Official Description:
As world famous con artists, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are professional rivals. Sparks fly when they are forced to join forces, but are the stakes too high? Can they escape with their lives – and their hearts?
Word Count: 73,491
I have a confession to make. I am terrible at leaving reviews for authors. Even with the stories I adore and obsess over, I may only leave one review at the end of the story. I loved Pros and Cons so much that I left a review for Every Single Chapter! SydneyAlice grabbed me by the heart strings and didn’t let go! There is just enough heart-fail, and magically delicious evilness in Pros and Cons that I am relieved I didn’t start reading this fic until it was complete.
I fell in love with Bella and Edward as master criminals with a heavy dash of notoriety and a pinch or two of sass.
Edward Cullen and I had crossed paths many times throughout the past two years. It was inevitable considering we were two of the finest criminal minds in the world. That statement isn’t arrogance on my part. That’s what Anderson Cooper called us, and you never argue with the silver fox. To hear my name uttered by the handsome CNN anchor meant that I’d finally arrived as a world-class thief. Even my father had been impressed to see my name scrolling across the ticker on his big screen television screen – a birthday gift from his one and only daughter.
When the rest of the canon characters get tossed into the mix, the fun really begins! Edward, Jasper, Bella, and Alice are four of the most highly sought after thieves in the world. The boys work as one team and the girls another. They are delightfully antagonistic toward each other professionally and very entangled personally. Alice and Jasper freely declare their love for each other along with their desire for a more “normal” life. Edward and Bella… well, they argue – a lot. It takes a truly tragic and horrible event for them to realize that they just might love each other (this moment is so awful that I gasped, cried, and left a very whiney and shouty review).
“You’re alive,” Cullen whispered, his voice rough with emotion as his hand cupped the back of my head. “I looked and looked…”
All I could do was nod as I buried my face against his neck and clung to him for dear life. I heard him kick the door shut before carrying me over to the bed and laying me gently across the mattress. Even then, we didn’t let go of each other. His arms stayed around me, and my legs remained entwined around his waist as he hovered above me. My fingers touched every inch of his face, and he touched mine, as if we couldn’t believe that the other was real.
His voice was gentle. “Are you hurt?”
“Not physically,” I assured him with a pained whisper, and the sadness in his eyes intensified. “Are you?”
“Not physically.” The devastation in his voice mirrored mine. His face instantly became a blanket of anguish, and I trailed the back of my hand across his blackened cheek before running my fingers through his hair in an attempt to soothe him.
“Jasper and Alice…”
“I know,” I whispered.
His eyes were wide with terror as his hand cupped my cheek. “I thought you…I thought you were…”
“I thought you were, too,” I said gently, knowing that I had to stay strong, at least for a little while…at least until he could take care of me, too.
He gasped for air as he laid his head against my chest, and for what seemed like an eternity, we rested in each other’s arms. I couldn’t get close enough, and he couldn’t hold me tight enough. He placed his ear against my drumming heart, and I heard him sigh softly.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Cullen murmured finally, “and then I’m holding you all night. Do you understand me? All night.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
**Sniffle** Yep, you will want your tissues close by. All is not angst and misery though. Rosalie and Emmett join the story and help Bella and Edward cope. Well, Emmett helps from the get-go…. Rose needs a little more encouragement/a verbal-beating before she is on board. The action really picks up from this point – Edward and Bella are in an all out fight for survival. Luckily, they have Felix to help them.
Felix is my favorite secondary character in the story. He is so huggable and strong and I want one of my own! He works for Edward as his pilot and all around go-to guy. From the very first chapter, Felix is good to Bella. They develop a very sweet relationship that is totally separate from Edward. Felix is the rare breed of friend that is truly family. And boy does he come through for Bella when she needs him the most. Felix is with Edward and Bella for every step of their plot to avenge Alice and Jasper by killing Aro, as are Emmett and Rose.
As soon as Edward realizes he loves Bella, he turns into a super protective caveman about her. Bella grudgingly puts up with his behavior because she is harboring a secret of her own. It takes the combined forces of Felix, Rose, Emmett, Charlie, Jacob, and Sam to get these two communicating and making plans that will work.
Well… plans that would work if Bella could keep her head and follow the rules. When she lets her heart overrule her head, everything comes crashing down around them. This is when Felix saves the day at great personal expense.
“Look, I appreciate the help, but I understand how bad this is.” Felix’s face turned grave as he remembered. “Bella was in no condition to shoot anyone, but she was determined to end it once and for all. I could see it in her eyes. I understood it.” He then turned his eyes toward me. “I couldn’t let you do it, sweetheart. If you’d killed him, you’d be having your baby in prison. I just couldn’t let that happen. You deserve better. Both of you do.”
“What about you?” I asked tearfully.
“What about me?” Felix grinned, and then he shrugged. “I have no family…”
“You have us,” Edward murmured, and I nodded.
“I know that,” Felix replied softly, “and it will make me happy knowing that the two of you are in your house in Tennessee – in love with each other and raising your baby.” His eyes settled on Edward. “You and I have been together a long time. You’re like a brother to me. Maybe even a son. You’re a good man, and you deserve a good life. I saw how devastated you were when Jasper was killed, and I saw the change in you when you fell in love with Bella. Finally, you have the chance to lead a normal life. I want that for you. Jasper would want that for you.”
Edward held me a little tighter and nuzzled my shoulder.
“And you,” Felix smiled softly at me. “You were an absolute breath of fresh air. You challenge him, and you understand him on a level that no one else ever could. You’ll have to take care of him, which I’m not going to lie, is a full-time job…”
Edward chuckled and nodded in agreement.
“But you can do it,” Felix said with a smile. “You’re really the only one who can. You need each other, and now you can take care of each other.”
They do. They take care of each other. They take care of their loved ones. They take their second chance and never look back. Bella says it best as she looks into Edward’s eyes:
In his glowing, triumphant eyes, I could see everything. I could see the distant sadness of our past, the quiet happiness of our present, and the joyful hope of our future.
I don’t know what I can add to darcysmom’s brilliant review, but I had to tell you that I love this story. Right from the very beginning, I love both Edward and Bella and their banter and the UST:
Standing there, leaning against the stainless steel wall with a shit-eating grin on his face, was the one person I really didn’t want to see tonight.
“Shit…” I groaned miserably as I made my way inside. I furiously stabbed at the buttons as the elevator doors closed. “Are you following me, Cullen?”
“I’d follow your ass dimples anywhere, Swan.”
Edward Cullen was infuriatingly charming and handsome – both of which have proven to be very beneficial to his career and detrimental to mine.
“Well, these ass dimples just conned Marcus Hendricks out of his credit card numbers.”
“Impressive,” Cullen acknowledged with a nod. “Although one might argue that a more superior con artist would be capable of such a feat without showing a little skin. I’m disappointed, Swan.”
“Yeah well, it’s been a shitty weekend, and I was desperate,” I glared in his direction before realization dawned. “Wait. Were you watching me?”
“Every heterosexual male in the casino was watching your little performance. Nice legs, by the way.”
Shit.
“That’s not good,” I muttered.
“No, but I enjoyed it,” he grinned as the elevator doors opened.
This story has action and drama and hot lemons. And it’s already complete–you definitely need to check it out!
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