This was an amazing book. It kept me on my toes the whole time. I didn’t know which side to be on with the book as the author was amazing in creating real life flawed people like you and I. With these characters we see their reasons and the understand why they are doing what they so even if it is wrong or illegal. This book is so good and I am so thankful to the publisher Random House, Janelle Brown, the author, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this before the publishing date.

A fun read that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end! Here's a story that incorporates modern-day innovations. Vanessa, an Influencer, sets the stage for a story with twists and turns. Yet, the ever-prevalent theme of good vs. bad, rich vs. poor, and revenge haunt the pages of this book.. At the end, the reader will have to determine if right wins out, which makes it a little different from others in this genre.

Loved it! This book started strong and, for the post part, kept my attention. There were a few parts that were slow, so it took me a little longer to get through than books normally do, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it was well worth it.
The writing was beautifully done and the cover pulled me right in.
I will add this to my "read again" pile.

This book was not at all like the typical thrillers I read. I really enjoyed this story, and I was pleasantly surprised by the twists. I thought I had it figured out and I was way off, which is refreshing since most thrillers follow the same exact formula.

I really felt connected to the characters, specifically Nina, who was doing what she had to do to take care of her sick mother. I thought the story flowed nicely and gave enough backstory to make it believable. I liked the alternating points of view between Nina and Vanessa. It was interesting to see how each character was reacting to the events unfolding.

5 stars. This is a book I will be recommending to everyone!

So you see, I called the plot twist within the first 30 pages of the book. Not only did I call it but it took approximately 70% through for it to actually get interesting. I found this one in credibly slow with no pay off in the end. 400 pages of slow just for the twist to be the one I guessed at the beginning. It had an interesting premise that could have been proved well for a mystery/thriller but it just missed the mark, unfortunately.

"When a body goes down in Lake Tahoe, they say, it does not rise again. The frigid temperature of the lake, it’s vast depths, conspire to keep bacteria at bay. What once was human fails to decompose. Instead, the body is doomed to drift along the lake bed, in perpetual limbo; just more organic matter joining the mysterious menagerie that lives in Tahoe’s uncharted depths.”

What an incredible way to begin this suspenseful novel.

Readers of PRETTY THINGS are in for a treat. This book has more twists and turns than a rollercoaster.

Oh the naivety of youth. As author JANELLE BROWN details the life of high schoolers Nina and Benny, it is easy to picture the two misfits finding each other and only after having built a foundation of friendship do they take the leap of faith into a relationship. I am positive that everyone can remember their first real relationship. It is easy to visualize the intensity of their feelings. Nina and Benny never forget each other and their puppy-love has ramifications that span decades.

Vanessa is Benny's sister. She is the golden child to Benny's black sheep. As a twenty-something, she becomes what all Millenials seem to aspire to, that is an Instagram Influencer. She flits through the world wearing designer clothing and is constantly posting photographs of herself on her Instagram feed.

There are so many people who post every moment of their lives online, hoping to be followed by hundreds of thousands of people. What Vanessa, as well as other Instagramers don't seem to think about, is just who is following their feed and why.

In addition to the role the internet plays in the plot of Pretty Things, also included are characters who have grown up in extreme wealth, never having to actually work for their money. Of course there are also their polar opposites, people who have lived hand-to-mouth and the things they are willing to do to make their lives easier. Dysfunctional family dynamics, mental illness, anger, fear and greed also have their places in this twisted tale.

In PRETTY THINGS someone or maybe several someones are following people's Instagram posts for nefarious purposes and the dangers of the internet loom large. This tale is a warning to all those who post online to be wary of what they put out on the world wide web.

The author writes with such precision and suspense that it is little wonder the film rights of this book have already been scooped up. Mega-Star Nicole Kidman has already been cast in one of the lead rolls.

With themes that everyone living in this age of Social Media can relate to, PRETTY THINGS is going to be the Number One book on Bestseller Lists for many, many weeks to come.

This book fully deserves every single one of 5 out of 5 Stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the Publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book.***

One of the best new thrillers out for 2020 in my humble opinion! Janelle Brown has DELIVERED! Twisty and juicy. Nina and Vanessa are such well written characters! I personally love Nina the most. Love her back story. I want more. I'm ready for more Janelle Brown books to be honest. Thank you netgalley for giving me the chance to dive into this book that SO many people are talking about now!

This is her best book yet. You couldn't pull it out of my grip. I loved every single, word and sentence. I sat and savored this dark and twisty tale. A definite must read. Unputdownable. Read it and see how right I am. Happy reading!

I enjoyed this one way more than I expected! The story is told from two points of view. The con artist and the rich heiress that she's attempting to con. I enjoyed the two voices telling the same story. Each one told their versions of events so we were able to see their subjective perspective of everything that transpired. It made for a very interesting read and shows how most things are never as they seem.

You guys! Get this book ordered ASAP! I read a ton of books and let me tell you, there is nothing out there remotely similar to Pretty Things. The twists and turns in this one will keep you turning the pages late into the night.

