Fiona is a high school con artist. High-schooler by day, she "helps" her fellow students by working cons to keep them out of trouble or to hoodwink their parents. By night, she works with her dad (lawyer by day, fellow con artist by night) to search for clues to find her (you guessed it) con artist mother) who disappeared many years ago, but left a trail of clues as to her whereabouts. Enter Colin, new student at the high school and the son of the FBI agent who is after her parents.. Turns out Colin is also...wait for it.....a con artist who pulls cons to try to get the attention of his father. As Fiona and Colin battle it out for Top Con Artist of their high school, Collin becomes aware that Fiona's real gig is finding her mom. Fiona retaliates by getting Colin arrested for trafficking fake ID cards. Eventually, Colin and Fiona join forces, and with two of their friends, Natalie, a disguise genius and Tig, a computer genius, join a Teen Tour bus to finish finding the last three clues which should lead them to her mother.

This book was entertaining and held my interest. There is something pretty intriguing about being talented and clever enough to pull off elaborate cons and forgeries. But I couldn't help being troubled by realizing I was rooting so obviously for the "bad guys." Fiona's criminal activity was for no reason other than to find her criminal mother, who turned out to be, frankly, a crazy, awful, selfish person. The cons aren't for the betterment of society or to set things right with people who have been wronged by the government or society.....most were simply selfish to prove they could be done. Even the ending showed no remorse for the criminal activity on Fiona and Colin's parts, but the thrill that more cons could happen in the future.

Again this book wasn't awful. When I started reading it, it reminded me a little of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series. On the other hand, there was just something so off-putting to me about so blatantly glorifying criminal activity for personal gain.

The daughter of a con artist follows clues to find her mother. Along the way, she takes three of her friends. One of those friends is the son of the FBI agent chasing her mother.
Opinion
What a great read! This book covers it all. First love? Check! Mystery? Check! Finding out who you can trust? Check! The ending? Going to blow your socks off!
I think that this book was absolutely wonderful. Fiona, the female MC, is desperate to find her mom but is utterly confused when this gorgeous specimen of a guy show up. Colin turns out to be the FBI agents son. But Colin is looking for something himself. When he can’t find it, he helps Fiona go in search of her mom. This all lays out for a cute first romance book. The kids go through several heists together, coming closer. The twists that Ms. Silver puts in along the way add so much to the plot that you won’t want to put the book down.
Along the way, Fiona learns what is important in life and ends up making a hard decision. It does all work out in the end. This is one I’ll be calling my librarian friends to add to their libraries. Great book!
Many thanks to netgalley.com for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Pretty predictable YA heist novel. Nothing really stood out to make this book very interesting or to set it apart in any way. The plot moved quickly- too quickly, at times, to fully explain things. The characters weren’t really likable, in my opinion. This book was overall just okay.

Follow the clues. Find Mom.

Fiona Spangler does not have anything resembling an ordinary life. Not with the upbringing she had. She was learning how to forge art and documents, pick locks, and different types of cons pretty much since she was born. At 17, Fiona is right beside her dad on heists, creating her own forgeries (to include--but not limited to--fake hall passes and report cards), and tracking down her mother's greatest forgeries. Each one contains a clue as to where her mother can be found. And just when the last three are practically in their grasp, the worst happens. Her dad and his crew are busted by the FBI.

Not to be deterred, Fiona rushes to assemble a team of her own, consisting of: her best friend, who wears a different disguise everyday; a hacker who prefers to communicate with emojis and gestures instead of, you know, words; and her worst nightmare. Colin O'Keefe. The teen con man extraordinaire who can charm the pants off of anyone. Oh, and his dad is a FBI Agent.

Makes for an interesting road trip...

Perfect for fans of Ally Carter's "Heist Society", Roshani Chokshi's "The Gilded Wolves", and Leigh Bardugo's "Six of Crows", "The Con Code" is a gripping page-turner full of high stakes, heists and cons, betrayals, and quite a bit of swoony feelings. Not from Fiona, of course. And not for Colin. No, no siree, no... Right? Well, you'll have to pick up a copy of "The Con Code" to find out!

The Con Code
by Shana Silver
Pub Date: 25 Aug 2020
read courtesy of NetGalley.com

I was hooked in chapter one of The Con Code. What struck me, though, was that the tone of the first chapter felt like an entirely different book from the rest of the book. I thought the father-daughter relationship was going to be the action of the book, but it ended up being the motivation behind the story. The action of the book became much more teen-oriented for the remainder of the story. That's not a judgment, just an observation. Once I got my head around the change in tone, I still enjoyed the story.

I liked the intertwined spying on each other, the breaking and establishing of trust, and the playing along with Fiona's planning of the heists. I appreciated the characterizations with the exception of Tig; this nonverbal character received no explanation for this quality, so the reader was left chalking it up to Tig's personality. Tig was written consistently, though, so at least there was that.

I did have a problem with the travel camp, however. How could it just happen to stop at places Fiona needed to go? It's never said, but were they duped and set up by the FBI? With all of their abilities to beat the system, it doesn't make sense that they'd fall into the trap just like it doesn't make sense about the Camp's itinerary. Then, of course, there's the inclusion of Lakshmi, the annoying camper. (I can't say more about her, or I'd have to say, "spoiler alert.") This trip was a convenient way to move the action forward, and in the end, it made me feel as duped as Colin and Fiona.

The build-up to the conclusion ended abruptly - big build-up, quick finish. In a way, I felt like it made light of mental health issues; it was rather dismissive. Everyone just moved on.

Regardless, it was a fun, interesting read, and I will be getting it for my high school library. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can not at this time review this book for any website because I am currently serving on the Florida Teen Reads committee for 2020-2021. I will say that I enjoyed the book and I am planning on purchasing it for my School Media Center

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a contemporary YA romance/mystery. This novel was very well written. It I felt like I was somehow missing key pieces of information like the sudden crush Fiona has on Colin at his first day of school. The plot moves quickly from one heist to the next and the characters are very likeable. I would love a follow up novel with dismiss mom, th I agent Ian or even just move jobs by Fiona and her crew. Great reas!

This was a fun read! Action-filled, fast-paced, and very entertaining. It would be perfect for fans of Ally Carter or Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy!