Traveling With T purchased this audio book for her own listening while walking time.

Pretty Things

Summary: Two wildly different women—one a grifter, the other an heiress—are brought together by the scam of a lifetime in a page-turner from the New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear.

Nina once bought into the idea that her fancy liberal arts degree would lead to a fulfilling career. When that dream crashed, she turned to stealing from rich kids in L.A. alongside her wily Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Nina learned from the best: Her mother was the original con artist, hustling to give her daughter a decent childhood despite their wayward life. But when her mom gets sick, Nina puts everything on the line to help her, even if it means running her most audacious, dangerous scam yet.

Vanessa is a privileged young heiress who wanted to make her mark in the world. Instead she becomes an Instagram influencer—traveling the globe, receiving free clothes and products, and posing for pictures in exotic locales. But behind the covetable façade is a life marked by tragedy. After a broken engagement, Vanessa retreats to her family’s sprawling mountain estate, Stonehaven: a mansion of dark secrets not just from Vanessa’s past, but from that of a lost and troubled girl named Nina.

Nina’s, Vanessa’s, and Lachlan’s paths collide here, on the cold shores of Lake Tahoe, where their intertwined lives give way to a winter of aspiration and desire, duplicity and revenge.

This dazzling, twisty, mesmerizing novel showcases acclaimed author Janelle Brown at her best, as two brilliant, damaged women try to survive the greatest game of deceit and destruction they will ever play.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I actually grabbed this book at the free book area at Bouchercon 2019– the cover was gorgeous and it sounded great. Fast forward a few months later and I’m looking around for audio books to listen to and when I see Julia Whelan is one of the narrators- well, I just had to get it.

 

What I Liked:

The cover is GORGEOUS.

Julia Whelan as Nina and Lauren Fortgang as Vanessa. Both narrate characters that are so incredibly flawed- and their flaws made me want to know more about them.

The ending. It’s pretty fitting.

 

Bottom line: There is a lot of backstory in this book to truly understand the dynamic between Vanessa and Nina. And there is a lot of re-telling of same scenes from their different POV. So, actually- the book could have been a bit shorter (17 hours is a long listen.) But so much of it worked- so I overlooked some things.

 

*Traveling With T purchased this book on audio for her own listening while walking time. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

 

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Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T