This was an interesting glimpse into what a pathological liar does to the people around them, though it was a somewhat predictable story. The book focuses on Cammie, who befriends both Gibson and Shelby when they are going through dark times; Gibson due to a divorce and Shelby due to the death of her wife.

Cammie seems too good to be true at first, and it turns out that she is. I felt frustrated with both Gibson and Shelby at times because they KNEW they were being scammed but kept falling back into it. Nothing really major happens in this book but it takes the reader through the volatility of their relationships with Cammie and how they eventually get on with their lives later. The book ends with an excerpt from Cammie herself that the reader can choose to believe or not.

Overall, this was a quick read and I have always been fascinated at how people like Cammie get people to trust them despite signs that they shouldn’t. I didn’t really feel like much happened, though, and was hoping for a couple of twists. I still enjoyed it overall. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another scammer novel, The Fake tells the stories of Shelby and Gibson, who are both (separately) experiencing depression and grieving the loss of their marriages (Shelby to her wife's death, Gibson to his wife leaving, which he both wanted and regrets in seemingly equal measure). Enter: Cammie, a gifted scammer who immediately befriends Shelby at a grief group and romances Gibson at a bar. She knows exactly who both need her to be and forms herself through lies and manipulation into someone indispensable in each of their lives. When her deceptions are first detected, and then confirmed once Shelby and Gibson meet, the story shifts to what these targeted parties want to do to with the information about the person they had come to love.

An easy and quick read that opens and closes with Cammie's POV (the reader can ultimately decide if she's worth believing), this is a solid if somewhat predictable novel that is sure to find an engaged audience.

3.5 Your Gut Always Knows Stars
* * * 1/2 Spoiler Free Stars
We learn from our experiences and if we really pay attention, we can see in retrospect...the "Gut Feelings" we had that we should have paid attention to...Life Lessons to learn.

In The Faker, we meet an expert con artist who gives us insight into her ways from the start, never denying she is a world-class liar. She justifies her actions in a positive way...and off we go being the fly on the wall of her cons with these people.

What is relatable is the fact that all of us at one point or another in our lives, can be vulnerable and open to those who are looking to take advantage of us. With online sites for meet-ups, meeting people in person can somehow feel more intense and real. I think this was how the con was able to happen so easily and fast. And most importantly, people who could have paid attention to their gut feelings...ignored them due to the positive glow they felt instead.

This was a solid read, may have missed out on something that could have made it more intense but overall intriguing.

An entertaining book about how easily we can be led to believe what we want to believe, especially when we are feeling low or damaged. As one who doesn't always understand why people are dishonest unnecessarily, it was interesting to live this story through the author's eyes. Good read.

We all know a Cammie. She's a disaster but also weirdly perfectly put together and seems to narrowly escape catastrophe pretty much like it's a full-time job. Everyone appears to be mesmerized by her and her wild stories. We also all know a Gibson and a Shelby. They are hurting humans each with teeny flickering flames of hope that they might find joy in life again. These two characters are easy targets for the Cammies of the world to use them up and toss them out like a half-eaten power bar. There are little nagging suspicions about these too-good-to-be-true humans we meet in life, but we also want to believe we are different and that no scam artist would ever choose us. But Cammie did choose Gibson and Shelby in Zoe Whittall's The Fake. You know what? Gibson and Shelby chose Cammie as well, and this is the story of how they navigate their choices once the jig is up.

This was a quick read, hard to put down, and frustrating at times. I wanted more from Shelby and Gibson. I felt like I needed less from Cammie's character. I guess I just wanted to see more of how these characters' vulnerabilities were exploited. I won't spoil this for future readers but I absolutely wanted and expected more out of the sister role toward the end of the book.

I want to thank the publisher for inviting me to review this novel. And thanks to Zoe Whittall for this book! It was a fun read - a total escape from real life. Makes me grateful to have never had a Cammie in my life. Or do I have one?? Hmm....

3.5 stars!

A quick, exciting read with good pacing. I felt like it could have gone deeper but overall it was an enjoyable story that I flew through. Definitely expecting to see this on a lot of bookish folk's radars in 2023.

This is the story of a scammer. Cammie goes through life living off of other people and lies to everyone. Could you be scammed by Cammie?? Shelby has lost her wife and cannot get over the grief. She meets Cammie in a grief support group and lets Cammie stay in her house. She trusts her. Gibson is newly divorced and is having trouble adjusting to being single. He meets Cammie in a bar and they end up going home together. He thinks she is the best thing that has happened to him. Both Shelby and Gibson are being scammed by Cammie. Each of them is unsure if she is lying. What happens when the two of them meet and compare notes.

This books shows that we are all vulnerable at different points in our lives. At those time can we can be scammed? This may be worse than anything that has previously happened to us before. Never think you cannot be scammed. It just takes the right liar. This is an interesting book and will definitely make you think about human nature. It is a thought provoking read.

