Review: Pretending to Be Erica by Michelle Painchaud

Pretending to Be Erica
by Michelle Painchaud
Edição/reimpressão: 2015
Páginas: 272
Editor: Viking Books for Young Readers
Resumo:

We Were Liars meets Heist Society in a riveting debut!

Seventeen-year-old Violet’s entire life has revolved around one thing: becoming Erica Silverman, an heiress kidnapped at age five and never seen again.

Violet’s father, the best con man in Las Vegas, has a plan, chilling in its very specific precision. Violet shares a blood type with Erica; soon, thanks to surgery and blackmail, she has the same face, body, and DNA. She knows every detail of the Silvermans’ lives, as well as the PTSD she will have to fake around them. And then, when the time is right, she “reappears”—Erica Silverman, brought home by some kind of miracle. 

But she is also Violet, and she has a job: Stay long enough to steal the Silverman Painting, an Old Master legendary in the Vegas crime world. Walking a razor’s edge, calculating every decision, not sure sometimes who she is or what she is doing it for, Violet is an unforgettable heroine, and Pretending to be Erica is a killer debut.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review:

I will start by confessing that it was the comparison with Heist Society that drew me to this book, that and the fact that I like a good con books. (It's not by change that Leverage is one of my favorite TV shows ever!)

I read a lot of bad reviews about this book but I have to say that I enjoyed it and loved the way that the author keep Erica "present" throughout the book. I do understand why some people were disappointed as this isn't much of a con book as it could be but I think it was an interesting dive into the mind of a young con artist and what goes through a person's mind when she has to pretend to be someone she is not to everyone else; and how though that can be when you encounter people you truly connect with, people you never though you would ever meet. 

I loved the way the author kept giving you insights about how Violet was struggling with being Erica even though she had been trained her whole life to do so. After all Violet had been trained with very little and almost completely off the grid, so she had a very basic phone and almost no access to the internet or social media. So she is discovering herself as teenager not only as Violet but also as Erica.

Violet is a very interesting character and her relationships are also interesting as she tries to keep Erica group of friends but also finds a group of friends of her own.

For me this was a very interesting and sometimes intense book and the ending was unexpected and made the book linger which is always a plus. If the con bit had been better it would have reached easily the 4 star mark.

You can get a copy of this book here..

 Cat / Ki

Known bookaholic and writer at weekends. Cat loves books and everything that's related to them. From time to time she has very strong feelings and opinions about books and the world and she likes writes about them (mostly in her blog Encruzilhadas Literárias). She also has a personal GoodReads account and she believes the world is a better place for it (AKA no more repeated books from relatives as gifts). She lives in the UK and can often be found either in Waterstones or the Charity Shops.