Two women, Nina, after getting a liberal arts education starts stealing. Vanessa, a young heiress becomes an Instagram influencer retreats to her family’s mountain estate and crosses paths with Nina, two damaged women who try to survive. Janelle Brown books are always well worth reading.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3273756126

"Two wildly different women—one a grifter, the other an heiress—are brought together by the scam of a lifetime"

The book alternates between Nina, who's con artist ways run in the family, and Vanessa, a young heiress. There's history between the two women, and when Nina needs to quickly leave LA she and her con boyfriend Lachlan set their sights on Vanessa. As they start to integrate themselves into her life, things quickly go awry.

I really enjoyed this book, the first one by Janelle Brown that I've read. Secrets continue to be exposed, and who you think is in charge and running a con changes every few chapters. It was captivating and I read it in one sitting because I had to know what happened. Now I'm going to go back and read Janelle Brown's backlist!

I was a big fan of Janelle Brown’s previous book, Watch Me Disappear, so I was very happy to receive an arc of Pretty Things from NetGalley and the publisher. Pretty Things is the story of Nina, a grifter who targets rich LA party people. And Vanessa, a spoiled trust fund kid and Instagram influencer. Vanessa becomes Nina’s mark, but there’s a whole lot of back story that you find out slowly throughout the book. Brown is really good at writing realistic, complex characters. There are some twists, but the action is on the slow side and it’s really all about the characters’ motivation. I thought the ending was a little hokey but overall an enjoyable read.

Overall I thought this book was good. I enjoyed it, but there were a couple of times that the author got preachy about social media (there were long paragraphs about how bad social media was to the point that I wondered how it was related even though Vanessa is centered around social media). The characters were well done and felt real although there were times when they felt too inconveniently dumb in order for the plot to keep moving. Some of the twists near the end were shocking in a good way and some didn't make sense and felt like it was too much. So enjoyable but definitely a couple of elements that weren't written quite right and didn't add up.

I love a strong setting and an examination of the character’s development, and generally, thrillers don’t provide this level of detail. Brown took her time unspooling this tale, and at nearly 500 pages, this is not your standard fare. She melded her story with one of my other favorite genres – literary fiction. At first, I had no idea how such a “shallow” topic of conning a rich person could have 500 pages of material. Nina is struggling to pay for her mother’s cancer treatment bills, and after raking in some cash by selling antiques she’s lifted from rich people she’s cased through social media, she realizes she needs a bigger turnout. Along with her partner in crime, Lachlan, she goes after Vanessa, a social media influencer who is a walking reminder of Nina’s past hurts. This is not only a way to make cash, but a twisted way of getting back at the rich family that ruined Nina’s life – the two women have crossed paths before.

Vanessa is ensconced in her family’s gigantic home on the shores of Lake Tahoe, an almost-haunted house, rattling around with antiques and like large great homes in Europe, is a past relic of prosperity and too costly to maintain. Being at the top most be lonely, because she blindly falls into the trap laid by Nina and Lachlan. Or does she?

Not everything is as it seems, and truly, this story has the twisty-turny stuff I LOVE. I kept trying to predict what would happen next and I couldn’t. You even think you uncover clues when you read flashbacks of Nina and Vanessa’s past, but you are just being fed breadcrumbs the size of baguettes. I was blown away as the truth came out, and the ending was so satisfying. What a ride!

I had my doubts that having a character as a social media influencer would take away from the depth of the story, as social media isn’t exactly the pinnacle of class, but it works. It gives Vanessa only one aspect of her persona, and that is where Brown’s writing saves her characters and makes them real – Vanessa is more than just one thing. These characters don’t follow stereotypical tropes – the “shallow rich girl: and the “jealous poor girl” only grazes the surface of these characters. But even this theme of rich vs. poor is evolved – there is an examination of the privilege and power that comes with money, and the disadvantage and difficulty it is to be the “winner” in a laissez faire world if you have very little.

And like many works of literary fiction, there is a strong correlation between what the characters think and do and their relationship with their families. Vanessa is a daughter of fortune, from old money and prestige, and she feels the pressures of living up to her name. Nina feels strong loyalty to her mother, who has done all she can to raise Nina as a single mother. Cancer is the worst possible thing to happen in their tiny family.

For my literary fiction and thriller fans, get your fix for both at once. Janelle Brown has written a great one.

When we start off with a description of Lake Tahoe being deep and dark, well, you know someone is ending up in there. Part of the journey is finding out who, how, when, and why to that what. Thankfully, that's not all we find out.

The story flips from the point of view of Nina and Vanessa. Nina is a con. But she is a con with rules. She takes from the super rich and she never takes more than she thinks they will even notice. This she learned from her mother. That's also where she meets Lachlan. When the opportunity to con Vanessa comes up, she can't wait to get the revenge she has been plotting for years.

