sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
soph ([personal profile] sophia_sol) wrote2024-06-04 12:15 pm

Review: Lady Eve's Last Con, by Rebecca Fraimow

Disclaimer: this book is written by a friend so I am biased going in. But on the other hand this book is amazing and I'm not biased at all in saying that!! (I am, for better or for worse, the kind of person who Will always have honest critiques available to offer on request.)

Lady Eve's Last Con is set in space in the far future. Our viewpoint character, Ruthi, is a con artist infiltrating high society in order to get revenge for the way her sister was treated by one of these rich dudes. Too bad the older sister of the dude she's conning is so compelling!

(the back cover of the book says Sol is Esteban's YOUNGER sister but the cover copy writer is wrong. She's older. and she very much has older sibling vibes, and that's important.)

Anyway I adore both Ruthi and Sol, and their relationship with each other, and their relationship with their respective younger siblings. And also the worldbuilding, of the specific satellite where the action is taking place, and the broader universe it's situated in!

The connection between Ruthi and Sol is so palpable, and you really believe in why they would be interested in each other, despite everything else going on between them. And each of them stand out so well as Very Specific People with their own foibles and drives and values and interests. And the secondary characters are great too - really their own people as well.

And there' some delightful stuff about the bias of pov, even though the book is all through Ruthi's pov. Through much of the book you see Esteban very much through Ruthi's eyes and she doesn't like him at all -- but you hear a bit nearer the end about what Ruthi's sister saw in him, and he's the same guy but with a different lens of interpretation put on things and you can see why someone would love him!

And the way Ruthi imagines herself versus the way her sister sees her omg! SIBLINGS.

There's great class-related content, and great jewish-identity content, and great lesbian con-artist content, and great space content.

and the way it's written is just so funny and delightful and heart-felt and well-phrased, and and and.

I wish I'd written this review more promptly after finishing the book because I feel like I did have other elements I would have enjoyed talking about more fully! but I did not, so this is the review I have for you. I loved it wholeheartedly! Highly recommended.
cahn: (Default)

[personal profile] cahn 2024-06-04 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
OMG it's out?? YAY gosh I'm so behind on Hugo reading but I am going to buy this right away and try to resist it until I'm done with Hugo reading (...haha who am I kidding)
anne: (Default)

[personal profile] anne 2024-06-04 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooooooh, and it's on order at the BPL! I hope it arrives in time to fill my Book With a Purple Cover square on my summer reading bingo....
hamsterwoman: (Default)

[personal profile] hamsterwoman 2024-06-05 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
It’s so good!! I’m glad more people will get to read it now !
mific: (Default)

[personal profile] mific 2024-06-05 11:06 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh! *scurries off to get it*
chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)

[personal profile] chestnut_pod 2024-06-05 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Ugh, I am on tenterhooks to start reading!
glitteryv: (Default)

[personal profile] glitteryv 2024-06-08 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd requested from my library (with which I have a good success rate of getting those books added? I'd say 80-85%). My (rare for me) impatience got to me and I ended up buying an ebook copy too, hhahah. I see it as a double win: I get to purchase a copy that's mine AND, even if I don't get to read it myself, other library patrons will get a chance to do so. :DDDD

Anyways, I'm super ready to start reading it...sometime next month. Which I have to say is fast for me. Thanks for your review! I'm v., v. excited to dive into this story. :D