Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus

8 reviews

styxx's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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lulibooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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velkeyta's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Karen M. McManus NEVER misses, I was so invested.
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megnut's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I'm normally not a heist story person, but I enjoyed the mystery part of the story. (Plus totally adore
Liam
&
Augustus
.)

The solution was way convoluted and unrealistic in any way... I'm willing to suspend belief to just enjoy the story, but it did also mean I enjoyed it less than some of her other ones. 

It was alright, but not one I'll buy to read again. 
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greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I guess when people are “tools,” all that matters is what they can do for you.

Karen McManus, the queen of young adult mysteries, is back with a mystery that is quite different from her other books. The whole plot isn’t wrapped around a murder. *gasp* Instead, we have an Ocean’s Eleven type book, which is really becoming my favorite type of mystery to read these days. 

Cast of Characters: 
  • Kat: a teenager who isn’t supposed to be following her mom’s last heist job but figured out a way to smuggle herself there regardless. 
  • Jamie: Kat’s mother who is a jewel thief but wants out. She agrees to do this last job and then she’s cleaning herself up.
  • Ross Sutherland: the billionaire who is having a birthday party. Scene of the jewel heist.
  • Luke: A con man who makes up sob stories about him and his “young” son to get money out of unsuspecting women. Has his romantic claws in Ross Sutherland’s daughter. Was married to Jamie for 48 hours.
  • Liam: Luke’s teenage son who hates everything about Luke but ends up at the birthday party of Ross Sutherland so he can meet the new woman his father is interested in.

All of these characters end up in the same location one weekend. When a member of the Sutherland family ends up dead, no one knows who to trust. Jamie is sick and Kat doesn’t know who she can trust and the only person she feels she can turn to is Liam. Can she trust him?

While this was different from McManus’ other mystery books, I did still enjoy it. As expected with McManus, there were plenty of twists and turns so I wasn’t sure how things were going to pan out. I personally also enjoyed there were only two POVs to keep track of - sometimes I can get lost when there’s more than three characters telling the story. For whatever reason in this story I couldn’t keep everyone’s names straight so I kept mixing up who was who. That definitely impacted my enjoyment of the book. I do think teenagers are going to enjoy this book!
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onarosebeam's review against another edition

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mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This isn’t my favorite Karen M McManus but she never lets me down with an ending! With this being a heist book it was very different from her other books and I ended up preferring one storyline over the other because the two were so different. But it did all come together in the end to give a great ending. 
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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

   This is one of her better ones! I found it less predictable, but I'm sure some people saw the main villain coming, I didn't however. There were enough villains that it was hard to tell who was truly evil and who wasn't. 
   There was a diversity in sexuality, with one bi/pan character, and one gay main character. But no diversity in the race of the characters, who were all white.
    Overall, I found it enjoyable, though a bit darker than the author's other books. The MCs were likable but a lot of the lesser characters weren't. 


Narrator(s) Rating: 4.5 stars
   The narrators did an excellent job. They could have used a bit more vocal differences to characters for a 5-star rating. 
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bellebookcorner's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

If you’re looking for a YA mystery with a heist, dark lies and secrets worth killing for then this one might be for you! 
 
The first 20% of the story is a bit slow since the author wants to introduce the key players to the readers and how they’re going to be connected to one another. 
However, things will get a lot more interesting once the mystery starts with a sound of gun shot in a middle of a party… 
 
This story is told in dual POV from the main characters – Liam and Kat. 
At times, Liam appears too innocent to be involved in a heist, while Kat is the complete opposite of him - she’s reckless but also highly intelligent in a life or death situation. 
But, that’s what makes them both interesting main characters for this story and despite how different they are and haven’t seen each other in years, they clicked and treat each other like family instantly. 
 
The last few chapters are quite intense as the puzzle pieces started to come together, twist upon twist are thrown which can be quite overwhelming so I have to read it slowly to understand all of it. 
But, I have to admit the last twist manage to surprise me real good! 
 
Overall, it’s an enjoyable and entertaining mystery read with a satisfying ending. 
This is not the first time I read a book by this author and won’t be the last, I’m looking forward to read more books in the future. 
 
Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tour, Netgalley, author and publisher for giving me an e-ARC of the book and for having me on this book tour. I’m leaving this review voluntarily!
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