Thank you to #netgalley, #ZoeWhittall and #BallantineBooks for a copy of this book.
#TheFake

I was invited by the publisher to read The Fake and I want to say “thank you” for the opportunity. However, I really didn’t enjoy this book, for a few reasons. First, I found the beginning third of the book to be slow-moving and I kept losing interest and putting it down. (It took me a week to read it, when I normally devour a book like this in a day or two.) Second, I never felt invested in any of the characters—I was rather meh about all of them. Finally, I found the book’s payoff to be a huge letdown. The novel begins with Shelby hiding in a closet afraid for her life…then, when we build up to the closet scene and “rescue,” it’s a total non-event, and there’s no real resolution between Gibson and Cammie, or Shelby and Cammie. I was left feeling that I had wasted my time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballentine for the copy of The Fake. The premise of this book was intriguing, but it took me a while to get into it because the pacing was off and the writing was uneven. I wavered between really interested and being bored. Shelby and Gibson never stopped being needy, the perfect ‘marks’ for Cammie, and it got tiresome. I really disliked how the ending was written, just stating what happened to Shelby and Gibson when it could have followed them and showed what happened. The final note was infuriating because it brings everything into question. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

In The Fake, by Zoe Whittall, Cammie, a gorgeous con artist, preys on two extremely nice people by meeting them at the lowest point in their lives, and telling her (fictional) tragic tale. The novel tells us right from the beginning that Cammie’s a liar. There’s never a question of the reader believing Cammie’s story, but at the same time, you can’t help seeing how good people like Shelby and Gibson are taken in by her sad situation. I read this story so quickly, because I was just dying to see what would happen. So, the tension isn’t about whether Cammie’s a liar, but about what’s going to become of her and her two marks.

Shelby drags herself to a grief support group meeting after the death of beloved wife, where she meets Cammie, who seems to be going through the same process. A grief support group seems like the perfect place for a grifter like Cammie to meet her vulnerable next mark, but it’s also shocking to see it in action. That’s the feel of the whole book for me — I was impressed with Cammie’s heartless calculations and her ability to use people, while simultaneously worried about the nice, well-meaning, good people she ensnares.

At the same time as Shelby’s starting to attend grief group, Cammie meets and seduces newly-divorced Gibson. She convinces him that they’re soulmates and she moves in almost instantly. His friends see a much-younger new girlfriend as bit of red flag, and one of them notices a weird lie in Cammie’s backstory. But Gibson can’t be swayed from his new love. Again, Cammie has found a perfect new mark, and again, she has a tragic story of abuse, cancer, and hardship, which immediately works on Gibson. Nice, normal people believe other people, don’t they?

This story of good people at low points is completely gripping. I just had to see which lie would get uncovered, and how Cammie would talk herself out of it, and how Shelby and Gibson really wanted to be wrong about her.

I was also intrigued by the secondary characters in The Fake who kinda sorta knew that Cammie was an intense liar, but didn’t take any action. One of the woman at the grief group definitely spotted the holes in Cammie’s story (stories!) and drops hints, but stops short of actually warning Shelby. Was she also taken in? Was she afraid that only a terrible person would even consider the possibility of someone lying about having cancer?

After a fascinating story in The Fake, I didn’t really like the ending, mostly because there was no ending. I wanted an epic ending that fit the high drama of Cammie’s lies, I wanted Gibson and Shelby to become besties and travel the world together, I wanted Cammie to clearly get caught, or to spin a truly spectacular story explaining it all away, I wanted… anyway, after being an absolute pageturner of a devious grifter preying on the kindness of two innocent normies, the story just petered out for me at the end.

The Fake pulls the reader in from page one. I enjoyed how we have 2 primary POVs with Shelby and Gibson, both of whom are struggling while dealing with the aftermath of personal tragedy. Enter Cammie. At first, she seems too good to be true. Then the lies start piling up. The characters are drafted so well that they become to feel like real people. After all, we have probably all known someone like Cammie...

The plot and pacing are great, and the writing is stellar.

My one quibble is with the ending, which didn't feel 100% satisfying. Without any spoilers, I can only say that I wish we had more explanation rather than a disappearance.

Overall, a very entertaining read!

Received complimentary copy from publisher; all opinions expressed herein are my own.

Cammie seems to have survived a lot of trauma in her life which she relates to her weekly grief council meetings. Everyone falls for Cammie and wants to help her by loaning her cash, paying her bills, buying her food or offering her a place to stay but a what point do these helpful people begin to feel like Cammie's story is nothing but a scam? Two such people, newly divorced Gibson and newly widowed Shelby are particularly vulnerable to Cammie's charms and are completely taken in by her sad life story. It is only when Gibson and Shelby meet and compare notes on what Cammie has told them about her past that things don't quite add up and suspicion replaces compassion. Readers will become frustrated with these two hurt people who can't seem to climb out of their own depression to see how badly they are being used. Author Whittall paints a depressing picture of people who can barely cope with their daily lives and why they are so vulnerable to Cammie's scams. Cammie's final word to the readers makes you wonder about just who is the real Cammie and what are her true motivations for what she does. A thought provoking ending to the story of lives intertwined by grief.

