This is the story of a con woman and her boyfriend trying to pull off a major scam on a family that wronged her in the past. They end up connecting to the daughter of the family, who is not exactly who she appears. As the reader, it was hard to figure out who to trust and who was the real con person. That kept me interested throughout this long book. There were definitely twists and things I did not see coming, especially towards the end of the book, but it’s not a fast-paced thriller. There is strong character development and I really enjoyed the writing style. Once you let yourself settle in for the long haul, this is a very enjoyable read.

Thank you to Janelle Brown, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is at least a third too long. It's slow, it wanders and it's boring for at least a third of it. Which is too bad because the synopsis is eye catching, the first 20% is good. Then you are in flashback snooze. It picks back up with the con but takes another trip to the coma train until the last 15 % where the twists and turns are tight and well done. Started reading in February and almost gave up on this netgalley ARC. At best 2,5 ⭐

Pretty Things is my new favorite book.( I’m not exactly sure which genre I would classify it). Basically it is a cat and mouse chase but the cat and the mouse are constantly changing. Nina and Vanessa were the main players and they were excellent characters. Alternating narrators allows us to peek inside the brains of each of them. Thank you to Janelle Brown for giving me a most entertaining ride.

This is my favorite book by this author so far. I had a hard time getting interested at first. I don't know if that was due to slow early chapters or just my mood. But once I was about a quarter or more of the way through, I didn't want to put it down. I liked that I switched my preference constantly between Nina and Vanessa. One minute I liked Nina better and understood her motivations, the next Vanessa. I think both characters will be a little hard for the average reader to relate to, since neither like to work for a living and instead live off other people. But makes for great, fun fiction. The scam at the center of the main plot is a disappointment, though, not in its execution, but in it's goal. Steal money from a safe after getting the owner to trust them enough to give them access. I would think a "scam of a lifetime" would be automatically more complex and clever than the normal job, no matter the sum of money at the end. But that's a minor thing I nit pick about.

Such a smart, twisty suspense novel. I was thoroughly engaged, trying to figure out how everything would shake out. I love a smart protagonist and this one did not disappoint.

Wowie! Wow! Wow! Was that ever good! Roller-coasters are my favorite! :)

This is my first, and absolutely not my last adventure with Janelle Brown's writing!

This slow burning novel is told from alternating perspectives of the heiress, socialite, Instagram influencer and the woman who is trying to run a con on her. There's a lot more going on here and I don't want to ruin anything, but this is an intriguing read.

Aside from being very fun, traipsing through the life of a rich girl. There are also a lot of food for thought and quotable quotes in the book. One, for example, "perspectivve is, by nature, subjective. It's impossible to climb inside someone else's head, despite your best-or worst-intentions."

I stayed up WAAAAAYYYYY too late reading this one and I know you will, too!

I can't wait to go back and check out all the rest of Janelle Brown's books.

A special thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Janelle Brown for providing me with an ARC.

I was super unsure about this book at the start as it took a while to get into it, but once I did, I just couldn’t put it down.

It centers around a cunning con woman and an old money heiress, as their worlds collide and they try to save their families. The plot twists and turns, their deepest secrets are revealed, and the women try to survive the greatest game of deceit and destruction they will ever play. Just when you think you have it all figured out, things end up taking quite a turn and you’re left questioning it all.

5 STARS for Pretty Things by Janelle Brown.

This was my favorite book of the year. Seriously, it was so good, you will shush your children, burn the bread, and escape to the basement to pretend match socks if it means more time to read.

This book sucked me in from the very beginning and I found myself gasping multiple times while reading it. I could sense my eyes widening as I tried to anticipate the next things to happen in the book. And, can I tell you something? Time and again, NOTHING I anticipated was right!

Janelle Brown outdid herself with the setting of Pretty Things. I found myself wrapped up in the velvet couches and heavy curtains of old money, the mansion, and the antiques inside the pages. I could smell the must holding all the secrets down dark hallways and like any good book, Janelle shows you what it means to side with all of the characters.

