by Julia London
First sentence: “Frances Deluca was kicked out of the Pecan Springs Pickleball Club leage the week before the championships, which she considered a direct assault on her unbeaten record.”
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Release date: June 30, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and talk of sex, but none actual. It will be in the Mystery section of the bookstore.

What Fran wants, three years after the death of her husband, is to go back to her glory days in the 1970s when she and her three best friends – whom she hasn’t talked to in decades – were a girl gang doing heists. They always targeted men who thought they were All That, and they got away with it. That is, until Edie betrayed them. But now, especially when Fran learns she has inoperable brain cancer (I know, it’s a bit much), all she wants is to do one last heist. So she rounds up Irene and Joan and convinces Edie to come along. They have the perfect mark, too: Edie’s granddaughter just lost a LOT of money in a Ponzi scheme run by an old college friend who just inherited a casino in Vegas. Sounds like a dream.

This was the perfect fluff book. Sure, there are themes of agism (they get away with a lot because no one thinks about older women) and dying and reconciliation and trust, but mostly it’s just a fun romp while these women get back at a man who took advantage of one of their own. And I adored it.

It was just a lot of fun to read; the writing is solid, there are some laugh-out-loud moments, and the characters were all interesting (love the guys they find to help in Vegas). It was a perfect summer read, and I can’t ask for more than that.