The Fake is the real deal. I loved it. Would you fall for the manipulative Cammie. I certainly would. I have experience with my own version of Cammie. Shelby and Gibson are two souls whose lives would not necessarily intersect but for their shared love for a woman who bursts into their lives like a redemptive rainbow. Both grieving a loss they are swept up and we feel how their lives and emotions are shaped when they believe what they choose to believe after meeting a charismatic charming and cunning person who, while a compulsive liar and master manipulator, brings light, love and hope into their lives. at first. Only at first.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I’m already looking for more. This was a very interesting and intriguing story told by the POVs of Gibson and Shelbie. It is essentially a character study and follows the main characters during tough moments in their lives. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Wow, this book is an absolutely wild ride! It's a tough one to review without giving spoilers. This novel has a rotating POV between a straight dude who is recently separated from his wife and a lesbian who is mourning the sudden death of her wife. Tying the two together is a mysterious young woman who is charming (and scheming) the both of them. There's great pacing here, and the book is a quick and compelling read. I thought the book does a really nice job of showing the different ways our main characters process grief; Shelby, the lesbian, goes deep into an agoraphobic depression, while Gibson, the dude, jumps right into being in love with our scammer in order to repress his very, very recent divorce.

The end both does and doesn't feel satisfying; we get to see our lead characters confront Cammie, who ultimately disappears, as I suppose pathological liars are likely to do, but we never learn why she behaves this way. Again, this is probably realistic to the cycle of behavior and accountability, so it works. But it's hard to feel entirely satisfied as a reader. It's tough! I almost wish there was a third POV from Cammie herself. But overall, this book is really intriguing and I couldn't put it. down, so I definitely recommend it!

This was my first Zoe Whittal read but definitely won’t be my last. A fresh perspective on lies, relationships and what we actually need as humans to survive this world. Great characters with an extra twist of humanity. Enjoyed this one.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

Great writing and premise. It was interesting to read the perspectives from the people being scammed and the complicated emotions involved. I thought the book could have been longer and gone a bit deeper, but I enjoyed this one.

The Fake centers around two main POVs; Shelby and Gibson are both floundering after experiencing significant personal tragedies, and Cammie swoops into their lives at the perfect moment to save them. But Cammie is positively too good to be true. The Fake is a fast-paced, smartly-written, emotionally charged novel.

If you're a fan of: true crime documentaries about scammers or shows like Inventing Anna; stories about finding yourself after life deals you a devastating hand; morally gray characters who are so human it's heartbreaking - you'll enjoy this novel.

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing a digital copy of The Fake in exchange for an honest review. The Fake hits shelves March 21, 2023!

The Fake by Zoe Whittall is an interesting depiction of mental illness, personality disorders and grief. It is the story of Cammie, a dynamic young woman who easily draws people under her magnetic spell, and makes them love her and want to care for her. Shelby, a woman who is mourning the loss of her wife Kate and dealing with gripping anxiety, that keeps her in her home with her dog, until the day she goes to grief group and meets Cammie. Gibson is reeling from the recent end of his marriage, and is struggling with grief and loss until the night he meets Cammie at a bar and falls for her in a way he has never fallen for anyone before. Both Gibson and Shelby gain a lot from falling in with Cammie, but things do not always add up with the stories that Cammie tells, and it gives them both pause until Gibson and Shelby get together and begin to share notes. Then they must figure out what to do with the knowledge they have. Sometimes knowing lies are easier than knowing the truth.

Credit goes to Zoe Whittall in the telling of this tale, which goes back and forth between the voice of Gibson and Shelby and a small cameo of Cammie's voice, as well. They are all struggling but each in a unique way and this reader takes her hat off to Whittall, as she did a good job of fairly accurately depicting the inner turmoil of her main characters. This was not always an easy novel to read, due to the struggle of its characters, but it was absolutely an interesting read and one I read in big chunks, as the story was compelling and the characters interesting. Any writer who can make a character who engages in so many wrong behaviors, still be engaging and impossible to hate... shows a great amount of talent in her writing. This reader was impressed.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read the e-galley of this novel. My review is given freely and honestly.

I did not think Ms Whittall could write a more whimsically-crafted ode to f’ed up chicks than her last effort, but whoa this was a ride. You would want to go out drinking with these people and then come home and double lock all the locks. But I greatly appreciated hanging out them from the comfort of my living room in my comfy sweats knowing they were entirely made up. But I’ll still double lock my lock tonight.