Do not scroll to the next review, do not app hop over to facebook to check on your friends. If you are looking for the next book to take you away from the chaos we're going through right now, head over to your favorite bookstore and order Pretty Things by Janelle Brown. Or, you could read it on your kindle, which I also recommend. Because you're going to want to read it after you've turned the lights out. The kindle will be perfect.

The book comes out Tuesday. I didn't want this one to end and hope like heck there's a movie coming soon.

Thanks to @netgalley, @randomhouse and @janellebrownie for the opportunity to read this before everyone else in exchange for an honest review. I mean, it was a real treat and I'm literally wigging out to talk to someone else who has also read it. Y'all. For real.

I was very excited to learn that Janelle Brown’s Pretty Things is being turned into a television show staring Nicole Kidman because as I was reading it all I could think was I would 100% watch this show, this book is made for the small screen!

I tend to really enjoy books that tell the same story from two different points of view. In Pretty Things we are first introduced to Nina a young woman who has turned her art degree into a career as grifter, stealing precious antiques from the rich and hawking them on the black market. When things begin to get dicey Nina decides to pull off one last con. Her biggest con yet and one that will land her in a town that she thought she would never see again.

Next we meet Vanessa, Nina’s mark. An old money heiress and instagram influencer who after a broken engagement has fallen off the grid. Vanessa needs some time to clear her mind and reinvent herself so she heads back to her, now vacant, childhood home. Soon Nina and Vanessa’s worlds will collide and change them both in ways they never would have imagined.

Quite often when reading an author for the first time I will look up some of their previous work just to get an idea of what to expect. Despite the advanced praise for Pretty Things I was slightly nervous upon seeing that Janelle Brown’s first two novels weren’t very well received, however she obviously found her footing with Pretty Things. The characters were well developed, the story moved at a great pace and it kept me wanting more.

Pretty Things will be released on April 21st and if you, like most of us, are holed up in the house and in need of a good book to break the monotony I highly recommend putting your order in now for this one!

Nina is a con artist, a grifter looking to pull of her biggest heist yet. Vanessa is a wealthy heiress looking to make her mark on the world. When the two meet on the shores of Lake Tahoe can Nina pull off this heist?
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Pretty Things had the perfect synopsis. It reminded me of The Bling Ring which I loved so I was eager to dive in. This was labeled as a thriller and thriller it is not. This is a long slow burn that focuses on so much set up that I felt that the story got lost along the way. There were parts were it picked up and I couldn't read it fast enough but then it went back to more character development and set up. Benny was such a delightful character definitely my favorite. Janelle's writing is great it is very immersive but unfortunately this book fell short for me. I would recommend this to someone who likes slow burn stories and anything similar to ask again yes.

Pretty Things is not a high-octane thriller, but a slow-burner with a lot of backstory which is told in dual narration by the two main characters, Nina and Vanessa. Their perspectives are naturally colored by their limited knowledge and their belief in others’ misperceptions.

Vanessa is a vapid, poor-little-rich girl who is perpetually seeking validation from others. Nina is more sympathetic, but she is very naïve despite the nature of the people in her intimate circle.

I loved the story premise, and the dual narration by two questionable narrators added a dark sense of foreboding. However, with this dual narration, there is a bit too much duplication, and that combined with the abundance of description and detail, made for very long book. I feel that some careful editing is in order. It is the difference between the movie you don’t wish to end and the one that leaves you squirming in your seat because it is unnecessarily long.

I did very much enjoy the last third of the book. Not only does the plot pace pick up at the point, but the balance starts to tip. I was delighted to no longer be sure of how the story would play out, and the twists are amazing! I did not see the pivotal roles of two of the secondary characters. The wicked indignation made me want to roar. The story climax is perfect, and the denouement unexpected. I haven’t decided exactly how I feel about the ending, but it is clever.

Nina had a life set out for herself that was the opposite of her moms. She was going to go to college and make something of herself to avoid her moms con artist ways. When her gets cancer however, Nina wants to give her the best care possible, which just isn’t possible on her measly NYC salary. Vanessa is the perfect mark. A young heiress whose world revolves around instagram. Can Nina and her partner Lachlan pull off their greatest con yet?

