I just finished the ARC of Pretty Things by Janelle Brown. Thank you so much to #NetGalley and #RandomHousePublishingGroup for this opportunity. I have read 27 books to date this year and I have to say that Pretty Things has got to be one of my absolute favorites. I found myself immediately drawn to the characters and invested in their stories. Janelle Brown created characters that I was simultaneously fascinated by yet was also appalled with. I couldn’t get enough of this twisted tale. Without giving anything away, I will say that at different points during the book I was rooting for both Nina and also Vanessa. It was interesting to read the story from each of their points of view. I would, hands down, recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a psychological suspense story that will pull you into its tangled web from page one.

Deception, lies, secrets, revenge, and money. This book is a combination of all the things I love about psychological thrillers with a few unique elements thrown in. It has a twisty plot, unreliable narrators, and at the center of it all is a big con. The secrets and lies are almost the basis for the plot and we learn that more than one character has a boatload of them. The plot seems simple enough but the way the story is told is what makes it interesting. There are two narrators: Nina and Vanessa. Through their eyes the story unfolds. Nina is the daughter of a grifter and has become one herself. She and her boyfriend/partner Lachlan are con artists. Vanessa is an heiress turned instagram influencer who is going through a rough time. On the surface these two would not have anything in common but along the way we learn of their connection. At the heart of the story is the art of deception and sometimes it is hard to know who to trust. That is one of the things I enjoyed most about this book. I liked not really knowing who to trust and the author did a great job with the twists and turns that were revealed. I liked that the story was dependent upon any major twists but the ones that were added were in there for a reason. I found myself genuinely surprised and when you read a lot of thrillers, that can be hard. I don't want to say too much about the plot because (as I always say) it is best to go in blind.

This book deals with the themes of privilege and how sometimes money isn't all its cracked up to be. Pretty things at the end of the day are just things and things don't make you happy. I liked how the author dealt with social media and how satisfying and unsatisfying it can be. We sometimes seek validation from other people when we only need it from ourselves. I also liked how we got to see some of the same events told by both Nina and Vanessa. Perception, in my opinion, is also one of the themes of the book. By telling the same events by the two narrators, we see how different a situation can be perceived.

My overall feelings about this book is that I enjoyed it. This is the art of deception at its best. It is witty at times and mostly well paced. Its unexpected and fun. If I delve a little deeper into my feelings I can say that at the beginning I didn't enjoy reading from Vanessa's point of view and that is when the pace dragged a bit. I was eager to get back to Nina and see how things were going for her. However, towards the end of the book, the pace picked back up and I couldn't read it fast enough. I didn't have any trouble with the length and even though there were some parts that dragged, I found that they were necessary to the story. The characters are so layered and I always enjoy when an author gives us characters that we can both like and dislike at the same time. As far as the ending goes, I am glad that it wasn't rushed. It is the worst when a book is so good and then all of a sudden the ending is lackluster. This is not the case here and I was satisfied with the ending. All in all this is an extremely clever and well written book that thriller lovers will enjoy. This is the first book I've read by Brown but it will not be the last!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read this book.

This was my first Janelle Brown book and I was thoroughly impressed! Pretty Things was definitely more of a slow burn for me but that's okay. I felt like there was a lot of character development that needed to be done and Janelle did exactly that so we understood every character's role in the story.

I think that Benny's family and past is the reason he turned out to be schizophrenic. The Lieblings had a lot of crazy issues but then again, what family doesn't? I love how Janelle tied together Nina's past and the twist with her mom! I never would've guessed that her mom had faked cancer so Nina would go after the Lieblings after all of those years. That was wild.

Overall, this was a good book! I really enjoyed it and the chance to read and review before publication date!

I could NOT put this book down! This book contained all the right plot twists.. I honestly couldn’t figure out who did what, how things happened and constantly find myself saying WTF!!! This book is about two completely different women whose paths crossed when they were young and then again brought back together... a grifter and an heiress... brought together by a scan of a lifetime. This is a me vs you kind of book, sense of entitlement, thinking they are where they are in life because of what everyone else did to them. I can’t write more without giving away too much. A definite must read! 4.5/5 stars!!!

Thank you Netgalley and Janelle Brown for this wonderful ARC! Definitely my most favorite yet!

Nina's dream of avoiding following her mother's life of grifting and con games by getting a college degree falls apart when she finds herself under loads of student debt with a mother dying of cancer and in need of expensive treatments. With her boyfriend, Lachlan, she turns to Instagram to stalk filthy rich 20-somethings, seduce them, and "relieve" them of valuables. Eventually her sights land on major social media influencer Vanessa, a privileged young heiress who has just inherited her family's estate in Tahoe. While Nina and Lachlan come up with a con to finagle their way into Vanessa's life in order to take advantage of her wealth, the reader gets the backstory on just why Nina has a particular grudge against Vanessa, along with Vanessa's point of view about her difficult family and the present situation. While I did like how the same parts of the story were told from both Nina and Vanessa's points of view (so that you get two angles on the same situation, and it takes a while to decide which narrator you can trust), it sometimes felt a bit repetitive, so at first I wasn't sure this was going to be higher than a 3-star read for me - also because these characters weren't particularly likeable or sympathetic early on. Eventually they both really worked their way into my feelings though and I began to have more understanding of why they would be/act the way they are. So I really liked how in the end that provided some real depth, beyond just the twists and turns of the plot (which also turned out to be juicy), by exploring their histories and their psyches - makes it a good psychological thriller-lite that goes beyond "just" that. Also really liked the bit of art history mystery part (Nina's degree gives her expertise in this area, which facilitates her stealing/reselling of items) and the commentary on the facade/personas of social media influencers that Vanessa's character illustrates. 3.5/5 stars - liked it!

It has been years since I have been so utterly gripped by a novel from the first chapter.

Janelle Brown’s upcoming novel has everything that I have been looking for in a mystery/thriller.

With aspects that feel like a wonderful crime drama, I can absolutely see this novel being translated to the screen in the near future!

Full review to come upon publication, but suffice it to say this one will be a contender for my top 2020 reads!

What a great read! The story really hooked me in from the beginning and I loved reading about the pasts of Nina and Vanessa. It was great seeing their views of each other evolve during the book. It did seem repetitive at times since the same scenes were repeated, but by the different characters point of view. The twists and turns were great!

Such a great read! I was hooked on the story from the beginning and could not put it down! I loved that it was not very predictable and loved the ending.

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!