Solid YA mystery, with a creative plot that moves quickly. The characters are well done in this one, and overall this is one that will satisfy fans of the author.

As I sat in the Las Vegas B Terminal last night for far too long, my only consolation was that I was in the last 20% of the latest Karen McManus book and, as such, the pace had ratcheted up to a sprint.

Here’s the very much simplified set-up: Kat and her mom Jamie are on their way to the Sutherland mansion to pull off one final heist before they leave the grifter life forever. When they find themselves on the side of the road with a flat, a car stops to help them. Who do they come face to face with? Liam (Kat’s former step-brother) and his father Luke (mom’s ex-husband and a professional scammer). The two are also on their way to the Sutherland mansion because they’ve been invited by Luke’s latest mark, the very wealthy Annalise, owner of the necklace Jamie’s been tasked to steal. A very complicated plot with a chaotic number of characters ensues.

Listen, this isn’t her best book. McManus had to establish quite a number of subplots in order to make this story work. Unfortunately, this exceptionally complicated plot coupled with dual narration and what seemed like a village of characters to keep straight made the novel drag a bit. (Which is why I haven’t posted a book review in over a week.) Now, in true McManus fashion, the end did speed up and there was a twist, but I wasn’t as invested in this story as much as her others. This is truly a shame, because Augustus, one of our thousand characters, is truly a gem and worthy of getting to know. So read this, but expect to be underwhelmed.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on July 30.

you won’t want to miss this book. absolutely incredible. karen mcmanus, you’ve done it again. from complex and deeply interesting characters to a killer heist with insane plot twists, this book is absolutely stellar. i cannot wait for everyone else to get their hands on it and read it for themselves, it’s a non stop page turner that will reel you in and leave you reeling. thank you netgalley and random house for the opportunity to read this early, and thank you karen mcmanus for this unique, high stakes thriller i couldn’t get enough of.

Two step siblings reunited when their perspective con artist parent ends up on the same job trying to steal from a wealthy family but when bodies start piling up on the job they'll have to find a way to save each other before it's too late. Kat is great at stealing, all her life it's just been her and her mother Jamie and her mentor Gem, working on cons yet when her mother is determined to go straight and do one final job, Kat decides to tag along.... and the last thing she expects is to rub into her stepbrother Liam and his scam artist father, Luke. Jamie and Luke were married for 48 hours until it ended in an epic divorce all those years ago and Kat and Liam have never met since. Yet now years later when Jaime is doing her final jewel thief job at billionaire Ross Sutherland's birthday, they run into Liam ad Luke... as Luke is a serial scammer who has set his sights on Sutherland's youngest daughter. And when Sutherland dies both Kat and Liam become the real killer's next target....and they'll have to work together to save each other, if only they could actually trust one another. They'll have to use everything they've ever learned from their con artist parents to survive... but they'll have to learn to trust one another despite it going against their nature. I have been a huge fan of Karen McManus books for so long and while this one wasn't one of my all time favorites from her it was an easy and fast read. I liked the sibling relationship between Kat and Liam and how despite not being around each other for years, their relationship was strong. The mystery had a ton of twists and turns with plenty of villains with different motives, and while the ending felt a bit abrupt and a little open ended, overall it's a propelling read. It wasn't what I was really expecting but it's a fun read featuring a gay guy, a bi guy, and a straight girl all working together to solve a murder mystery while being chased by a killer and dealing with their own respectively messed up family.

Release Date: July 30,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Children's | Delacorte Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. A jewelry heist at a billionaire’s compound unexpectedly finds long-lost teenage stepsiblings reunited and trying to solve take care of business before it’s all too late.

McManus does the it again and again! Bringing us another enthralling YA thriller.
Such Charming Liars was a captivating read!
This well-plotted novel kept me turning the pages as the whip smart twists kept coming.
The story was suspenseful and thrilling. This is a fantastic read! I could NOT stop reading it! Just when I thought I had figured it all out, twists and turns caught me by total surprise!
Absolutely consuming book for the ones who love the mysteries and thrillers! This book seriously was the definition of devour. It devours you while you devour it. The plot is so smooth, the character development is enticing and you connect and visualize the situations as if the images are right in your face on a tv screen.

