Scan barcode
julie_reads15's review
3.0
'Lies I Told' by Michelle Zink is a suspense novel and is the first book in the 'Lies I Told' duology.
16-year-old Grace Fontaine was adopted into a family of thieves when she was just a child. Grace and her family are constantly moving to different towns, taking on new identities, and forming friendships with their 'marks' in order to easily steal from them. The Fontaine family has recently moved to Playa Hermosa, a peninsula near Los Angeles, to conduct their biggest heist yet. The Fairchild family are rumoured to have a large stash of gold hiding somewhere on their property.
Grace's mark is Logan, the son of the wealthy Fairchilds. She needs to get close to him in order to find the stash of gold. She doesn't expect to fall in love with him. She's conflicted between her love for her parents and her love for Logan.
Grace is breaking all the rules she's learned. Playa Hermosa might be the Fontaine's last con if they don't play their cards right.
There was a lot of romance for a suspense novel. The suspense was extremely slow. There wasn't enough action until the climax.
I didn't like the insta-love between Grace and Logan. They fell for each other way too quickly. However, I thought the romance between them was cute.
Logan was too perfect. He didn't have any flaws. This made him a little unrealistic.
Although Rachel was made out to be the villain, I liked how she was protective of her friends and looked out for them.
I liked Grace and Parker's strong sibling relationship. They always looked out for each other.
I felt sorry for Grace and Parker and the tough situation Cormac and Renee (their adoptive parents) put them in. They were forced to choose between their adoptive parents and their newfound friends.
For an experienced con artist, Grace made some stupid mistakes. The con started unraveling due to a stupid mistake she made. I wish the con had unraveled in a different way.
I thought Cormac and Renee were horrible parents. It was wrong of them to take advantage of Grace and Parker - two children who just wanted a normal loving foster family. It was also wrong of them to make them do most of the work in their cons.
The next and final book in the duology is 'Promises I Made.'
I recommend this book for anyone who's 15 years and older and wants to read a romance with mild suspense.
16-year-old Grace Fontaine was adopted into a family of thieves when she was just a child. Grace and her family are constantly moving to different towns, taking on new identities, and forming friendships with their 'marks' in order to easily steal from them. The Fontaine family has recently moved to Playa Hermosa, a peninsula near Los Angeles, to conduct their biggest heist yet. The Fairchild family are rumoured to have a large stash of gold hiding somewhere on their property.
Grace's mark is Logan, the son of the wealthy Fairchilds. She needs to get close to him in order to find the stash of gold. She doesn't expect to fall in love with him. She's conflicted between her love for her parents and her love for Logan.
Grace is breaking all the rules she's learned. Playa Hermosa might be the Fontaine's last con if they don't play their cards right.
There was a lot of romance for a suspense novel. The suspense was extremely slow. There wasn't enough action until the climax.
I didn't like the insta-love between Grace and Logan. They fell for each other way too quickly. However, I thought the romance between them was cute.
Logan was too perfect. He didn't have any flaws. This made him a little unrealistic.
Although Rachel was made out to be the villain, I liked how she was protective of her friends and looked out for them.
I liked Grace and Parker's strong sibling relationship. They always looked out for each other.
I felt sorry for Grace and Parker and the tough situation Cormac and Renee (their adoptive parents) put them in. They were forced to choose between their adoptive parents and their newfound friends.
For an experienced con artist, Grace made some stupid mistakes. The con started unraveling due to a stupid mistake she made. I wish the con had unraveled in a different way.
I thought Cormac and Renee were horrible parents. It was wrong of them to take advantage of Grace and Parker - two children who just wanted a normal loving foster family. It was also wrong of them to make them do most of the work in their cons.
The next and final book in the duology is 'Promises I Made.'
I recommend this book for anyone who's 15 years and older and wants to read a romance with mild suspense.
kvreadsandrecs's review
4.0
I just can't. Ug;lkasjdfsaf;lkjas;ldfkjas;lkdfj;aslkjf;laskjfsalkjf. I'm so mad.
christiana's review
2.0
Way too much dark and not enough light in this one. You can see things crumbling more and more. I get that that's kind of the point, but there's not enough cleverness to see how this family was ever good at heists. The book ended on such a dark note that I don't see how you would bring people back for another volume. The preview of the next book does a little more to bring you back in, but not enough that I didn't find this book a complete waste of time.
sallashelves's review
5.0
Amazing. Can't figure out another word for it.
