Grasp Pretty Things Executed By Janelle Brown Depicted In Electronic Format

in alternating points of view, this is a fun tale of revenge, with the expected twists and surprises,

Two women: Nina, a con woman who learned the art at her mothers knee, and Vanessa, an heiress and Instagram influencer with a complicated family that has seen its share of tragedy.
The two women have a past but Vanessa is unaware of their shared history, This added an extra layer of fun to the story,

Nina, along with her boyfriend and fellow con man, Lachlan, plans her biggest scam yet with a plan to outwit Vanessa and walk away with a fortune, part of which will be used to pay for cancer treatment for her mother Lily.


All of this takes place at Stonehaven, the mansion on Lake Tahoe that Vanessa inherited, Its creepy and atmospheric, which adds to the fun of this story,

Atpages this is a longer book, and it's not a propulsive thriller from the start, A lot of time is spent on background information, It was past themark before the thriller part of the story took off, By "slow" I do not mean boring, I was never tempted to dnf,

It has been pointed out to me that the information given in the first half was absolutely necessary to set up the twists and shocking revelations in the second half.
I agree with that assessment, but still think it could have been tightened up a bit, I do love a character study and find it fascinating to delve into people's psyches, which kept me listening, Still,from me instead of the full,

This is not a thriller in the strictest sense of the word, its more of a character study and psychological cat and mouse game, but you never quite know who is the cat and who is the mouse.
Great fun!

The narrators of the audiobook, Julia Whelan my favorite!, Hillary Huber, and Lauren Fortgang were excellent!,round up to

This cover is gorgeous!! I must admit that is what initially drew me to this book, This book started out really strong the first couple of chapters, I defiantly was drawn right in as Nina seemed to be a hardcore player in this game she was playing stealing from the wealthy.


Then we seem to hit a speed bump and stay in low gear until about thepoint in the book, I actually considered setting this book aside right before it picked up, Then we flew into high gear again and I was thinking well this is what I wanted from page one!

A great deal of the book is spent highly developing the two main characters Nina and Vanessa.
Vanessa is a wealthy, Instagram "it" girl who is famous for, . . well nothing you know the type.

Then we have Nina, . . Nina is a con artist, She learned from the best, . . dear old mom. When her mom no longer can hustle people due to her cancer diagnosis, Nina steps in, Like mother, like daughter right

We get a full look at Nina's background and we see that if Nina had not made one little mistake, her life might have turned out quite differently.
. . or would it That is the million dollar question, What we do know is that afteryears, Nina wants to settle the score,

This book was just a tad too long and too slow of a burn for me, However I did enjoy it, I was just glad that it picked up speed towards the ending, There were several twists towards the end some I saw coming and some I did not, Overall I enjoyed this book but it didn't have me floored or speechless at the end, I think someone that doesn't read as many thrillers as I do may rate this quite a bit higher, I was just looking for a bit more action,

Thank you so much to Random House for this ARC, Nina isnt living the life she envisioned, A college degree in art history landed her with lots of student loans, but no meaningful job, So, shes now following in her mothers footsteps as a grifter, When she and her boyfriend are forced to leave LA quickly, they head for Lake Tahoe, Nina spent the sophomore year of high school there and has an axe to grind with one of the towns rich families,
Meanwhile, Vanessa, the daughter of the family, is now an Instagram influencer, Shes returned to Lake Tahoe after a broken engagement, Shes got that poor little rich girl vibe going, The beauty of Browns characters is you bounce back and forth between empathathizing and disliking each of them in turn, There were even times I liked or disliked both at the same time,
The story alternates between the two women, You even get to see the same scene from both perspectives, Brown does a great job of showing how each womans misconceptions lead them to make the decisions they do,
I do think the story would have benefitted from a better editing job, At times, the story drags, especially in the beginning, About the halfway point, the twists start coming fast and furious, Some were obvious, but others caught me totally off guard,
This is a fun read, Definitely not deep literature, but a good choice when you just want to be entertained, I could easily see it being turned into a miniseries, It works well as an audiobook because of those easy to envision scenes,
Nothing is ever as pure as it seems at first glance there is always something more complicated to be found if you peel back the unmarred surface of pretty things.


After reading such mixed reviews from my fellow reviewers, I honestly wasn't sure what to think prior to diving into sitelinkPretty Things.
Some of my friends loved it, others weren't fans, To begin with, I wasn't a fan either, This book was a slowburner and it took me awhile to warm up to everythingthe characters, the plot, the setting, . . so much so, I seriously thought about temporarily shelving it and starting another novel,

but then the magic started, . .

The writing was beautiful, and I quite loved how the book was blocked into multiplechapter sections of Nina's narratives, followed by those of Vanessa.
I relished the way the story slowly unfolded, but from two very different perspectives, While, at times, the chapters seemed a bit repetitive and the longwinded flashback sequences were often too much, I was, nevertheless, hooked,

This was my first sitelinkJanelle Brown novel, and I was impressed by her tightly woven and wellplaced themespoverty, privilege, and mental illness.
They seamlessly tied everything together and upped the amperage on the mystery at the heart of the story,

The conclusion, while fairly predictable, was immensely satisfying,

Overall, a fiendishly clever novel, I look forward to reading more of Ms, Brown's work. Stunning cover, twisty, and clever!

