This is a slow burn saga of some very spoiled and unhappy people. Not much joy in this one. The book is almost 400 pages long yet this talented author kept me turning the pages just to see what these self absorbed characters scheme to do next.

The cast is a small one which I really like so I don’t become confused. And the personalities of each are vivid and strong. I challenge you to try and like any of them. I guess if I had to pick, it would be Benny.

The plot revolves around two women on opposite ends of the wealth spectrum. Nina was raised by a single mother, where the simple act of living was a continuous struggle. Beautiful Vanessa was born into a prominent old-money family and given every advantage.

Nina is a con artist, having learned this from her mother... such a wonderful talent to pass on to your offspring. Here’s Nina’s rule for stealing, “Only people who have too much, and only people who deserve it.” Of course that justifies everything!

With her art history degree, Nina targets expensive antiques that can be lifted without the rich suckers even noticing they’re gone.
But life throws curves, and now Nina's mother is at death’s door with cancer. She needs very expensive medicine to try and beat her disease. Nina develops a plan to steal $1 million in cash from a former boyfriend’s estate. Benny, the boyfriend of 12 years past, is now living in a mental institution. He mentioned the cash to her some 12 years ago when they were secret young lovers. Now she and new boyfriend Michael devise an intricate plan to get in the good graces of Vanessa, Benny’s sister who is now living in the old mansion. He said the cash was in his father’s safe all those years ago. Can it still be there?
At this point the complicated caper begins to unfold and get messy.

I finished the book at 4:08 am and felt a bit relieved to have these people out of my life. Oh, but I jest here. This is a great read!

You will enjoy disliking the double-crossing little double crossers!

Well written with rich and descriptive vocabulary.

This was my first experience with a Janelle Brown book. Thank you Netgally for this opportunity to add another fantastic author to my repertoire.

Pretty Things is a very good read, one that I think will be a bestseller. It’s good in the same way Gone Gone girl is good: a compellingly tale from two POVs about flawed but sometimes sympathetic characters who both use and are used by those around them., Desperation, love, friendship and revenge are the themes that drive this can’t-put-it-down story with unpredictable plot twists. It’s cleverly plotted, though a little long in places.
All that said, this wasn’t my cup of tea. Unlike pretty much everyone else, I also didn’t care for Gone Girl. I need at least one character I can like and relate to, even just a little. Watching one character after another make bad decisions makes me uncomfortable.and takes away my reading pleasure.
All that said, Janelle Brown has done a good job with this book; I predict Pretty Things is headed for success.

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

OMG, Pretty Things was AMAZING guys! I love all kinds of mystery thrillers when I'm work.. which is weird to say it out loud but it works. This was a fun ass rollercoaster ride that had me on the edge of my seat until the very last page.

In it, we meet Nina and Lachlan. Nina has a once in a lifetime chance at revenge.. well, a con.. but I still considered it revenge. Mostly because this family, the Liebling's, did her dirty and I was all for her going out and getting even. Then with her partner in crime, Lachlan, how could things go wrong?

I was all for them and everything that happened between them. Even all the twists and turns throughout this book. I couldn't put it down because I just wanted to know what the heck was going to happen on the next page.

I'm honestly impressed by how I kept up with everything. I am the WORST detective when it comes to these kind of books. The worst. It's a fact and I'm never going to lie about it. Not going to lie, my head was definitely spinning and swirling around and around but I enjoyed it.

Overall, I loved this book. I definitely need another one by Janelle stat.

This book wasn’t what I expected. Holy hell it was sensational and thrilling.

The story is told from two points of view, Nina and Vanessa’s. They live completely different lives until they end up crossing paths and their lives are never the same. Secrets, lies and revenge fuel this story and will have you on the edge of your seat! The author’s writing is excellent. I was thoroughly engaged from beginning to end. Although the characters were all great in their own way, I think my favorite character is Nina. Her backstory resonated with me. I finished this book awhile ago but I needed time to process. This book blew me away! This is the first book by this author and it won’t be the last. I was pleasantly surprised and I highly recommend this book! I give this 5 stars.