So this book is technically considered a thriller. I’m not sure I would put it in with most thrillers, though it was certainly a page turner. It was a mix of family drama, mystery, a little thriller, and mostly a lot of drama. It’s a super rare occasion for me to drop my mouth open in shock while reading these days, and this book accomplished it at least twice. Every character had something lovable, but also hatable about them which you all know is my jam! There were times I wanted to cry for both Nina and Vanessa, but also times I wanted to smack them both! This one unexpectedly blew me away! It’s a bit on the longer side, so I was putting off picking it up, but that was a big mistake! Don’t miss out on this amazing read!

“It’s easiest to judge from a distance. That’s why the Internet has turned us all into armchair critics, experts at the cold dissection of gesture and syllable, sneering self-righteously from the safety of our screens. There, we can feel good about ourselves, validated that our flaws aren’t as bad as theirs, unchallenged in our superiority. Moral high ground is a pleasant place to perch, even if the view turns out to be rather limited in scope. But it’s much harder to judge when someone is in your face, human in their vulnerability.”

Well, April is shaping up to be an incredible month for new books and Pretty Things is my latest “YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK AS SOON AS IT RELEASES” recommendation. This is the perfect book to lose yourself in while quarantined as we follow two con artists who are trying to scam an heiress turned lifestyle blogger out of her fortune. There’s mystery, murder and revenge as well as an astute takedown of Instagram and our collective obsession with celebrity influencers and social media. This was such a wild ride and Nicole Kidman just announced that she has purchased the rights to develop this novel in to a TV series and I. CAN. NOT. WAIT!!! Thank you so much to Random House for sending this arc. It was awesome.

This was a popcorn level thriller that I couldn't stop reading!

It's told in the alternating POV of Nina, the drifter con:
"The world can be divided into two kinds of people: those who wait to have things given to them and those who take what they want."

And her mark Vanessa:
"You can't stop yourself from clicking on my name even though you tell everyone that you hate me. I fascinate you." The Instagram influencer who seems to have it all.

It was a fun look into both worlds with a satisfying revenge twist ending. This author really writes about female relationships and friendship well and I will continue to look for books by her.

Nina and her boyfriend Lachlan are scammers stealing from the wealthy in Los Angeles. When it becomes necessary for Nina to leave the city, she and Lachlan travel to Lake Tahoe. Their mark is Vanessa Liebling, an heiress and Instagram influencer who has retreated to her family estate, Stonehaven. Nina had encountered members of the Liebling family in the past and is now looking not just for money but for revenge. Nina and Lachlan insert themselves into Vanessa’s life, but things do not proceed as planned.

The book begins slowly with the focus on character development. The perspective of both Nina and Vanessa is given, with several flashbacks providing detailed backstories. As a result, the reader comes to know each of the women very well. Both prove to be complex people with both positive traits and flaws. The reader will find him/herself liking and disliking both of them at different times and thinking each is both a victim and a villain. Because their pasts are explained, it is possible to understand their behaviour in the present.

Both of the women are dynamic. They learn about themselves and others. One of the women, for instance, rails against her circumstances and the behaviour of others but eventually feels shame: “Shame that I did not do more with what I did have, and shame that I pretended that the road I’d taken was the only option I had. Because it wasn’t. I chose that road. I made it mine. And if this is where it took me, it’s my own fault.”

In the second half, after the action and pace pick up, there are a number of plot twists. Most are believable given the people involved. It soon becomes clear that people are not what they seem, both in real life and on social media. Suspense is created because no one can be fully trusted.

The novel is a commentary on the shallowness of social media. Vanessa thinks about the importance of appearing authentic while carefully showing only the positive: “The ability to convincingly perform authenticity is perhaps the most necessary skill set for my generation. And the image you exude must be compelling, it must be brand-positive, it must be cohesive no matter how fractured your internal dialog might be.” There are comments like “social media feeds the narcissistic monster that lives within us all” and “the Internet has turned us all into armchair critics, experts at the cold dissection of gesture and syllable, sneering self-righteously from the safety of our screens. There, we can feel good about ourselves, validated that our flaws aren’t as bad as theirs, unchallenged in our superiority. Moral high ground is a pleasant place to perch, even if the view turns out to be rather limited in scope.” Because of social media, “People don’t take the time to really look at each other anymore. We live in a world of surface imagery, skimming past each other, registering just enough to assign a category and label before moving on to the next shiny thing.”

