Stealing Heaven (review)

"My name is Danielle. I'm eighteen. I've been stealing things for as long as I can remember." That's as her mother's accomplice and now essentially partner, with the two of them specializing in the theft of silver, getting into houses of the wealthy through social engineering. Now in the posh coastal town of Heaven, Danielle is beginning to tire of her mother's all-encompassing focus on ill-gotten gains, and she's straying from the fold by secretly making a friend in local girl Allison and enjoying a flirtation with Greg, who is, of all things, a local cop. Though her mother fiercely disapproves of Danielle's movement toward normal life, Danielle begins to realize that it's time to make decisions for herself when her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Scott, author of the luscious Bloom (BCCB 7/07), is developing a nice line in romances with genuine personality. Danielle is an unusual protagonist, convincing in her combination of evident plausibility (she mingles freely and un-remarkably with the non-criminal world in order to obtain access) and complete outsiderness, and her struggle with the influence of her charismatic mother will be familiar to many readers, criminal or no. Touches of characterization fill out secondary characters, with Allison a better friend than Danielle deserves (a fact of which Danielle is acutely and uncomfortably aware) and Greg an effective romantic foil but a real guy beyond that, with human limitations and regrets. This blend of old-fashioned love story with lively contemporary details will satisfy readers fond of a solid summer romance.