This book had so, so many twists and turns. Seriously. It zigged and zagged all over the place which was so very engaging. It's sort of a slow burn, which is usually not my jam, but the character and plot development was so well done it worked. I was so curious where everything was going, I couldn't put it down. The POV's switched between Nina, the grifter and Vanessa the Instagram Celebrity, rich girl. I love how certain situations were covered by both POV's so you could get both perspectives. This is a great book, highly recommend.

**Copied review from Goodreads.com.

Rating: 3.1 / 5

My final thought on this, simple though it is, is that "I didn't really like it".

At the beginning, things seemed promising, compelling as the summary would suggest. The setup is great: a heist is being planned by Nina and her boyfriend, Lachlan, to rob millionairess Vanessa blind--well, not completely, but rob her of a high enough sum that it'd be tempting to anyone who has things like student loans, medical bills, and rent to pay. Shifting perspectives between Nina and Vanessa, we likewise get an interesting back-and-forth opportunity to get to know both of them intimately, and as such get different views of the same story and shared history.

However, things go downhill fast, and I can more or less split the book 50-50 on what's wrong in the first half that's off-putting, and what's wrong in the second half that's a complete turn-off--for me, at least.

In the first half, basically, ALL you've got is background and setup. Literally, the first 200 or so pages are just the backstories of Nina and Vanessa, and then some overlapping chapters wherein we get their minute thoughts of their first meeting, with notices of small things like their hair, outfits, teeth, whatever. And while this paints a very clear picture of what we can expect from each character and where they're coming from, it really dragged on for far too long to be enjoyable. If the author had cut this section down by even 50 pages (although I would just halve it to 100, to be honest), then it would've been more enjoyable. As it was, near the 160 mark or so I was just skimming to get it over with already and have something happen in the modern day rather than in the past.

And then, post-200, some action does finally happen, but the only way to sum it up is that "it's all wrong". A couple of "twists" do take place, some of which I didn't see something, but just because something is unexpected doesn't make it good. In this case, I think the author was relying far too much on the first half of her book to get you engaged with the characters and therefore compelled to care about what happens to them, so that whatever does end up happening in the second half, you'd be captivated by. Yeah...that was not my experience. Instead, I was just rolling my eyes at how drastic and dramatic things ended up being in a direction that really didn't suit the heist setup that the summary promises. I get why things end up happening the way they do, but at the same time I don't like how they end up happening, and really wished that the author had taken a different direction on things. From the whole Nina-Lachlan-Vanessa triangle setup, I expected something to be in close quarters during a snowstorm, something like No Exit, where the tensions are high but there's nowhere you can go to escape them. Unfortunately, the author doesn't use the Lake Tahoe location to its full advantage, specifically because she has Nina going back and forth to Los Angeles easily. So...snowstorm is useless, in other words?

All in all, this is a book that had promise, but ultimately turns out to be something just full of skim-worthy parts. Not exactly the kind of things a reader would appreciate in a novel, yeah?

So, read it if you think you'd like it, but myself, I think it's too shallow and badly-planned for me to really like it. A partial rating for good writing and a could-have-been-better setup. Credit given where credit is due, after all.

Nina is raised by her mother who is a grifter. She ends up living a short time in Lake Tahoe where her mother is using her wiles while working in a casino in the area. Nina meets and falls for a boy that happens to live at Stonehaven. Nina and the boy are no longer allowed to see each other after the father finds them in the caretakers cottage. Nina and her mother move away. Fast forward into the future and Nina is forced to take up her mother's grifting profession and she ends up back at Stonehaven. This book was extremely well written and I love that it goes back and forth between Nina and the sister of her past love, Vanessa. The characters are well written and I definitely will be recommending this book to others. There is such a great story and I love the mix of genres in this book.

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧. Book 42 of 2020. Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the E-ARC. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
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Nina and Lachlan have thought of the perfect con victim - Vanessa, an heiress and Instagram fashion influencer who is taking a break at her remote family mansion. The con doesn’t go exactly as planned, as history and truth emerges. ⁣
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A lot of suspense novels these days are about the suburbs and housewife’s. This one as a bit different. We have two women, from completely different backgrounds and walks of life. The inter-character dynamics were really interesting. I loved the change in POV and thought it worked really well. Some events are repeated, but from different perspectives which really gives you an inside feel for the action. ⁣
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All in all, I thought this ended up being another great February, galentines read. The two women aren’t friends, but this is certainly a testament to girl-power and empowering yourself. ⁣
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“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.” ⁣
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I'm sure you've read a book where you read a certain scene and you mouth just drops open and you look around and say, "Oh my God, what??" This book had not one, not two, but several moments like that for me. Just when you think you've got the plot figured out, Ms. Brown yanks the carpet out from under your feet. The amazing part is that she does it so very well.

