Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 256
Readership: Young adult
Genres: romance, contemporary
Sadie can’t wait to get away from her backwards small town, her delusional mom, her jailbird dad, and the tiny trailer where she was raised…even though leaving those things behind also means leaving Brendan. Sadie wants a better life, and she has been working steadily toward it, one con at a time.
But when Sadie’s mother wipes out Sadie’s savings, her escape plan is suddenly gone. She needs to come up with a lot of cash—and fast—or she’ll be stuck in this town forever.
With Brendan’s help, she devises a plan—the ultimate con—to get the money. But the more lies Sadie spins, the more she starts falling for her own hoax…and perhaps for the wrong boy. Sadie wanted to change her life, but she wasn't prepared to have it flipped upside down by her own deception. With her future at stake and her heart on the line, suddenly it seems like she has a lot more than just money to lose....
Whenever I see something about cons or con artists, my mind immediately goes to the tv show LOST and Sawyer. LOST was one of the best television shows of all time and Sawyer was one of my favorite characters. I'm always intrigued by stories like these and I was interested to see how a book about a young con-artist and her life would go. Well, I thought it went great.
Sadie's life is anything but perfect. She grew up in a trailer on a resort island full of rich people. Her dad was in prison more often than not. Sadie has had it hard but she has made the best of it. She dreams of getting out, of going to college. She was accepted at Berkley in California which see sees as a brand new start, a whole new life. She had saved up enough money by doing what she calls small-cons, cons that hurt virtually no one and that also have a low likelihood of her getting caught.
Sadie is left with nothing after her mother drains her bank account. She has no college money, no out. She needs to figure out a way to make a lot of money fast or she will lose her spot at Berkley. She has an idea for a con that could get her a lot of money quick and she enlists her best friend to help her but the only problem is the con could cause a lot of collateral damage. There are a lot of emotional ties to it for everyone involved and it has the potential to end badly.
I loved Sadie. She was burdened by circumstances. All she wanted was a way out, to be someone and make something of her life. She is a big dreamer. She doesn't want to be stuck and realize twenty years down the line that she hates who she is and where she is. While these cons that she does, even the little ones, can be dubbed bad or sketchy or wrong, she does it with a moral code. She has a reason, a drive, in her and she will do that and do her best not to hurt anyone in the process. I admired her through all of the book, during the con and all the other things she was going through because while she at times felt lost she still knew her end goal.
While there were many aspects of the book that you could see coming from a mile away I still enjoyed the ride. Some plot points were obvious but that didn't take the enjoyment away. There were also twists to those obvious points that I enjoyed. It was like the author said "I know you know how this is going to go but you don't really know *flirty wink*"
This book had everything I want in a YA contemporary novel: romance that wasn't the driving force of the plot, an interesting plot with well rounded characters and a wonderful ending with twists and turns along the way. You won't be disappointed if you pick this up.
★★★★
I REALLY LIKED IT
Thank you so much Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me the copy!
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