Genre: Mystery


Thursday, March 05, 2015

Review: Liars Inc by Paula Stokes

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I received this book for free from HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Liars Inc by Paula StokesLiars Inc by Paula Stokes
Published by HarperTeen on March 24, 2015
Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, YA
Source: HarperTeen
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three-half-stars

Max Cantrell has never been a big fan of the truth, so when the opportunity arises to sell forged permission slips and cover stories to his classmates, it sounds like a good way to make a little money and liven up a boring senior year. With the help of his friends Preston and Parvati, Max starts Liars, Inc. Suddenly everybody needs something and the cash starts pouring in. Who knew lying could be so lucrative?

When Preston wants his own cover story to go visit a girl he met online, Max doesn’t think twice about hooking him up. Until Preston never comes home. Then the evidence starts to pile up—terrifying clues that lead the cops to Preston’s body. Terrifying clues that point to Max as the murderer.

Can Max find the real killer before he goes to prison for a crime he didn’t commit? In a story that Kirkus Reviews called "Captivating to the very end," Paula Stokes starts with one single white lie and weaves a twisted tale that will have readers guessing until the explosive final chapters.

If you’re looking for a YA mystery with an interesting premise and cast of characters, you need not look far because Liars Inc pretty much distinguishes itself from the rest effortlessly. I mean, look at the following factors and I dare you not to get excited, because I’m pretty sure you will:

✓ A male hero that actually feels like an authentic male hero
✓ A half-Indian love interest who is so comfortable with her sensuality
✓ A premise that revolves around lies and covering one’s ass with more lies
✓ A whodunit murder mystery that involves getting arrested by the FBI (or, trying not to)…

Okay, maybe the last bit is something we’ve seen a couple of times in other books, but the first three are stuff I haven’t seen yet, at least, not together in a single novel.  However, I’m kind of a hard reader to please, and although I love the fact that these ideas and concepts were here, I wasn’t completely a fan of how they were executed.

Let’s talk about the male hero. His name is Max Cantrell, a young high school student whose mother died when he was a born and whose father died due to a heart attack, leaving him an orphan. He was adopted once, but ran away, and found another home in the Cantrells, a couple who treated him like a part of the family but who he is wary of trusting because of what happened to him before. I really liked this guy a lot, because his narration made it easy for me to connect to him, despite my, erm, not being a dude myself. Paula Stokes gave him a voice that felt authentic, to the point that you would think Stokes herself was a boy from a previous life and channeled her inner boy-ness, if that makes any sense. He was funny, even self-deprecating at times, talked about his doubts and trust issues, and how his girlfriend made him so crazy, which was really endearing, seeing how he was so into her.

I even loved the dynamics between him and his family. They don’t have the best family relationship by any means, especially since he himself held himself away from their reach, but I loved how natural their progress was when it comes to being there for each other despite years of wariness. I appreciated how it emphasized that stuff like trusting yourself and others, even if they’re your step-family, doesn’t come overnight. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience, especially if you have a broken past.

Unfortunately, I was a little bit indifferent towards Parvati. Yeah, she’s so in sync with her sensualityand I love how the book spreads sex-positivity and I love the fact that she was half-Indian (woohoo for diverse characters), but I just couldn’t connect with her that much. Since she had an Indian background, I kind of expected some cultural insights included in here, too. This was exactly my problem with Lizzy in Dahlia Adler’s Last Will and Testament, which had a half-Filipina heroine – it didn’t feel like there were enough details that would make me learn more about who she were individually and culturally. I’m all for diverse characters, especially since I’m a person of color myself and it is a chance to make readers more aware and be more intimate not just with that character but with that character’s culture, too, but the latter part just didn’t feel there. In the end, Parvati made me feel nothing for her emotionally. Objectively, of course, I’m glad she was there, but the connection was simply nonexistent.

As for the plot itself, I liked how it was different. I mean, lies? A book about lies? You don’t see that everyday, especially with an authentic teenage male voice. I liked how it was paced and how well-timed the clues were, although I could probably attribute all these things to Max’s monologues and how he reacted to them and how he managed them. Unfortunately, I did find the mystery a tad bit predictable… By 60% of the book, I already had a hunch and was 100% certain I was correct, only to be proved later that I was. When the big reveal happened, it was more anti-climactic than anything else, which was further dampened with a rather long… speech… by the perpetrator, which made me cringe a bit because that long monologue pretty much detailed why he did what he did and how he did what he did, and it ended up being an info-dump for me. I don’t generally have a big problem with this, but for me, a mystery is truly effective when the perp doesn’t need to say step-by-step and detail-by-detail everything, and still, it makes sense for the readers. But in the end, if you don’t have any problems with that, this shouldn’t be a problem for you, folks.