Pretty Things is told from the perspective of Nina and Vanessa. These two women are as different as night and day. Nina is a con artist raised by a con artist mother while Vanessa is born into a family of wealth and privilege. They meet briefly while Nina is a teen and Vanessa is a college student due to Nina's friendship with Benny, Vanessa's brother. Now, years later they meet again as Nina is desperate for one last con to help her mother and then go legit. She thinks Vanessa will be the perfect mark.

The book intertwines flashbacks as well as the perspectives of the two women. There are a few scenes that are told from each woman's point of view. Strangely enough it works. I am not going to say that I loved either character because they are both deeply flawed. At different points you feel sad for them, you root for them, you care for them, and you even hates them.

Setting details are amazing. I could picture the landscape, picture the mansions, and picture the lake. The descriptions almost make me want to take a trip to Lake Tahoe and take a look around. If a writer has you seeing the story as a movie inside of your head then she's doing an excellent job. This was excellent.

The story shows you that whether you are rich or broke, you all have problems. No one is what they seem in this book and they tell lies upon lies upon lies to each other and themselves. In the end, could the two women bond and put their past aside?

The only thing that I wished for more in this book was that I wanted to see more of Benny. He's very troubled but also funny and he means so much to both women that it was a shame that he wasn't more present in the book.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good thriller. The pacing is good and the story is compelling. I suggest you pre-order a copy so you don't miss out!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this book. I sincerely hope that Ms. Brown continues writing and that I'll be able to review her next piece of work.

OBSESSED.

This was such a great read and a mix of all my favorite things! Social Media + Wealth + a good con! Contrary to other reviews, I did not find this book predictable at all. I love the way the story and characters evolved.

Now I have an overwhelming feeling to visit Lake Tahoe. ;)

Thank you so much for this ARC!

Nina’s mom was always a con artist. Which made for an interesting upbringing in Las Vegas where she worked at a casino. There was that bright, shining moment in high school, when Nina and her mom moved to Tahoe, where Nina attended a private school and fell in love with Benny, a boy who was also a bit of an outcast, but from a rich family.
But, as with most of Nina’s life, that bright shining moment was cut short and she and her mom found themselves slinking back to Vegas. Fast forward maybe 10 years? Nina pulled herself up by her bootstraps to graduated from a reputable university and get a job. A low paying job. Because while still worth the hard work, college degrees are a dime a dozen.
When her mom gets sick, Nina returns home to help. And it isn’t long before she finds herself engulfed in her mother’s con world with her ruggedly handsome friend, Lachlan. So, while she escaped it once, it became her world as she struggles to pay her mother’s medical bills.
So, when a brilliant con plan has the potential to pay for a pricey treatment, and possibly avenge some of that hurt from Nina’s adolescence, she pounces on it. She and Lachlan enter the world of Tahoe as Ashley and Michael.
This one took me a while to get into, but once I was there, the pages starting flying by. The book is told from Nina and Vanessa’s point of view, and it’s interesting to see their different sides of the same scenes. I ended up loving this one. Check it out for sure!
Special thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out April 21. Pre-order your copy.

My review will be posted on my blog, Women in Trouble Book Blog on March 24, 2020.

