A wonderful book ! Nina who is attending a school on scholarship meets her first love, a wealthy young boy and has dreams of attending a prestigious college . These dreams are crushed when her con artist mother abruptly moves them. Nina does attend college an earns an art degree . She returns home when her Mother is diagnosed with cance. Unfortunately, Nina does not have the money to pay for her mothers treatment. Her Mother introduces her to Lachlan and Nina and Lachlan team up together to steal from wealthy individuals so that Nina can pay for her Mothers treatments.
They choose Vanessa who is the sister of her first boyfriend. Vanessa is a heires who is an instagram influencer. When Nina and Lachlan begin to scam Vanessa the plot becomes very interesting with several twists and a good ending.
I enjoyed reading this book very much. And cannot wait to read another book by this author.. a book you do not want to put down.
I received this book from Netgalley for a review.

Mark my words - Pretty Things will be a hugely popular book in 2020 - it has all the trappings of a buzz book right now - social media influencers & backstabbing relationships - BUT, the key factor here is the writing. Janelle Brown has crafted a story that will hook readers from page one and entertain and engage them through the absolute final page.

Told in alternating perspectives and timelines, we meet Nina and Vanessa - a con artist and a rich influencer. But the connections these two have might surprise you and at a minimum, will intrigue & captivate you. Each woman is so finely written that they offer their own voices and becoming truly distinct individuals.

Upon finishing Pretty Things, I immediately ran to check out all of Brown's backlist and will be eager to see what she does next!

I was expecting a thriller, and it certainly had those elements, but at the root it was really a story about two women, Nina and Vanessa, struggling to make sense of their families and pasts and heal from their pain. Nina is a grifter, moving from city to city ripping off the wealthy of their excess, and Vanessa is an Instagram influencer who, shocking, is deeply miserable and dealing with a lot of family trauma. It's no surprise how these two connect, but it was really so much more than that. I was in constant state of oscillation between theories of who is the victim, who to root for, and how things will turn out for these characters. Even though the first chapter opens up with a body being dumped into the lake, it was a little slow in the beginning, but by the time the plot picked up I was very invested in these characters. Also, most of the novel is set in my beloved Lake Tahoe, so reading this one almost felt like taking a vacation to one of my favorite places. You know, without the murder and scams.

Honestly I didn't like this one as well as Watch Me Disappear. The characters didn't seem quite as well developed, and although we get a reasonable amount of info on Nina's background, I never feel like we get to know her, really. Which maybe is the point given her background and "occupation." This seemed to move pretty slowly up until about 2/3 of the way through the book, but then the rest moves quickly to a pretty satisfying conclusion. I would definitely read her next book but would hope for better characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I thought this book was a very well written, original, twisty and addictive novel.
I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

This was my first book by this author and I was hooked ! Such a great story and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough,
Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher for my advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review

PRETTY THINGShin JANELLE BROWN
A beautiful
"Pretty Things," written by Janelle Brown is her fourth novel and will be published on April 21, 2020. This is marketed as literary adult general fiction and is a beautiful story with suspense slow burning about grifters, con-artists and social media. I would have loved to insert the quote by George Orwell in its epitaph from the very beginning. The setting mostly takes place in Lake Tahoe in a multi-generational mansion with over forty something rooms filled with antiques collected over centuries of the Liebling family. Vanessa Liebling is an Instagram influencers who posts everything she does by having a professional photographer following her around taking her pictures over the tiniest details. Vanessa is a cash poor heiress who owns the mansion at Lake Tahoe with every room filinnto d to Vanessa with antiques. Nina who is a clltyoyafrienon-artist who partners with Lachlan to opull off the riskiest theft of her life target bas e Vanessa Liebling.

Nina whoase alias name is Ashley and Lachlan whose a alias is Michael move into the care takers cottage to steal one million dollars from the Liebling safe. Nina/Ashley and Lachlan/Michael have worked together before stealing from other millennials The reason they are going into this con is because Nina/Ashley need the money to pay for her mother's expensive cancer drug treatments. They charm their way into Vanessa Liebling's life by posing as a coupinle as a yoga instructor and an Irish royalty.'e
Escr
Nobody he ingeiof tof his entire novel is who they seebeitterm exts cmcaept Benny, Vanessa's eubleuyofrounger brother. This was an extremely .ng novel that I have come to happreciateee it only after finishing it. Often thw sthiroe e-iv Author retells the same scene from Nina/Ashley's and Vanessa Liebling's point of view. Janelle Brown writes some very descriptive scenes so I really enjoyed the flow of her writing style. However, just under five hundred pages I was getting bogged down and I think if this story could be more streamlined into closer to three hundred pages the book would be better. For purposes of editing out the many double narratives from both women's point of view telling the same story Where this novel succeeds is by shining a light about how dangerous over sharing on social media is very relevant to today's issues. The premise of this story was excellent and I really liked the ending very much also. I would recommend this story with cutting it down and editing out the repetition.