Thank You NetGalley and Delacorte Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The quick cut: A teen guy and girl whose parents used to be married to each other find their lives intersecting once more when they all end up at the same billionaire's house for an important weekend.

A real review:
Thank you to Delacorte Press for providing the arc for an honest review.

Family is complicated enough, but what about the family you get when your parents remarry? Can they be as loyal and devoted as the others you've had your entire life? This is a question for Kat and Liam.

Kat and her mom have spent their lives together trying to minimize the chaos they've created. Her mom's latest venture has been as a jewel thief - until she announces that her next job is her last and they're going straight. The final job? Stealing a high value necklace from a billionaire's house. It all sounds like a spectacular final job until they show up and see someone they don't expect: Liam and his dad, a guy who Kat's mom was married to for 48 hours. Is this a coincidence? Or are they all after the same thing?

This book started out a little slow for me, with my preference for Liam's narrative. By the end, though, I learned to appreciate both him and Kat. They really do complement each other quite well in that sibling sort of way.

Plot wise, the story here gets very complicated at the end. In the beginning, it's setup as a thief story. By the end, it's a messy conspiracy with so many threads you'd need a chart to keep them straight. I do think the author could have made this one less complicated and still made an amazing story.

Kat was never meant to become a thief, but she ends up right in the middle of the action when things go wrong. The step-brother she never thought she'd see again ends up being her partner in crime to survive the weekend.

In this story, the best character is easily Augustus. Although he's not a narrator, he's such a phenomenal secondary character that you want to see more from his perspective. Can we get a book for him please?!?!

A fun crime story that gets too complicated to track by the end.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5

There are not a lot of books written for teens about con artistis/heists and for that reason, I think this should find some devoted readers. However, in order to make this a solidly young adult book, the adults are unlikable and often useless. This made the plot more convoluted than it needed to be and took away from my enjoyment. This was just okay for me but I am not the intended audience.

It’s been a minute since I’ve read anything by McManus but I’ve always enjoyed her YA mysteries. Can they be predictable, slightly over the top, and sometimes require a great need to suspend disbelief? Sure. Does that make them any less enjoyable? Not at all! For me, McManus’ mysteries are a great popcorn read for when you simply want to escape reality and be entertained.

Such Charming Liars was no different. The story is told from two POVs and I equally enjoyed them. It was easy to see each scene unfold like a movie as the premise is laid out and our MC's storylines slowly intertwine. It’s not hard to feel for both Kat and Liam as they don’t grow up in ideal situations which require them to fill in adult shoes before they should. I do think Jamie, Kat’s mum, did her best in the way she knew how and I had to respect her for it even if it didn’t make her any less of a hot mess. I felt terrible for Liam as he had to put up with Luke a raging narcissistic sociopath of a “father”. I have many choice words for that man, none of which I’ll repeat here but you can use your imagination, lol. 😉

I liked Kat and Liam a lot as individuals but I loved the great sibling bond that they have, even after a decade of being strangers. You can tell they truly care for each other and don’t want the other to come to harm. There’s a great comforting quality to their relationship and I liked how their differences balanced each other out. She’s bold where he’s cautious, and he’s a bit too trusting and naive while she’s a bit jaded and more than ready to use her charms to her advantage. Kat was so easy to root for and Liam was just a total sweetheart who did a lot of “growing up” in this book. His POV was so endearing and I’m so glad that McManus didn’t give them a romantic storyline cos that would’ve been awful and awkward, lol. Kat and Liam made a great sibling team!

There was also an unexpected additional character to round their duo up to a trio and I found Augustus surprisingly likeable. He was essential to their story but also a great addition to their team. I felt for the kid and can’t even begin to fathom what it’d be like to be raised in a family of money-hungry vipers who care more about appearances than the trauma resulting from the horrible things they experience. He’s truly a good egg amid all that rot and while they formed an unlikely trio, I found their friendship heartwarming. To be fair, they go through a lot and I’m sure some may see it as a trauma bond… 😅

As for the mystery, while I can’t go into detail about it, I will say that it was entertaining. I was curious to see how it would all unfold and while I saw some things coming, other twists were completely unexpected. There’s a lot that happens in the last 20-30% of the book and it made for quite an exciting read, as the lady who sat next to me on the train back from work can attest to as I exclaimed aloud often when the twists hit! That said, I will say that my one major qualm was that the end felt incredibly abrupt and threw me for a loop. It did not read as a book end but a chapter ending, which makes me wonder if McManus set it up intentionally for another book with these characters. Either way though, I can’t say I was a fan cos it felt like the story was still flowing and there were at least two more chapters needed to round it all off.