There are some authors that seem to follow a predictable pattern when they write. That's not always a bad thing. Sometimes a plot twist might be thrown in to keep things interesting. I'm not complaining. Depending on what is going on in my world, predictability can be comforting.
And then there is Janelle Brown. Completely unpredictable, with amazing plot twists, uncomfortable storylines, and endings you won't see coming, Brown holds you in a tight grip until the last line. Pretty Things does not disappoint. The only predictable aspect of Pretty Things is you can't book the darned book down!
Pretty Things guides us through the world of social media. How easy it is to be someone else and live in a fantasy world. Social media can give you power or make you a target. Pretty Things drops us smack in the middle of both worlds. Follow along with Vanessa and Nina. Their stories run parallel throughout the book. Reading first one perspective and then reading the same story from a different perspective creates a wild ride! Just when I start to sympathize or become irritated with the characters, Brown throws in a twist. Can anybody really be trusted? Is anyone who they say they are? All I know is I will tread lightly with my social media footprint.
This is one of Brown's best! Don't try to figure out what happens next while reading Pretty Things. You'll just give yourself a headache.
I voluntarily received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Could have been really wonderful, but it was all just a bit too.... much and yet not enough. Character development was lacking, plot was very convoluted, and left me feeling like I couldn’t really root for any of the characters but also really couldn’t root against any of them either?

Five stars is DEFINITELY not enough for this incredible book. Everything--the writing, the characters, the plot, the ending--was beyond terrific. What more can I say? I am SO grateful for the opportunity to read this book and I HIGHLY recommend it. Do NOT miss this one!

This book had all the ingredients of my favorite thrillers: a dual POV structure with unreliable narrators, a fancy and isolated locale, jerky rich people, jerky poor people, and so much more.

The story was in turns funny, sad, exciting, infuriating, intriguing, and always engaging. I loved how Nina and Vanessa developed throughout the story and thought the author did a great job creating complex characters who I cared about, or who I at least couldn't stop reading about.

I thought the dual POV was cleverly used, seeing the same scenes from the women's different perspectives. It was fun to see how the emotion of each scene played out differently depending who's POV we were with. While there were a couple spots that were repetitive because of this and a slight bit of manipulation at the end that depended on a POV switch, overall I thought it was a well-used tool. I also liked dipping back and forth in time for the backstory and thought it created a great tension.

However I do wish we'd seen a bit more from Benny and felt that his story was a tad incomplete.

While the ending wasn't exactly unpredictable, it was still satisfying. A ton of fun and story well-told!

I couldn’t finish this book. I got about a third of the way through and had to stop. It reads like a high school girl’s attempt at writing a novel. It was predictable and the characters were annoying.

Who’s the real con? Pretty Things makes it difficult to answer this question. Nina hails from a long line of con artists, and she’s forced to grift as her mother becomes ill and legally lucrative prospects fail to materialize. Vanessa is an heiress turned Instagram Influencer who’s returned to her Lake Tahoe vacation home Stonehaven to lick her wounds from a broken engagement. The two have a link from the past and Nina uses this link to pull the ultimate scam and to also avenge the wrongs from her past. However, the path there is twisty and unpredictable, and there are dormant secrets laying like land mines for both Nina and Vanessa.

Pretty Things is riveting just for the con within a con plot that barrels forward with both a well paced momentum as well as a captivating backstory. However, it ends up being much more than just the Con; it observes classism, the long lasting damage wrought by family, and what I found most interesting - the Con that is social media, the lack of authenticity & the elevation of presenting everything but the reality. Vanessa is a con as much as Nina, both damaged from emotionally distant families, both clutching to what isn’t real to feel loved. I wouldn’t consider it a deeply meaningful social commentary, but Pretty Things is still an incisive and unforgiving look at the con we’re all both being duped by and duping in our social media driven world.

I anticipate that this will touted in 2020 as a must read. A solid 4 stars for the depth I didn’t expect to find, and thought provoking despite being a thriller at heart.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

I have to say first - wow. This was such a solid piece. The writing was strong. So wonderfully strong. There was so much thought and detail packed into this book, that it threw me a little. I read a lot, and it has been quite a while since I have read anything with such substance. Things I’ve enjoyed, yes, but not quite like this one. Pretty Things will be great. Every time I thought I found the twist, Brown threw me for another loop. I loved the characters and their complexity, and I LOVED the plot. Everything ended, tied in a tidy bow. This was my first from the author, but it definitely will not be my last. I highly recommend this one.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader's copy in exchange for my opinion/review. Pretty things was a fast and fun read. Current with the times, and protagonists was relatable with her choices. It's crazy to how real it is where shared trauma can bring two people together. Even through scamming ways!

Pretty Things was a great read! Really enjoyed the plot and Janelle Brown's writing. Couldn't put this book down until the end!