In the end, Liars Inc was a very interesting and good read with a reliable and genuine male voice, something you don’t see far too often these days in a heroine-dominated demographic. Unless you’re as picky as me, I doubt you’d find anything really bad about this one. It’s a book with a lot of different elements that mixed really well!

three-half-stars

3.5 Hot Espressos

Review: Get Dirty by Gretchen McNeil

Review: Get Dirty by Gretchen McNeil

Posted by on 02/27/2015 • 6 Comments

Remember the time when I kept sayingGet Even, the first book of this duology, was better as a standalone?

Well, I now eat my words, because if that book was a standalone, Get Dirty wouldn’t exist, and I would have missed a book that was BAD. ASS. AWESOME. Seriously, guys. I enjoyed this way more than I expected to, and I’m so happy with how everything was written and concluded!

I mean, seriously? It doesn’t only has suspense (I was on my toes the whole time), unpredictability (I swear I couldn’t guess who the perpetrator was… the timing of the clues and how they were laid out and everything made me SECOND-GUESS EVERYONE), girl power (four girls with different personalities being fantastic together and individually), but humor, too! I swear, guys, this one made…

Review: Inherit Midnight by Kate Kae Myers

Review: Inherit Midnight by Kate Kae Myers

Posted by on 02/12/2015 • 6 Comments

How to describe this book? Basically, if ever Amazing Race and the National Treasure film had a baby, it would be Inherit Midnight. Family secrets, ancestral history dating back to the founding of the New World, a race around the world to see who would inherit the family’s moolah… I mean, it’s really not hard to find the similarities in pop culture.

The only difference is, I would rather watch Amazing Race and National Treasure over reading this again.

Now, don’t get me wrong; this is NOT a bad book by any means, but in the same breath, it wasn’t all that memorable, either. It’s a stand-alone that you may want to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy… because holy shit, guys, there are so many stuff here that I can only see…

Review: The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel

Review: The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel

Posted by on 02/06/2015 • 9 Comments

It’s been a while since I have read an adult mystery/thriller so I decided it was time and this one sounded good. When I requested it, I didn’t realize it was part of a series, but it seems they are more companion novels so it didn’t matter. I was also interested in the setting of this story since it takes place in Denmark. Overall I didn’t really care too much for the characters, but the story kept me interested. Like almost always for me, I did figure out the mystery quickly, but there was much more to it than just who was the person behind it.

Loiuse is now heading a department for missing persons. She is both nervous and excited about this new venture. I don’t know if…

Review: Beware the Wild by Natalie Parker

Review: Beware the Wild by Natalie Parker

Posted by on 01/09/2015 • 9 Comments

Objectively, Beware the Wild is really good. Subjectively, while I found it decent, I couldn’t really connect to it very much.

Don’t get me wrong, the writing is gorgeous. It’s very showing than telling, moving the plot along in a great pace while portraying the heroine’s personality and flaws exceptionally well. There were a lot of inner thoughts and monologues that give you front-row seats of the turmoils being stirred within her as Sterling finds herself in a situation where nobody suddenly remembers who her brother is, except, perhaps, the Swamp where magic and danger lie within. There is flow, and you could even say things happen “naturally” and nothing feels forced, but… 

I don’t know. It just… fell flat, for me, characterisation-wise. Is it normal to recognize the beauty…

Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Posted by on 11/07/2014 • 13 Comments

There is a lot I could complain about with this book, but I was still strangely entertained by it all. I also think the fact that it was an audiobook made me enjoy it more than if I had read a paper copy – the narrator was great and really brought the MC to life. As if she was telling me her story.

But man, the romance. *pokes out eyeballs*. First, I’m sorry but that was totally Stockholm Syndrome. Or at least it started that way, which creeped me out more than it made me swoon. This dude is forcing you to bring his criminal ass back to civilization so he can run from the cops, but you fall for his charms because he’s hot? Eh, okay.. But anyways, I’m…

Review: Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Review: Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Posted by on 10/29/2014 • 8 Comments

I had heard that this was a strange book, but whoa! I do love weird, though. In a world where we get the same-old, same-old when it comes to books and movies, it’s refreshing to get a truly original idea. Something that breaks the mould and isn’t afraid to stand on its own.

Imaginary Girls is all about Ruby. Ruby is the girl no one seems to be able to say no to. She gets what she wants, when she wants it, no matter what. She has everyone tried around her fingers, and every boy stumbling over their feet to do her bidding. While this sounds like it could be a fairly annoying character – and to be honest it was at first – it’s also kind of fascinating. It’s…

Review: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

Review: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

Posted by on 10/23/2014 • 14 Comments

Super cute! The plot is more-or-less a game of clue, but more MG-like, with a large cast of funny, resourceful, and charismatic young girls.

Much like its cover, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is intriguing and fun with a touch of humour. We begin by being introduced to the girls with the help of some illustrations and a quick look into why they were sent to St. Etheldreda’s School for Girls. I had the ARC so the illustrations were sadly missing, but the cover accomplished the same and it was fun to have a visual to go with all these great personalities. Then shortly after, we have the death of the headmistress and her brother, leaving the girls to solve a mystery while trying to hide the events…