Overall though, I did thoroughly enjoy Such Charming Liars. It was gripping, entertaining and easy to breeze through in one sitting and I would definitely recommend it if you’ve enjoyed McManus’ previous works or are looking to give her mysteries a try!

I read this book as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours. Special thanks to Delacorte Press for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 stars rounded up

McManus's books are perfect for a quick light read - you're guaranteed interesting characters and a plot that keeps you guessing. This one started off a bit slowly, since the characters' backstories took some more time to develop, and the actual murder isn't committed until about a third of the way through. I really liked the sibling relationship between Kat and Liam, and the book did a good job of representing a bisexual character. There's a delightful twist at the very end of the novel that I did not see coming. Up to that point, though, I felt I was mostly going through the motions of reading this book to get to the end. The plot really only started ramping up around the 60-70% mark. Overall, I enjoyed the experience of reading Such Charming Liars: even though it wasn't my favorite McManus book, the premise was very interesting and unique for a murder mystery, and the characters are as fun to follow as ever.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 4.5 stars
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via TBR and Beyond Tours in exchange for an honest review!

Such Charming Liars is a mystery thriller, where Kat goes with her mother to try and pull off a jewelry switch, but things take a turn when one of the guests is murdered instead.

“Would the young lady like to see something with a pearl?”

I’ve been a massive fan of Karen M. McManus ever since reading her first book One of Us Is Lying! I fell in love with her writing style and the mystery plot she puts on paper, and I couldn’t be more excited about this one!
The book starts off slowly, but I liked how Kat and Gem were introduced together. It set the tone for their lives from the start. I also really liked how this book is written in dual POV and we also see from the eyes of Liam. The start is slow to set up, but a bit rushed at the same time it seems, or at least the time between Liam’s first POV and the main storyline is.
Liam is by far my favourite character this book! He is such a sweet, naïve and innocent character that really is thrown right in the thick of it! Kat is likable, but her headstrongness was a bit too much at times and the mistakes she made seemed a bit far-fetched to me.
I liked the complicated family relationships woven into the story. The Sutherlands have a lot going on within the family, which is a bit expected of a family that rich and having that reputation. Still, the drama is fun and entertaining. Liam and Luke also have a complicated relationship on another level, which made for an interesting dynamic. Kat and Jamie have I think the closest relationship, but that is also their downfall, since it makes Kat make the choices she makes as she doesn’t really see Jamie as her mom. Three very different families with very different dynamics, which was really well done.
The mystery aspect was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed trying to figure out what had happened and who was behind it all! I loved the twists, while some of the smaller ones were a bit predictable, the main perpetrator remained a secret to me until the reveal! My mouth fell open, and it was really difficult to put this book down until the very end once the ending was nearing! Also, the last chapter really blew my mind!
Overal, Such Charming Liars is a great mystery that kept me guessing until the end who the mastermind behind it all was!

When Kat was little, her mom, Jamie was briefly married to Luke, who had a son, Liam. After the marriage quickly fell apart, Jamie started working for a group that pulls off heists. She is determined to get out now though and agrees to one last job. Kat, always worried about her mom, manages to tag along. They unexpectedly run into Luke and Liam, who are also going to the same mansion/compound, but for different reasons. Things take a turn though when someone ends up murdered. Alternating between Kat and Liam's perspectives, they must try to find out who is responsible before they are the next targets.

This one started out a little slower than others by McManus. However, about a quarter of the way through, it really picked up! I'm glad that she chose to not have a romance between Kat and Liam because I think that would have taken away from the story here, and I think the sibling bond they forge is better for the overall arc. By the end, I didn't think the reveal was particularly surprising (if you can follow the clues, I think anyone could get it), but that didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the book. If you find it a little slow to begin, just keep with it and you will get to more of McManus's typical fast-paced storytelling!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Karen M. McManus is back with a mystery based heist that will sure to keep you on your toes.