A comparison is made between grifters and people like Vanessa who curate their lives on social media; Vanessa is called a queen of duplicity and told, “’Your career has been all about spinning lies. Putting up a pretty façade for public consumption when you’re a mess underneath. Selling a life that doesn’t really exist. . . . You’ve been profiting off a mythical version of yourself, promoting unachievable aspiration, giving your half-million followers insecurity complexes and dooming them to a lifetime of FOMO therapy. You’re a huckster.’”

Though the book starts slowly and is somewhat repetitive (because of overlap when the same event is shown from different perspectives), readers who persist will be rewarded. Will you be able to find the truth in the tangled web of lies?

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley. This book will be released on April 21.

There are lots of novels that sound great on the dust-cover but don't live up to the hype. For me, if the characters don't feel real, if they each don't have a well-developed backstory, the book just reads like a paint-by-numbers. Janelle Brown excels at giving the reader vividly believable characters and is able to give backstory without slowing down the pace, and that's deft talent. I loved the interplay between Vanessa and Nina, plus oh so sweet Benny. For different reasons, I just wanted to hug each one of these desperately flawed people. A well-crafted and original page-turner. Brava.

Thank you, #Netgalley for the e-review edition of this book.

Heard lots about this one and looked forward to reading it, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. Too many books too little time! Heard positive things from other readers so will most likely add to our collection despite not finishing it.

This was a Traveling Sister Read. Norma and I picked up on some different things and went down two different paths with this one, each thinking differently about who was in that prologue.

Nina is working her most dangerous scam here and Vanessa, an heiress, is her mark. They are two very different women who have something in common and things are not so pretty here for them. They are not very likable at all, but each had an interesting back story to them, that had me feeling a bit of sympathy for them both.

The pace was slow for me in parts and then fast in other parts. At times some parts of the story felt like those packing peanuts that are used for filler and surround that anticipated package you are waiting for. You have to weed through some filler to get to the good stuff and that weighted down the story for me. I think that is where Norma and I went in different directions with not sure what was a clue or important to the story or not, or maybe were red herrings to throw us off.

The thing I loved about the story the most was Vanessa's connection to her brother Benny, and I would have liked him to have filled up some of that filler space instead of what felt like packing peanuts to me.

There are some surprising twists here, some interesting ones and some that I figured out along the way. Overall I was entertained by them all, and in the end, it's all about the good stuff, and I like the way the story wrapped up, and it all worked for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House and Janelle Brown for the opportunity to read her latest thriller - oh my, I literally just sat in my chair and read until I finished this one! 5 stars for a twisty tale that will definitely keep you guessing as to who exactly is telling the truth!

The book opens with a body in Lake Tahoe, notorious for not giving up its dead. Then the rest of the book is told in two distinct voices - Nina and Vanessa. Nina is a grifter raised by a mom who was always looking for the next mark. Nina was smart enough to get away for school but when her mom got cancer, she came home to take care of her, meaning she had to resort to making big money fast, with the help of her con man boyfriend, Lachlan. Vanessa is an heiress but who has managed to turn into a famous Instagram influencer, but fame can't hide her broken pieces and the tragedies that have befallen her family. These two very different women come together for one last scam.

I loved the way this book was told - we hear from both Nina and Vanessa, giving their very different interpretations to the same events, while both hiding secrets from even themselves.

This is the newest thriller by this bestselling California author. Nina's mom is a grifter and when her small salary from her job does not allow her to pay the medical bills when her mom has cancer, she joins up with her boyfriend to pull a few cons. Just when she thinks she is done and her mom is well, her mom announces the cancer is back and the experimental drug they want to use is very expensive. Nina agrees to one last job , this time going back to a town in she lived as a teenager to steal from a wealthy family. This thriller develops slowly and is more of a character study, but I found it very entertaining.