We got news today that the budget for the next fiscal year has been approved, and we're one of a very few departments that got the entire budget we asked for. As I am the one who composed the budget and made the formal request, I was perhaps more invested in this than I realised. If it weren't full of confidential financial information, I would frame the final budget and hang it on my god damned wall.

I've been abusing the library shamelessly again, and just finished reading Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter. I felt pretty meh about it, which is how I felt about the first book in the series, Heist Society, though for totally different reasons, which I guess is something.

Heist Society was super-complicated and had a huge cast of characters that were hard to track; I managed to follow them in Uncommon Criminals because I'd already been introduced, and also because a few were allowed to fade into the background quite a bit, which was a wise choice. On the other hand, some of them weren't necessary even in the background; I'm just not sure why she keeps including them.

But the lynchpin of Uncommon Criminals is about the heroine not wanting help or support from anyone, and there was no real grounding for that either in the first book or in the start of this one. She just kind of suddenly went off the rails. The plot was smarter, I thought, but it also hinged on Kat and Hale being unbelievably stupid at one point, and a random unnecessary interlude with Interpol.

Also I get annoyed by Hale's constant deus ex machina wealth, and the running Paraguay/Uruguay joke was just needless and stupid.

I did like the growing Kat/Hale relationship, and I also liked the way their current heist tied into a historic one. There were some really entertaining moments, but when I looked back through the book I found I hadn't liked anything well enough to flag it for future reference in the review.

So it was a fast beach read, but eh. I don't think I'll follow if she writes a third.