Kat's Mom, is a jewel thief who finally decides she wants out and to live a normal life. Liam's Dad is constantly online trying to scam woman for money. Funny enough, Liam's Dad, Luke and Kat's Mom, Jamie, used to be married to each other. However, Luke left Jamie and Kat and took Liam with him, never to be heard from again. On one fated day, they all run into each other on the side of the road. Both Luke and Jamie are on their way to the Sutherland compound for Ross's Sutherland birthday party. Things don't end up going as planned and a murder ends up happening. Now Kat and Liam are in the middle.

Wow, this book was such a wild ride, filled with so many twists and turns. You think you've figured things out more things begin to unravel. It really was such a wild ride. I didn't want to put it down. I did figure one major thing but thankfully there was so much to figure out, it wasn't a big deal. Plus the ending left me shocked! I wanted more but at the same time like how she ended the book.

I can't wait to see what Karen comes out with next. I highly recommend this one.

*Thank you Netgalley & the publisher for the free copy, in exchange for my honest opinion.*

I was so excited to read Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus, and it did not disappoint! It might even be my favorite book of the year so far! I loved the pace of the plot, and the story just kept getting better and better. I also really enjoyed Kat's character, and her and Liam's dynamic together was so interesting. I had a lot of fun speculating about where the plot was going, and the twists were incredibly entertaining! The stakes were so high and the suspense had me on the edge of my seat! Definitely a full five star read!

Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for a review.
A version of this review will be published on July 29, 2024 on Instagram (@book.cloud).

I had so much fun while reading this!!
Kat's mom wants to do one last job before retiring from the grifter life, which takes Kat and her mom Jamie to the Sutherland Compound. Things start to go comically out of control before they arrive, and snowball as the story goes on. When a murder takes place on the compound it's up to our new gang of friends Kat, her ex-stepbrother Liam, and his new friend/love interest Augustus to figure out who the killer is.
We got two POVs of Liam and Kat, and I really loved getting the story from both sides. Augustus was a surprise and I felt he fit right in with Liam and Kat. I loved all the twists and turns the story took, and I didn't want to put it down!

The mystery was so good, I thought it was going in one direction, but when it was all finished I was shocked at how it all played out! Karen McManus knows how to write a ya mystery that will show me a good time, and I can't wait to see what she's going to write next.

I absolutely loved Such Charming Liars! This si sure to be another hit from master story teller Karen McManus. The twists and turns in the plot will keep readers hooked and the relationship between Liam and Kat is so fun to watch! This is a must purchase for all YA collections!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the advanced copy!

This was a wild ride! Karen M. McManus created this crazy world of schemes, heist and a tangled web of lies. This took a lot of turns I was not expecting.
Former step siblings Liam and Kat find themselves at the same party for the wealthy Sutherland family where both parents are separately trying to pull a scheme. After something goes wrong, Liam and Kat find themselves at the center of a heist and involved in the Sutherland family drama.
I truly believe it’s best to go in not knowing much. The story will absorb you in and it will be a crazy ride!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the advanced copy!

I was expecting a high-stakes heist story, with a side of murder mystery. But I didn’t get it, which disappointed me at first. If you’re like me and expected tension between two criminal kids stuck between their respective cut-throat parents, then you will get disappointed.

Instead you will get two kids dealing with their childhood traumas, a three member scooby-gang made up of a gay guy, a bi guy and a chaotic straight girl, tasked with solving a murder mystery while being chased by the killer. Because a third in, the story puts down the gas and doesn’t stop until the end.

It ended up being a very enjoyable and quick read once I re-adjusted my expectations after getting the wrong idea from the blurb. My only big complaint was that the story left the reader hanging a bit at the end since there wasn’t a nice wrap up.

Another twisty thriller from one of my favorite YA authors. A solid cast of characters with plenty of suspense and a few far-fetched twists. I loved Liam and Kat and their pseudo-sibling relationship. The ending was satisfying with yet another twist.

Karen McManus does it again in this twisty mystery that explores the lives of grifters and their marks. Teens Kat and Liam take the reader on a wild ride of intrigue and suspense. If you loved One of Us is Lying, you're sure to enjoy this latest thriller.