Karen M. McManus is absolutely killing it with her latest book, Such Charming Liars. It's a thrilling, fast-paced YA novel that will keep you glued to your seat. Imagine a mother-daughter heist duo trying to pull off their final job when everything goes sideways. The daughter, Kat, steps up to the plate when her mother is sidelined by a stomach bug, but their well-laid plans go awry when Kat witnesses a murder. Now, she's on the run, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Strong female leads, non-stop action, and a whole lot of girl power make this YA thriller an absolute blast to read.

Such a hard book to put down. It was typical Karen McManus in a way, but also a bit different. I really liked the con artist/heist type stuff in the beginning. The murder doesn't happen for quite awhile so I feel like we learned more about the characters. I adored Kat, Liam, and Augustus. I would actually love another book with the three of them. The adults all pretty much sucked though. No one was good and everyone had secrets. There were a few twists here and there, but nothing too shocking. The pacing was great for me. I don't really want to say anymore and ruin this. Overall, I loved it the same way I love all the other books by the author.

I gave this book 5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my earc.

Karen McManus is one of the best twisty-turny thrilling plot writers for YA lit. I usually adore her books, but this one was not my favorite.

Don't get me wrong, it was good and it will be good for people who already enjoy McManus’s books. She is great at weaving multiple perspectives, dropping clues and red herrings, and keeping the action moving at an engaging pace. This book does those things (mostly) and with likeable characters in an intriguing setting.

But it just wasn’t as gripping as her others. It started a bit slow for one thing. I wasn’t really hooked in until about 1/3 through the book when the heist started to get underway. And though there were some twists and turns, they were somewhat bland. I was never overly surprised by any turn of events. It felt a little bit like going through the motions at times.

That said, I did enjoy the book. It was entertaining and I will definitely recommend it to my mystery and thriller loving students.

Thanks, NetGalley for the advance ereader copy.

Really good! I like Karen M. McManus books. She has a good backlist and I enjoy that each of her books are so different. I loveee the family vibes and more gothic feeling we get with this one.

A jewelry heist, a billionaire’s birthday party, a wooded luxury compound. What could go wrong? Everything in the most McManus way. While more mystery than thriller, this book is still full of twists and turns in true from what we’ve come to love by this author. This is a crowning jewel for sure!

This was a great read as expected! Super fast paced and while I guessed a few things, it definitely had good twists and turns and revealed them in unexpected ways! Definitely a read to pick up!

This book was fantastic! It was a twisty, tense, and thrilling story, and I loved it. The build up of tension was perfect and I could not stop reading. It had me at the edge of my seat. I loved the relationships and friendships and banter.

Thank you to @tbrbeyondtours, the author, @writerkmc, the publisher, @delacortepress as well as @netgalley for e-arc. All thoughts are my own.



For 48 hours, Kat’s mom was married to Jamie’s dad. It all ended with an epic divorce and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.

That changed when Kat and Jamie run into each other at the Sutherland’s. Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight and Kat is tagging along. When a Sutherland dies, they realize they might be in danger themselves and the only people they can trust is each other.


The pacing on this one was slow at the beginning and hard to get into, but then things started to pick up and things moved along at a nice pace. Kat and Liam were both interesting characters and they each had some traumas in their pasts. There were a couple of twists that I didn’t entirely see coming and were pretty surprising. There really was a lot going on between all the characters. It was a little difficult to keep track of all the plot points just because of the sheer volume of them all, but they all did work. I enjoyed the epilogue because it wrapped things up nicely and put a nice bow on it all. Overall this one was a really good read, and I had a lot of fun with it.

This book kept me intrigued until the very end. It wasn’t too predictable which I liked and definitely shocked me at a few of the surprises sprinkled throughout. The story follows a mom and daughter who are “completing” one last heist before trying to live a normal life and pretty much anything that can go wrong does.

Thanks to random house for the ARC via NetGalley.

Honestly super great YA thriller. I have been binge reading all of McManus’ books. This one has a great story line with good twists that kept me guessing. I enjoyed this read. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was Kat’s thinking in the beginning.

This was such a great, twisty, mystery, thriller! Kat's mom and Liam's dad are both con artists who were married briefly twelve years ago in Las Vegas. All four of them end up at a swanky party weekend in Maine, for very different reasons. Told in alternating perspectives between Kat and Liam, the reveals and twists will keep readers on the edge of their seats. If you like con game thrillers, you definitely want to read this! Highly recommended for grades 9 & up.

4.75 stars

A twisty heist-gone-wrong murder mystery to remember!

Kat's mom is pressured into pulling off one more job swiping a necklace for a jewel thief before getting their lives back on track. En route to the Sutherland estate, they run into Liam and his dad, who happens to have been wedded to Kat's mom for 48 hours several years back. When a member of the Sutherland family ends up murdered, Kat and Liam find themselves in the middle of the mystery.

