Genre 📚: YA Historical Fiction, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Forbidden love, Enemies to lovers, Forced proximity, Heist schemes
Rep ✔️: Full cast of Chinese American characters
CW ⚠️: Loss of a loved one, grief, racism, gang activity, gun violence, sexual assault (by police officer)
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5
A Romeo & Juliet love story set in 1940s Chinatown? With all the heart-fluttering C-drama tropes? Yeah, I was in. As soon as the gang leader’s daughter locked eyes with the rival gang’s foot soldier and they had their own “Is she a Capulet?” moment — I was ready to rumble.
FMC Alexis is the daughter and heir to the East Phoenixes, one of the most notorious crime families in San Francisco. The crime life is all Alexis has ever known, and she wants to play a more major role in it. Be taken seriously. She finally has the opportunity to do so when their rivals, the West Dragons, approach them with a proposition: They call a temporary truce, and they work together to pull off one big, life-altering heist.
Alexis partners up with the Dragons’ youngest and smartest member, MMC Zachary, to lead the operation. They knew each other as kids but haven’t spoken in years, since they first discovered they were on opposing sides. Once they’re collaborating and spending all their time together, the lines blur. Rather than an enemy, Alexis sees an old friend. She sees someone with hopes and dreams. And she begins to wonder if she can have dreams.
It was hard to connect to Alexis at first, as her entire identity was tied to the Phoenixes. But, eventually, I saw a young girl who merely craved her father’s approval and worked for it the only way she knew how. Even if that meant betraying the boy she came to love. Now, THAT drama? Ooh, that drama was deliciously painful.
And, like I mentioned, I was totally here for the romance tropes. Him tying her shoes… Her tending his wounds… Only one bed (er, couch). I was most surprised, however, by how much I enjoyed the heist storyline. I loved following the couple through the city as they gathered intel and set up their plan. Swoony and badass.
**Much thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Heirs of Infamy will be released on October 13, 2026.
