Really, really enjoyed this one. Clearly a very talented writer, great story with lots of twists and turns most of which surprised me, Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

The title, PRETTY THINGS, sums up this excellent novel set mostly in Lake Tahoe, California. Two young women, Nina and Vanessa, fit the physical description perfectly. Vanessa is a rich heiress living the perfectly curated life in New York, Instagrammed with thousands of followers. Nina likes the same things that enthrall Vanessa and her followers, but Nina has other ways of acquiring the luxury life, she cons her way into getting expensive items and sells them. Nina's degree in Art History comes in useful as she examines the homes and objects of her targets. Lachlan, her dreamy Irish boyfriend, is her armpiece to help win over their wealthy victims.

Neither Nina or Vanessa have had happy experiences as young adults, and when their lives collide in Lake Tahoe, sparks fly, and suspenseful energy forced me to devour this story. Vanessa is an incredibly privileged and unlikeable character. Nina comes off much more sympathetically. She and her mother have had to claw their way through life with no help. They are alone in the world and rely solely on each other. Enter Lachlan, a handsome guy with charm and a good accent with a story about a wealthy family back in Ireland. The chemistry between Nina and Lachlan is intense, and they set out from LA to a place Nina used to love but now dreads, Lake Tahoe.

The couple's target is Vanessa, an easy mark as her life illustrates in pictures on social media. The three form a happy little family in Vanessa's family mansion until the plan goes awry. The surprises in this excellent novel kept me reading. I loved all the elements Janelle Brown used in her writing to make this a meaningful story, one where some of the characters experience redemption, and others fall to the side, and life goes on.

I will look for more of JB's work. I loved the structure of her storytelling with alternating points of view and sparing no one the sins of human frailty.

Thank you to the author, Random House, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this e-ARC before its April publish date.

I thought this book was really well-done. It wasn't entirely predictable, the story kept me guessing, and I finished it rather quickly!

This book was a rollercoaster of twist and turns. It was a quick read and held my attention the whole way through. The only draw back was that at certain points throughout the book it seemed a little repetitive.

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

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

Lots of secrets and even more lies. With alternating chapters between con artist Nina and insecure heiress Vanessa, the story unfolds at a consistent and interesting pace.

4.25☆

3.5 stars round up to 4

This cover is gorgeous!! I must admit that is what initially drew me to this book. This book started out really strong the first couple of chapters. I defiantly was drawn right in as Nina seemed to be a hardcore player in this game she was playing- stealing from the wealthy.

Then we seem to hit a speed bump and stay in low gear until about the 65% point in the book. I actually considered setting this book aside right before it picked up. Then we flew into high gear again and I was thinking well this is what I wanted from page one!

A great deal of the book is spent highly developing the two main characters- Nina and Vanessa. Vanessa is a wealthy, Instagram "it" girl who is famous for ...well nothing...you know the type.

Then we have Nina...Nina is a con artist. She learned from the best...dear old mom. When her mom no longer can hustle people due to her cancer diagnosis, Nina steps in. Like mother, like daughter right?

We get a full look at Nina's background and we see that if Nina had not made one little mistake, her life might have turned out quite differently...or would it? That is the million dollar question. What we do know is that after 12 years, Nina wants to settle the score.

This book was just a tad too long and too slow of a burn for me. However I did enjoy it, I was just glad that it picked up speed towards the ending. There were several twists towards the end- some I saw coming and some I did not. Overall I enjoyed this book but it didn't have me floored or speechless at the end. I think someone that doesn't read as many thrillers as I do may rate this quite a bit higher. I was just looking for a bit more action.

Thank you so much to Random House for this ARC.

A grifter and a lonely heiress--two women whose paths seem fated for collision--are gorgeously rendered by an author with a tantalizing talent for character. The parallel narratives overlap a smidgeon too much, but the read is always rewarding, even haunting. A wonderfully talented writer!