Thank you to Net Galley, Janelle Brown and Random House Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.
Told in alternating narratives, this is a beautifully written book that turns out a solid plot.
Some parts take you to unexpected places, but overall it was a good thriller.

Took me quite some time to get into this one. I found the overlapping scenes (from Vanessa and Nina’s alternating perspectives) annoying in the beginning. It really picked up at about 50%, though, and then I pored over the remainder.

I’ve never read anything by Janelle Brown before, but I think she must have studied psychology or human nature. Her glimpses into people’s behaviors when they’re seeking attention or validation are just brilliant.

Vanessa and Nina are both fucked up in vastly different ways, and it really makes you wonder if anyone is who they are on social media.

Nina Ross has the chance for the con of a lifetime. With her Irish boyfriend Lachlan, she travels to Lake Tahoe to scam Vanessa Liebling, a wealthy heiress, out of millions. But it's not all about the money for Nina, though she desperately needs it to pay for her mother's illness. Revenge is also on the table; revenge against the Liebling family who never considered her good enough for their son and drove her family out of town. As both Nina and Vanessa's past is revealed, you begin to wonder, Who is conning whom?

I though it was a really fun and suspenseful read, but the ending fell a little short compared to the rest of the book but I still really enjoyed it!

This book shines on every level: sentence after sentence is beautiful and precise. The characters are complicated and sympathetic, the ideas are sweeping and profound, but are never too overt. It’s a rare novel that is as accomplished in its meaning as it is in its storytelling while also succeeding wildly on the language level as well! A novel to lose yourself in and then reflect upon again and again.

This was entertaining but all of the characters were horrible people and the ending was just okay.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48342832

Absolutely loved this book!
The author did a great job of creating and bringing the characters to life. I do not know if it was her intention or not, but I honestly felt a bit more inspired to become a better person after reading this.

**I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

This book was a lot of fun and hard to put down. Told from the points of view of two very different women, it's part psychological thriller and part social commentary about the downside of social media and oversharing. Lily, a grifter, and Vanessa an Instagram heiress cross paths when Lily and her boyfriend rent the cottage on Vanessa's expansive Lake Tahoe estate, Stonehaven. Pretty Things is a cat-and-mouse story where the main players are constantly changing roles.

Though the book makes class divides clear and does a good job of detailing Nina's tough background. Vanessa's parents--rich and unhappily married--are a bit stereotypical and two dimensional, but this doesn't detract too much from the story. I wanted to see her brother make an earlier reapperance in the story, for reasons you might agree with if you read Pretty Things. I would call it a great beach read because you can just fly through it, but a good deal of it takes place in the winter, which highlights the chilliness of Stonehaven and the climax of the story. I'll be surprised if I don't hear/see/read more about this book in the coming months before its publication.

I'm a little surprised by how much I liked this. Quite a few things that I usually dislike (unlikable characters, alternate narratives) really worked in this book, I credit Brown's writing for that. I was also surprised by a couple of the little twists at the end, which doesn't happen often.