The cover of PRETTY THINGS by JANELLE BROWN is initially what attracted me to read this book, isnt it pretty

JANELLE BROWN delivers a slowburning, characterdriven, compelling, and wellwritten read here that really intrigued, engaged, and entertained me.
It was a little bit slow going at times but the authors fabulous writing definitely captured my attention and drew me right in keeping me fully absorbed in this deceitful and cunning tale.
Plus there were some pretty surprising and thrilling reveals that definitely got my adrenaline pumping moving this story forward for me,

The story is told in alternating perspectives between our two main sinister characters here, Nina our con artist and Vanessa an Instagram influencer.
The connections and dynamics between these two women really surprised, intrigued amp captivated me, I never really knew who to trust or believe, Each of these women brought their own unique and distinct voice to the narrative which I was equally invested in, I was really surprised with the direction this book took and had me questioning multiple plot points in the end,

Im not sure if my perception of what was going on in the end with a certain character was all wrong or if my deliberations were correct.
I can hardly believe that I am saying this because I am not a deep reader at all, Im more surface but this one totally had me digging deep and discussing it in our Traveling Sisters group.
Brenda thinks I was overthinking things! Id love to have a conversation with the author!

Update: So I had a conversation with the author and while she said that I made an interesting case I was overthinking things a little bit.
LOL

Expected Publication Date: April/

This was a Traveling Sister read, Thank you so much to NetGalley, Random House, and Janelle Brown for an electronic ARC, “Pretty Things” by Janelle Brown is a great suspenseful read to take your mind off the Covidvirus, Its such a fabulous story, that Nicole Kidman is producing and starring in an Amazon production of the novel, I cannot wait to see it,

Stories involving grifters are delightful to read because as a reader, you try to be alert to all the cons, Grifting keeps the reader alert and involved, In this story, Nina begins by explaining that she is an Instagram follower and identifies obscenely rich people and takes note of their Instagram accounts.
She studies her “mark” and plans in detail what she intends to rob and how to do it, Shes slick as an expert pickpocket, Its interesting, and author Brown makes the “marks” seem despicable enough that the reader isnt bothered by the robbery,

Nina provides her backstory, She didnt start like this, She went to University but came home after her con/grifter mother contracted cancer, After living with a gifted con artist, Nina has learned worthy skills, Her mother worked many cons with a man named Lachlan, He and Nina devise a con involving a wealthy family at Lake Tahoe with whom Nina has a tortured past,

Vanessa is the “mark” who was cruel to Nina when in high school, Nina has a grudge. Vanessa is a vacuous instagrammer, and the perfect victim, Vanessa is our other narrator, and she provides the reader with a great education on what it means to be an Instagram influencer.


Brown acknowledged that she studied the art of the con, and she used that information to write a fantastically clever read.
There are cons, doublecrosses, and very bad behavior, I highly recommend it!
Audiobook, . . narrated by Julia
Whelan, Lauren Fortgang, and Hillary Huber

I ended up LOVING IT!!!!!
I know there are low review the biggest beef of being too long!! I didnt mind!! I enjoyed many/most of the life descriptions.
.
It turned into a perfect meditative walking companion amp pool soaking intrigue bookbuddy!!!

Nina Ross, didnt always want to be a con artist.
She learned her thievery skills through osmosis and mostly from observing her mother, Lily a con artist entrepreneur,
I LIKED THIS CRIMINAL, . .
I loved her back story her character development and interactions with others,
I cant wait to see who plays her character when this book comes to screen!

Nina never wanted to be a grifter or social media follower, but life threw her a curveball her mothers cancer returned and the medical bills were astronomical.

. so Nina forms an alliance with Lachlan a slimy, shallow, amp pathetic Irish immigrant, to pull off one last big job to outwit heiress Vanessa Liebling.

But before she does she has rendezvous connection with BENNY, another character favorite . but it ends BAD
Bennys dad called Nina a nobody, disposable nobody!
The slime ball daddy kicked Nina out of Bennys bed pulled her out by the arm naked and says, . . ”get out and never return”!

I didnt think Nina was a nobody, but , I did wonder if things would change when I got to the end,
This book was just enough thrillerwithout being thrillerdriven, instead I was organically curious without having my attention on the ending too much, I enjoyed the entire process of unfolding,
And . I enjoyed the ending!!! shhhhh, we cant spill the beans, now can we/!

Vanessa Liebling, was the heir to Stonehaven an old, creepy, large mansion in Lake Tahoe.

Vanessa was a college dropout, but a popular social media internet influencer, She was a complex interesting unlikable character, . . but interesting!
She herself felt hollow and shallow inside, . . but her PRETTY THINGS and SOCIAL MEDIA facade worked well for her, She got to fool herself, . . and liked fooling herself.
From being a rich daddys girl, . . with lots of pretty clothes, stilettos, and accessoriesshe faces the loss of her father, a broken relationship, and financial capital losses around the same time.

This makes her more interesting, and I give her a little bonus point: although she was selfcentered and snobby she sincerely loved her younger brother Benny!

.
Paths are crossed between Nina and Vanessa,
. Background stories give us a greater understanding from the different worlds they grew up in,
. my favorite backstory was between Nina and her first boyfriend name Benny: Vanessas sister, The connections are complex entanglements,
. I also enjoyed the relationship between Nina and her mother,

Lily, Their love was solidregardless of their crimes and dysfunction,

Another book that screams to be seen on screen and its coming!!! Nicole Kidman will be producing,

. Social media, partnersincrime, greed, family, legacy,
backstabbing, lies, deceitfulness, unreliable flawed characters, a creepy old mansion/ Stonehaven
in Lake Tahoe, Pacific Heights in San Francisco, antiques, twistsand surprises.
.
make up this psychological suspenseful, character driven, atmospheric dramatic thrillerlight novel!

Great walking audiobook companion, .
schemingentertaining!
Should make for a great Netflix series,

I liked it!!! I really really liked it!!!!
Loved it as an Audiobook!!!,