3.5 stars. Pretty Things by Janelle Brown is a psychological thriller set in Lake Tahoe that is a perfect read for the beach or on a flight. The storyline is narrated alternately by Nina Ross, who was raised by her con-artist mother, and Vanessa Liebling, an heiress who became an Instagram influencer. To get money to help pay for her mother’s cancer treatments, Nina moves to Lake Tahoe with Lachlan, her boyfriend and partner-in-crime, because they have targeted Vanessa as part of their latest scheme. However, none of these characters are really who they first seem to be, as the reader discovers once Nina’s backstory with the Liebling family begins to come into play.

I really enjoyed the rollercoaster ride this novel provided, but the novel was too long, hence the 3.5 stars. The main problem is that while the alternative narration works nicely, at times much of the dialogue and description of events is merely repeated by both narrators, making portions of the novel unnecessarily redundant.

All in all, this was a pleasant, quick read — and definitely a page-turner that was full of plenty of twists and turns.

I feel like this book could have been shorter. There was a big portion of the book that went into the backstories of Nina and Vanessa and I don’t think that was necessary. I was also able to predict what some of the plot twists were so it wasn’t as suspenseful as I would have liked. The book wasn’t bad but was just ok for me.

"Pretty Things" had the unfortunate problem of having a boring title and a similar cover to last year's 'hit' "The Starless Sea" by Erin Morgenstern. Unfortunately, I decided to read both at the same time and have been lost at sea (sorry, I had to write that) with "The Starless Sea." Enough that I decided that I would be bored with "Pretty Things" as well. I know, it's horrible logic and doesn't make any sense at all. And I was so very wrong.
"Pretty Things" is one of the better mystery thrillers I have read recently. It went in a completely different direction than I expected more than once, but in a good way. Both main characters (one a grifter, one a lonely heiress) are flawed, easy to dislike people. Yet, they are still relatable and really hold the story together. Some events are repeated from each other's perspective, which can show how two people that go through the same thing still experience it differently. I enjoyed the twists and turns that this book led me through.I am giving this book a five-star rating, but I did find the ending/last 15% a bit unsatisfying. Everything is resolved nicely, but I don't think it did all of the characters justice and it was a bit predictable.
Relatively short review on this one because I would rather not spoil any details- you just need to know that this is a (long-ish) suspense/mystery that is character led and well-written. Let the story take you from there!
Thank you Netgalley and Random House for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not sure why I waited so long to read this one because I loved it! The two characters, Nina and Vanessa, were likable despite having issues, the story was enjoyable, and the ending was perfect! Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

What a great book! I love books that have twists and keep you guessing. I loved reading about Nina and Vanessa! I couldn't put this book down!

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review. I had read Brown's previous book Watch Me Disappear. Pretty Things will BLOW YOU AWAY. First off, please note the length of this book at 496 pages. Admittedly most of the books I read are around 300-400 pages, so perhaps a little daunting to a reader. However, the plot moves at a very good pace, so it doesn't feel dragged out, slow or too wordy.

Brown spends her time introducing us to Nina Ross, who is decidedly of the "have nots". Her nomadic growing up with her mom as a grifter and opportunist lead her to her current lifestyle of Robin Hood eque cons with her shady boyfriend Lachlan. Nina is between marks when she sets her sights on Vanessa Liebling, an Instagram influencer who she has a personal history with, as she "dated" her little brother Benny. The book mosts between past and present seamlessly, gathering suspense as she brings her alter ego Ashley to get access to a safe at the Liebling family "home" where she recalls the password and the million dollars cash. Then we get Vanessa's point of view and back and forth gradually as we see what each really knows about the other until you aren't sure who is playing who. (Whom?) The ending with some surprises as to betrayal and alliances is brilliant. Not once did I feel like I wanted the book to end. I highly recommend this book.

You will think that this book is about one thing, but then it changes, and is about something else. Then it changes again. It is exciting, fun to read, and fascinating.