*******************************************
Read full review here:
http://bookstoldmeso.blogspot.fi/2016/02/review-lies-i-told.html
*******************************************
Read full review here:
http://bookstoldmeso.blogspot.fi/2016/02/review-lies-i-told.html
_camk_'s review
2.0
It took me ages to get around to reading this book. Despite loving books about cons and heist, the blurb didn't draw me in enough to read this instantly.
Turns out - I didn't miss much.
Zink fails to write a heist story - compared to the heists in Heist Society and Six of Crows. This is just a young book about a girl struggling with her identity. Honestly, the con is just something to give the book a little originality but unfortunately just fails.
Turns out - I didn't miss much.
Zink fails to write a heist story - compared to the heists in Heist Society and Six of Crows. This is just a young book about a girl struggling with her identity. Honestly, the con is just something to give the book a little originality but unfortunately just fails.
allibruns's review
4.0
I will read any book that features teenage con artists\thieves\spies. I really enjoyed this book. I loved the feel of it, it reminded me a lot of Pretending To Be Erica in that it had a dark, gritty feel to it. I was completely in Grace's head. I felt a sense of dread as the con approached, hoping there would be some way out of it.
My only complaint was that I didn't buy that Rachel was so quick toto figure out Grace. I found it hard to believe that a spoiled rich girl was so quick to suss out career criminals. Overall this was a tense read that I enjoyed.
My only complaint was that I didn't buy that Rachel was so quick toto figure out Grace. I found it hard to believe that a spoiled rich girl was so quick to suss out career criminals. Overall this was a tense read that I enjoyed.
erincaitlin97's review against another edition
3.0
There was absolutely no excitement in this book until the very end. I only want to read the sequel to see what happens.
maggiemaggio's review
3.0
Lies I Told is great plane or beach read. Now that's not an insult, not everything can told your attention when you want to be distracted from turbulence and the moron next to you or make you want to have your nose in a book rather than staring out at the beautiful sparkling water. Lies I Told strikes a balance between a fun, suspenseful page turner and a more serious side.
Grace was adopted after several tough foster homes by two parents she really loves who also happen to be thieves. Her parents move Grace and her adopted brother, Preston, around the country using the kids to befriend kids of the rich and privileged to help their parents steal from them. When the story starts Grace's family has just moved to southern California and they've set up camp in an incredibly affluent area to try to pull off their biggest con yet, stealing millions in solid gold bars from a local family. Grace is supposed to cozy up to the family's only child, Logan. Since she's done this before she feels comfortable blending in and playing her part, but when she gets to know Logan, and some of the other kids at school, she starts to actually care about them and, for the first time, starts to think about the consequences of her family's actions.
The strongest part of this story was Grace. She could have just been a wet rag who goes along with what her parents want, but she was a really dynamic character who also grew over the course of the story. Even though the story never goes into detail about, it she did go through some tough times before she was adopted. Those tough times left her really afraid of being abandoned and, even though she sometimes questions if what her parents make her do is right, in the end she's really thankful they adopted her and take care of her (and to their credit they do seem to care about her). On the other hand, Preston is over being a pawn for their parents and tries to convince Grace to abandon their life and run away with him. Throughout the story Grace is pulled around not only by her own conscious, but also by Preston.
Grace also builds really interesting relationships with her peers. Part of her role involves being able to adapt to any situation and befriend people around her without standing out too much. As they settle down in California Grace finds herself really make friends beyond what her role in the con calls for and it's really clear how much she cares about people. It takes real skill to build such a complicated character who's ruthless, scared, caring, and kind all at once, but Michelle Zink managed to do it with Grace.
The rest of the story and characters is where the book maybe doesn't fall a little short, but is lacking. The elaborate heists that Grace's family manages to pull off just seem like they would have, at some point, had the family come under some kind of heat, but as far as we know Grace's family pulls off the cons, sticks around to not arouse suspicion, and, after an acceptable wait, moves on to their next scheme. It seems like eventually somewhere someone would have realized what was happening. Zink talks about how Grace doesn't know how her father finds the cons, but there's also never any details about who arranges the houses and school paperwork and drivers licenses. With some additional backstory it would have been a lot easier to buy into what was going on.