First off, this book is long, too long. That’s why it took me a while to pick it up. I don’t think books (and especially thrillers) should exceed 400 pages, 300something being the ideal. Any more than that seems overindulgent, not to mention it risks slowing down the momentum of suspense. And having that been said, if a suspense thriller must be 500 pages long, it should be done by someone as talented as the author. Which is to say, sure the book’s s pretty long, but oh boy, it’s so well written. Maybe it’s because Brown comes from a literary field, before venturing (understandably) into the ever trendy ever so popular and lucrative female thriller genre. Maybe she’s just a natural storyteller. But this book read so well. Yes, it does have all the basic premises of the genre…female leads, alternating perspectives, twists. And yes, it isn’t entirely original, the concept of grifting a scion of wealth and privilege only to have emotions get in the way. But it is done right. Or mostly so. The two main protagonists, our narrators, are Nina and Vanessa, as different as literature can spawn. Nina, the daughter of a low rent scamming mother, is someone who has tried to be good, to follow the rules, but all it got her is a useless BA, crappy job and a huge debt. Enter Lachlan, a charismatic Irish con artist her mother introduces her to, and suddenly Nina’s art degree isn’t so useless after all, it can help her locate and liberate objects d’art from the obnoxious baby oligarchs touting their wealth on Instagram for all the world to see. Vanessa was born to old world money, she owns an estate that has a name and yet she herself hasn’t amounted to much in life outside of being an Instagram celebrity, so when a series of family tragedies leaves her in charge and more or less alone, she retreats to Stonehaven and is completely alone in the world. So easy to take advantage of, especially by someone who knows of a safe with a million dollars in it, knows Vanessa, knows her entire family and, more importantly, has held a grudge against them for many, many years. And so the games begin. The very modern sort of games, powered by Instagram and social media in general. This isn’t a duet, though, it’s a trio, Lachlan is very much present, and everyone’s got their own agenda. And all the agendas are self serving. And everyone is oh so pretty, but only at a first glance. The title refers to the layers beneath, the secreted away ugliness of lies and liars who tell them. And every character but one in this book is a lying liar, wrapped up in their own lies. Although some have more redeeming qualities than others. This is so obviously a book about the beneath of it all, it starts with telling the readers about Lake Tahoe, so immense it’s easy to disappear there forever, beneath the forbidding waters. The lake also serves as a sort of Chekov’s Gun, you know how the book’s going to end, there will be a body to feed the waters. Not to mention it provides a nice atmospheric setting for the story, a seemingly idyllic location where natural beauty hides dangers. Obvious? Maybe, but very effective all the same. The only thing that was obvious and didn’t quite sing for me is Vanessa’s character. Not all that likeable, kind of an idiot, much too vapid. The author tried to give her dimensionality, certainly, but at best she’s a cliched sad and lonely pretty girl with too much money and not enough character. You might be sorry for her, at times, but she is difficult to actively like or care about as oppose to Nina, who is a genuinely compelling character and you kind of just want it to be her story, no split narrative necessary. Or maybe I’m too tough on Vanessa and her silver spoon life, she kind of redeems herself in the end. But either way, you want to know how it all plays out, you get really drawn into the story. It’s exactly what a good literary thriller should do. So yeah, as much as I don’t enjoy overly long books, this one was a genuinely enjoyable read. Thoroughly entertaining with some really interesting meditations of the power of social media or more like the amount of power people give over to it and at what cost. Very nicely done. And a very good introduction to a new author for me, an author I’m definitely interested to read further. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I loved Pretty Things! It really inspired me to go write, which is the highest compliment I can give to another writer. Literary suspense at its best.

Pretty Things follows two “grifters”: Nina, a woman who’s career as an art dealer didn’t pan out, and her Irish boyfriend, Lachlan, as they go for their biggest and most dangerous scam yet. Nina is trying to pay for her mother’s cancer treatment, so this job means everything to her. Their target is an heiress and social media influencer, Vanessa Liebling, who has recently moved to Lake Tahoe. Vanessa’s family treated Nina and her mom horribly in the past, and so for Nina, this job is personal as well.

This book was fascinating. I loved that the book started from Nina’s point of view and told so much of her childhood and how that led her into grifting. Janelle Brown did a fantastic job of telling both Nina and Vanessa’s backstories. The book was easy to get sucked into - the scheme that Nina and Lachlan takes several twists and turns as the point of view switches back and forth, and they get deeper and deeper into their job.

I really enjoyed the pace of the action in the first two thirds of the book - but as the story got to the climax, I started to slow down and make sure that I was absorbing every part of the book. Vanessa and Nina’s stories overlapped in certain spots, and I wanted to clarify certain events before moving on. As much as I loved the premise of the story, it seemed as if the end was tied up a little too neatly for a criminal and an heiress with a messy family. It was beautiful though, and so easy to vividly imagine.

Grab this and give it a read - it would be a fun one to read and discuss with a book club! You could have a great many discussions about society & social classes, truth vs. fiction, and what motivates the different characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for sharing this book with me in exchange for an honest review! It was quite a thrilling read.

Wow, this book was completely unexpected. It was gripping! I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! I definitely recommend this twisted and intense book!!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Nina is a grifter, a person who scams others out of money, steals their belongings, and basically lives by taking from the rich and giving to the poor----if by “poor,” we mean “Nina.” She wasn’t always this way, but being brought up by her grifter mother who is now suffering from cancer and needs an extraordinary amount of money for her treatments, Nina feels she has no other option but to go into the family business. When Nina’s new life overlaps with her old life, she seeks out the uber rich family she new when she was in high school, and they become her next mark. One more big hit to help mom, and then she’s out…but we know it never ends like that, does it? Although I enjoyed the descriptions of the characters and sneaking a peak into the lifestyles of the rich (but just so-so famous?), however I found the book to reach quite a bit in a lot of places. Good enough for a light read, but if you’re looking for realistic, maybe look elsewhere.

Special Note: Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.