I've loved every single McManus book I've read, and this is no exception. There are so many layers to this story. Kat and Liam each have their own traumas going on while exploring a sibling relationship that apparently never truly went away. The pacing was a little slow at the beginning, but it quickly ramps up and takes a whole lot of twists to get to the end. There's a little bit of queer romance (M/M) which I was happy with. I wish there had been an epilogue to explain what eventually happened to everyone, but maybe there's another book coming with the same characters?

Overall, I loved the book and would highly recommend to readers who enjoy YA thrillers, especially involving heists.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This wasn't fast-paced, but it was still full of twists and turns, some more predictable than others - the end was certainly a surprise!
There's a large cast of characters, many of them unlikeable, though I did like Liam a lot! The family dynamics were very interesting, and the fact that these 2 con families with a connected past ended up at the same place, each trying to run their own con, was great.

A jewel thief with a teenage daughter decides to pull off one more heist for her mentor and boss before going straight. But things don't go as planned for Jaimie and Kat at the wealthy businessman's compound and instead of a jewelry heist ; one of the family members is murdered.

This plot has so many twists and turns with ex-spouses, con men, ex-prisoners and duplicitous family members all getting involved that reader's trying to solve the mysteries of who killed the relative, who actually has the stolen necklace and not the fake(s), and what family member was the inside source will be kept guessing until the very end.

The characters of Kat and Liam are well developed and readers can certainly understand the choices they make based on their histories.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Such Charming Liars has everything I have always loved about Karen M. McManus books: lovable characters with adorable bonds, a good mystery, multiple POVs, and lots of twists. I enjoyed the added layer of theft and con artists, making this truly a mystery rather than just a murder mystery, which was different from much of what I normally read and much appreciated.

I had a harder time getting into this book than I usually do with McManus's books. I think this was in part because there was A LOT going on, and it was difficult to keep track of all the plot points sometimes. We had multiple traumatic backstories, so many crimes, a ton of characters... It was a bit overwhelming when I usually go into YA books like this expecting easy entertainment. The pacing was also a bit strange because there was so much happening, and then the characters would remind us that it had only been one day.

However, I loved the ending of this book. There were so many things I didn't think were going to be resolved or wouldn't end up being relevant, but everything came together and wrapped up in a very dramatic, creative and satisfying way.

Kat and Liam have a past…albeit one from when they were just little kids, but when they run into each other at the Sutherland compound their pasts collide with their futures. Kat and her mom have been living with Gem, who isn’t really on the straight and narrow. Jamie, Kat’s mom is going to do one more job for her and then break away to give Kat a shot at a normal life. They didn’t expect to see Liam and his dad Luke at the location of the job. Things start going sideways right out of the gate and Liam and Lat must figure out how to…well, stay alive.

McManus is a hit for me every time. I love her writing style and how she weaves a story. This was no exception and I enjoyed all of it!

This was a fun read! I liked the heist-angle of the jewelry swap, and the mother/daughter dynamic. I think readers of all ages will enjoy this.

This twisty YA thriller is told in alternate viewpoints from Kat and Liam. She's sixteen; he's seventeen. They were stepbrother and stepsister for forty-eight hours when his scammer father married her mother. They separated when the two children got lost in Las Vegas when they were supposed to be under Liam's father's care. They haven't seen each other for the twelve years that passed since those events in Las Vegas.

Now, they are meeting again as Kat's mother Jamie is doing one last heist for her employer Gem before she retires to a legitimate life. Liam's father Luke has scammed his way into a relationship with Annalise Sutherland, youngest daughter of a billionaire. Jamie is at the estate to steal a priceless necklace as her ticket out of her life of crime.

Liam has only lived with his scamming father for some months, since his mother died in a car accident. He's determined to ruin any scam his father has in the works, but he isn't sure what to do about Annalise. He's even less sure when he reencounters Jamie and Kat because his actions could cause problems for the girl he thought of as his sister for a short time.

The story is full of twists including the death of one of the other Sutherland children. He's shot to death and found with a copy of the necklace Jamie was supposed to switch for a flawless duplicate. Kat witnesses the shooting but can't identify the shooter. But he's seen her and makes two attempts on her mother's life since he believes she was the witness.

Liam, Kat and Liam's new boyfriend Augustus Sutherland are all working to figure out what is going on. There seem to be too many necklaces and too many villains and nothing is clear about who killed Parker Sutherland.

I enjoyed this story and really liked the young characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

As a longtime fan of Karen McManus, I was so excited to read this! I really enjoyed the book, especially the heist/con elements of the story.

Kat and her mom, Jamie, plan to participate in one last heist and then leave that life for good. But, their plans are thrown into chaos when Jamie's ex-husband is present, someone is murdered, and then someone is trying to take them out of the equation for good. The story is fast-paced and fun, with lots of twists I did not predict! I will absolutely be buying a copy for my classroom library.

This book was such an amazing read. Karen McManus never ceases to tell a great story! This book kept me engaged from beginning to end. I know my students will love it