Also, besides Grace and Preston, the other characters kind of just blend into the background. There's the girl Grace befriends and obviously cares about, there's Logan (the mark), and Logan's ex-girlfriend who doesn't trust Grace, but besides that everyone else melts together. Zink tried to give Logan's dad, the incredibly rich man hoarding gold bars for the apocalypse his own backstory, but it was confusing and never really materialized in the actual glimpses of Logan's dad.
And a note in case, like me, you didn't realize like me, the story in Lies I Told doesn't wrap up here there's a sequel, Promises I Made, coming out later this year. Which is fine, but I wish I had known that going in.
Bottom Line: Lies I Told features a strong, dynamic, fascinating main character, an interesting family, and a suspenseful story. The book really shines when it's dealing with Grace, the main character, but the rest of it is entertaining as well, even if there are some aspects where you need to suspend disbelief and the secondary characters are a little lacking.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.
Grace was adopted after several tough foster homes by two parents she really loves who also happen to be thieves. Her parents move Grace and her adopted brother, Preston, around the country using the kids to befriend kids of the rich and privileged to help their parents steal from them. When the story starts Grace's family has just moved to southern California and they've set up camp in an incredibly affluent area to try to pull off their biggest con yet, stealing millions in solid gold bars from a local family. Grace is supposed to cozy up to the family's only child, Logan. Since she's done this before she feels comfortable blending in and playing her part, but when she gets to know Logan, and some of the other kids at school, she starts to actually care about them and, for the first time, starts to think about the consequences of her family's actions.
The strongest part of this story was Grace. She could have just been a wet rag who goes along with what her parents want, but she was a really dynamic character who also grew over the course of the story. Even though the story never goes into detail about, it she did go through some tough times before she was adopted. Those tough times left her really afraid of being abandoned and, even though she sometimes questions if what her parents make her do is right, in the end she's really thankful they adopted her and take care of her (and to their credit they do seem to care about her). On the other hand, Preston is over being a pawn for their parents and tries to convince Grace to abandon their life and run away with him. Throughout the story Grace is pulled around not only by her own conscious, but also by Preston.
Grace also builds really interesting relationships with her peers. Part of her role involves being able to adapt to any situation and befriend people around her without standing out too much. As they settle down in California Grace finds herself really make friends beyond what her role in the con calls for and it's really clear how much she cares about people. It takes real skill to build such a complicated character who's ruthless, scared, caring, and kind all at once, but Michelle Zink managed to do it with Grace.
The rest of the story and characters is where the book maybe doesn't fall a little short, but is lacking. The elaborate heists that Grace's family manages to pull off just seem like they would have, at some point, had the family come under some kind of heat, but as far as we know Grace's family pulls off the cons, sticks around to not arouse suspicion, and, after an acceptable wait, moves on to their next scheme. It seems like eventually somewhere someone would have realized what was happening. Zink talks about how Grace doesn't know how her father finds the cons, but there's also never any details about who arranges the houses and school paperwork and drivers licenses. With some additional backstory it would have been a lot easier to buy into what was going on.
Also, besides Grace and Preston, the other characters kind of just blend into the background. There's the girl Grace befriends and obviously cares about, there's Logan (the mark), and Logan's ex-girlfriend who doesn't trust Grace, but besides that everyone else melts together. Zink tried to give Logan's dad, the incredibly rich man hoarding gold bars for the apocalypse his own backstory, but it was confusing and never really materialized in the actual glimpses of Logan's dad.
And a note in case, like me, you didn't realize like me, the story in Lies I Told doesn't wrap up here there's a sequel, Promises I Made, coming out later this year. Which is fine, but I wish I had known that going in.
Bottom Line: Lies I Told features a strong, dynamic, fascinating main character, an interesting family, and a suspenseful story. The book really shines when it's dealing with Grace, the main character, but the rest of it is entertaining as well, even if there are some aspects where you need to suspend disbelief and the secondary characters are a little lacking.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.
everthereader's review
3.0
The whole concept with manipulating and stealing from people was really interesting. The characters were not the greatest, especially the main character. It was entertaining, but not my favorite.