Nina is a con artist, who uses her “earnings” to help her mother, who is undergoing expensive cancer treatments. One big job is the key to their future... Nina is counting on her sometimes boyfriend/con partner Lachlan to help her pull it off.

This story goes back in time and tells how Nina got to this point, and comes back to the present in several viewpoints.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC of this book.

This was such a fun read. Janelle Brown does an excellent job with dark and twisty books. She strikes the perfect balance of avoiding predictability without things feeling too unbelievable. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for her books in the future. If you liked books like The Wife Between Us or The Last Mrs. Parrish this will be right up your alley.

I am conflicted with my feelings on this book.

I found myself highlighting so many quotes in the first half of this book. The author hit the nail on the head when it comes to social media and the psychology around those whose lives revolve around the fake life that is social media. I was enthralled with that plot point of the story.

However, that is where it kind of ended for me. Even though the social media aspect was interesting, the rest of the book itself fell flat for me. The story was slow. There was a lot of filler that didn't contribute to anything. I found myself skimming from time to time, just wanting the book to end.

I found I ended up not liking any of the characters in this book. They are all self absorbed and out of touch with reality. I can't find a redeeming quality in any of them.

The ending was one of the best things about the book. Revenge and retribution are always a great thing for an ending. And two of the characters get theirs in the best kind of way.

Overall, this book was okay. It moved slow. It had a handful of good parts. I didn't love it, but I didn't dislike it either.

Thank you to Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book. Yes!! What a fantastic page turner. I enjoyed the story from two polarizing perspectives which was made all the more powerful by omitting other perspectives which would have just added white noise to the story. The story line was unpredictable and full of plausible twists and turns that pulled me in deeper with every chapter. until it exploded into one F'd up mess. Excellent.

Nina is a professional con woman living in Los Angeles. Having learned the trade from her mother (a longtime con artist herself), Nina spends her days stealing from the rich in heists cooked up with her boyfriend Lachlan. But when her mother has a relapse in her disease and needs to start an expensive treatment, Nina realizes she needs to step up her game and make some money fast. She comes up with an elaborate plan to swindle Vanessa, an old-money heiress turned Instagram influencer living in a massive, inherited mansion in Lake Tahoe. Nina and Lachlan create new identities and quickly begin to weave their way into Vanessa’s privileged life. But it turns out Vanessa has some secrets of her own. This book was a fun, thrilling, unputdownable romp with twist after twist. Virtually every character vacillates between sympathetic and unlikeable, and every one of them will surprise you at some point in the story. Pretty Things is a light, quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed. Think of it as the perfect beach read for your Spring Break vacation!

I describe many books as a rollercoaster ride, but imagine if at the end the operator told you to go again...and again....until you could barely breathe. That's what this book felt like to me! Nina and her mother are cons and grifters who find a mark and steal whatever they can get away with that won't be noticed. Nina's boyfriend, Lachlan who drifts in and out of her life is in on it too. When they find Nina's old high school boyfriend's sister Vanessa has inherited her parents' huge estate in Lake Tahoe, the pair are determined to make Vanessa their next target as Nina was humiliated by her boyfriend's father. So they begin their con and Nina believes, "This is what the internet has given my generation: the ability to play God. We can make man in our own image, birth an entire human being out of nothing at all." As they set up their fake Instagram and Facebook pages, we are captivated by this elaborate plan. But does anything ever pan out as it should? Vanessa has her own demons to face and when the three meet, all hell breaks loose! So don't plan on getting off that rollercoaster anytime soon! We see flawed characters who actually do have some humanity in the face of deceit and once you've climbed off the ride...well, you may just want to go again!

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! While I love thrillers and mysteries of all kinds, I often find that their conclusions or revelations are predictable. I felt that Nina's story was anything but that -- every character was complex and hidden motivations were truly that: hidden. Definitely a book my library may pick up for our Popular Fiction collection.