Then we get to see the world from Vanessa's point of view. Vanessa, the instagram star. Rich girl with no worries. Or so Nina sees. Vanessa has floated around restlessly, trying to overcome the wreck of her family. She is looking for someone to blame. Someone like Nina.

When Nina and Vanessa come together, you know it is going to explode. The con and the heiress have more in common than most people know. Seeing the same scene from the eye of both women just goes to show how much women judge each other constantly. Sure, there was more to this than just seeing the fault in others or elevating others to perfection and being disappointed. But it was still and important theme.

What is really is, though, is a heist book. There are a lot of people working toward their own interest and you don't know who is really on your side and who will stab you in the back. The flashbacks to the past, revealing the motives of both women, make the characters real. This is one I would recommend. I'd like to thank the publisher, Janelle Brown, and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Nina’s chaotic upbringing helped with her determination to have a life that bore no resemblance to her mother’s, and she believed her college degree in art history would launch a successful career. Instead, she found herself doing little more than making soy latte runs for her employer. When she learned her mother had developed cancer, Nina quit her job and headed back across the country to Los Angeles, where she found her mother’s friend Lachlan was a con artist looking for someone with Nina’s skill in antiques to run another scam.

Vanessa hated Stonehaven, the family mansion on the California shore of Lake Tahoe, but it was all she had after her father’s passing. Her career as an Instagram influencer was leaving her cold, making her doubt herself, and she made the decision to step away from living her life online and retreat to try and make sense of her life choices. Renting out the caretaker’s cottage brought in some money and also provided sorely needed companionship, and Vanessa was horribly lonely in Tahoe. When Michael and Ashley showed up, they seemed absolutely perfect for the cottage – a writer and his girlfriend, a yoga instructor, a bright and clever couple who were friendly and understanding – and Vanessa hoped for two brand new ready-made friends.

Nina and Vanessa had met before, and while Nina had never forgotten their chance encounter, Vanessa was completely oblivious. Exacting revenge for the pain Vanessa’s family had caused Nina was first on her mind in agreeing to help Lachlan with the scam, but somewhere along the line, things change for Nina. In Pretty Things, Janelle Brown shows the underside of this wealthy family and the pain and dysfunction they left trailing behind them. Told from alternating viewpoints, the reader has insight into Nina’s and Vanessa’s thoughts and fears, and seeing their families and their struggles helps make these women more relatable.

What happens when the Player gets played? When a Grifter gets what is coming to them? When someone you love and trust turns out to be the person you always saw? When the Played turns to be a Player?

Lily and her daughter, Nina, are always on the move, one step in front of the landlord. Going from one city to the next trying to make a living. They move to Lake Tahoe, and Nina befriends, Benny, a broken boy and Vanessa, his spoiled sister from a rich family. Tahoe proves to be a short fix though. Life doesn’t turn out exactly as Nina has planned though. She meets Lachlan, and together they start a deceit like no others. They return to Tahoe and target Vanessa, now a famous influencer. What happens from here will open your eyes.

First book by this author. Write up sounded promising, cover was beautiful. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure the book was for me, but as one chapter became 5, I was hooked. Original plot, interesting shady characters and personality disorders. The story unwinds and a decent pace, I wasn’t really sure where it was going, but came together with a somewhat satisfactory/somewhat disappointing ending.

Thanks to Ms Brown, Random House and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown is a story of grifters and revenge. A story of social media influence and its facade of a happy life. It brings to light the old saying money can't buy happiness but it also brings to light that people will steal, cheat, lie and even kill for that money.

Nina's mom was a career con artist and she past down the family business to her daughter Nina. In fairness Nina tries to break free of a life of crime. She graduates college and tries for the high paying career but life throws her some curves and soon she is in L.A. ripping off rich spoil kids to pay for her mom's medical bills.

Vanessa is a heiress and social media influencer who portrays a life of glitz and glamour on line. When events cause her heartache she heads for seclusion at the family estate, Stonehaven. Sadly, she is on Nina's radar as Nina and her no good boyfriend Lachlan plan the con that will eclipse all other cons and let them leave the criminal life forever.

Here's the thing though, Vanessa isn't just a random mark for Nina. There is a history between their families that Vanessa is oblivious to and that enables Nina to set her notorious plan in motion.

There are many twists and turns within this story. It is told from Nina and Vanessa's point of view and neither is a reliable source of information. Even if you are paying close attention without all the facts it's hard to figure out the real con game and who is playing for keeps.

I enjoyed this novel because the writing flowed so easily and I kept forgetting not to trust the protagonists so I was surprised by many of the twists that popped up. That being said the novel is almost 500 pages and I honestly feel it could have been done easily in 400 pages. Pretty Things is about the not so pretty ways people treat each other but it is also a pretty darn good book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Pretty Things. It was a fast read for me. Liked the two view point, and how both characters, Vanessa and Nina, very different ones but nonetheless connected throughout the whole story.

Also liked the unexpected twists, and how all the elements for a great thriller are present. Janelle's writing style is very unique and enjoyable, and will definitely be checking out her previous work.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.