Pretty Things: A Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Who’s really following you on social media? The scam of a lifetime brings together two wildly different women in this page-turning thriller about greed, legacy, and betrayal from the New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear.
An ID Book Club Selection • “It’s Dynasty meets Patricia Highsmith.”—The Washington Post
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.
Amazon.com Review
It’s hard to tell the marks from the con artists in
Pretty Things. Everyone has an angle, and everyone has a façade behind which they hide the wounds of their past. Nina’s mother Lily hustled Nina’s entire childhood to get her an education, so she wouldn’t have to turn to crime as Lily had done. Yet here’s Nina and her shady boyfriend Lachlan fleeing L.A. just one step ahead of the law, who are onto the scams Nina has pulled in order to pay for her mother’s cancer treatments. When Lachlan suggests they hide out in Lake Tahoe, Nina agrees. Her next mark, and former foe, heiress and Instagram influencer Vanessa Liebling, is in residence at her family’s Tahoe estate, Stonehaven, and Nina sees an opportunity to settle an old score.
Pretty Things packs a lot of story into what should be a straightforward revenge tale. Dual narrators—Vanessa and Nina—have the same effect on the many twists and reveals as a funhouse mirror, warping the reader’s ability to know who to root for, because both woman are likable. But both come from families that make the Borgias look like the Brady Bunch, so you know it’s going to be last man standing as class warfare, social media, money, and old history square off in this complex and riveting thriller.
—Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review