistic for a YA heist novel; I feel that it could have worked better as a children's novel. It was made up of coincidence after coincidence and just didn't ring quite true for me.
"An expert had plopped ready-made into our laps"
It also felt rushed - I finished it overnight, in about 4-5 hours. For a YA novel, I would expect the subplots to be fleshed out a little bit more. There were too few scenes between Darlene and Annabelle for me to really feel the antagonism between them. However, I could readily believe Ian and Aidan, and their wager felt (ridiculous as it seems) more realistic.
My other issue was Darlene and Ian, the main characters; I didn't like them. I couldn't relate to either of them. Darlene felt too ditzy for me and Ian was just...irritating. Despite this, they both had distinct narrative voices, with Ian being well-spoken (to the point that I felt he'd swallowed a thesaurus) and Darlene using more common terms.
That being said, the rest of the cast was BRILLIANT.
Clyde was actually my favourite by the end because I can relate to him personally - I do ballet. I know how few men do ballet in day to day life and how it can actually enhance your stamina. As someone who has done it for years, I loved him as a character. (Also, kudos for the actual ballet terminology being used; that was a nice touch).
Chad was possibly the only character that managed to make me crack a smile. A favourite scene of mine is where he is holding a conversation with a lady and simultaneously trying to figure out if she could be his great-grandma. He reminded me a lot of Leo from the Heroes of Olympus series, to get an idea of his character.
Rita reminded me strongly of "Gangster Granny" - she fills that stereotype very well. I think I cracked a couple of smiles when reading her and her no-nonsense attitude.
Another person that didn't get fleshed out enough was Judy - I feel that she could have been one of my favourite characters, had she been given a bit more screen time.
The beginning of the book felt flat for me; however, when I got past about the 40% mark, the pace picked up and I found that I could enjoy what I was reading without picking it apart. The heist itself was enjoyable to read, and I do love reading books with a team of characters, all with different skills to bring to the table.
Little bits of it made me smile - I especially liked the moment where Darlene is recounting the missions that Rita sent them on and apparently they had to switch over the cartridges of black and blue pens as a joke.
In all, I'm giving this book a solid 3/5 - I enjoyed it, but there were a few issues (for me) that I couldn't overlook.
May 27, 2017
I received a copy of this work from the author, and this is my unbiased review. I'll keep it spoiler-free.
Shenanigans. That's the best word to describe The Orchid Caper. The circumstances by which Ian and Darlene meet are ridiculous enough, but then the entire story takes it up a notch by adding higher stakes, more varied characters, and yes, more farts.
Oh, sorry Ian, flatulence.
The writing is quick and funny, with each character truly taking on a voice of their own. (Can I say that Chad is my unexpected favorite? Sorry, everyone else. Didn't see that coming!) Story-wise, things fall into place conveniently-- albeit chaotically?-- but the story itself is so well-crafted that you don't get caught up on any of it. It's fast paced, and a fun read. I'll definitely have to tune in for the next one... poor Leonard, bro!
Merged review:
I received a copy of this work from the author, and this is my unbiased review. I'll keep it spoiler-free.
Shenanigans. That's the best word to describe The Orchid Caper. The circumstances by which Ian and Darlene meet are ridiculous enough, but then the entire story takes it up a notch by adding higher stakes, more varied characters, and yes, more farts.
Oh, sorry Ian, flatulence.
The writing is quick and funny, with each character truly taking on a voice of their own. (Can I say that Chad is my unexpected favorite? Sorry, everyone else. Didn't see that coming!) Story-wise, things fall into place conveniently-- albeit chaotically?-- but the story itself is so well-crafted that you don't get caught up on any of it. It's fast paced, and a fun read. I'll definitely have to tune in for the next one... poor Leonard, bro!
Shenanigans. That's the best word to describe The Orchid Caper. The circumstances by which Ian and Darlene meet are ridiculous enough, but then the entire story takes it up a notch by adding higher stakes, more varied characters, and yes, more farts.
Oh, sorry Ian, flatulence.
The writing is quick and funny, with each character truly taking on a voice of their own. (Can I say that Chad is my unexpected favorite? Sorry, everyone else. Didn't see that coming!) Story-wise, things fall into place conveniently-- albeit chaotically?-- but the story itself is so well-crafted that you don't get caught up on any of it. It's fast paced, and a fun read. I'll definitely have to tune in for the next one... poor Leonard, bro!
Merged review:
I received a copy of this work from the author, and this is my unbiased review. I'll keep it spoiler-free.
Shenanigans. That's the best word to describe The Orchid Caper. The circumstances by which Ian and Darlene meet are ridiculous enough, but then the entire story takes it up a notch by adding higher stakes, more varied characters, and yes, more farts.
Oh, sorry Ian, flatulence.
The writing is quick and funny, with each character truly taking on a voice of their own. (Can I say that Chad is my unexpected favorite? Sorry, everyone else. Didn't see that coming!) Story-wise, things fall into place conveniently-- albeit chaotically?-- but the story itself is so well-crafted that you don't get caught up on any of it. It's fast paced, and a fun read. I'll definitely have to tune in for the next one... poor Leonard, bro!
August 14, 2017
The story is written in Game of Thrones fashion with each character getting their own chapters- a good, fun choice for direction. Unfortunately, an overly simple plot and too many contrived coincidences mar the antics of its interesting characters, even for a YA novel. That said, those with a general interest in gardening, botany or orchids should add a star.
July 15, 2017
Fun and games with a misfit bunch of thieves. Very entertaining.
November 22, 2017
readable crazy orchid heist
February 27, 2018
A delightful read that kept me up turning the pages. Love the teamwork, the characters, and the laugh out loud points. Thank you for this copy. I will look for more from this author.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews