Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer – Review

Welcome guys!!! Today’s review is of Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer. This book had a lot of potential but it sadly fell flat. The characters weren’t really likable, and the plot was far-fetched. Overall, I was really disappointed.

Book: Trust Me, I’m Lying

Author: Mary Elizabeth Summer

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Summary: Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old-school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad—she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A+ (okay, A-) average.

But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head . . . but that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.

Fans of Ally Carter, especially her Heist Society readers, will love this teen mystery/thriller with sarcastic wit, a hint of romance, and Ocean’s Eleven–inspired action.

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Quote: “I can’t say I have much experience with conscience. I wasn’t born with that particular cricket on my shoulder.”

*Humorous? I laughed out loud a couple of times, and it was kind of a relief, or something childish and different to read. That’s the only good thing I can think of about this book right now.

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Quote: “When you can be anybody, you become nobody”

*It was just Meh. It had a lot of potential, and it just fell flat. The characters were dull, the plot was not new or surprising, and I didn’t like Julep. The fact that’s a con artist, or a grifter, didn’t help the story, and actually made it worse. One of the major plot twists was something I saw coming from the very first few chapters and I was just baffled as to how she didn’t realize this even though it’s her job to swindle or con people.

*Julep the Grifter. Julep wasn’t really likable. She’s naive and really self-centered and I found it annoying that she couldn’t just think about someone else for a second. She’s also constantly referring to her friends, who are helping her, as her minions and complaining about how she has to spell out everything for them which grated on my nerves. And for a girl who grew up in the world of con artists, she’s horrible at it, ridiculously naive, and way too trusting. There were a few instances in which she used her ‘skills’ to help people out in return for payment, but I wasn’t wowed or amazed by it.

*Plot. I thought the plot was really lame. When Julep comes home to a trashed apartment and a missing father, she’s determined to find him at all costs, and uses clues that her father managed to leave behind to try and find out where he is, or who has him. Her father is supposedly working for a really dangerous gang, yet he still has the time to set up elaborate clues all over the city. It was really far-fetched and hard to believe. The adults in this story were just not there, and even though someone from child services comes after questions were raised about Julep’s father, nothing happens. And there’s another adult who somehow manages to convince herself that it’s okay to let a kid go talk to a gang leader who may or may not have kidnapped her father. It was ridiculous.

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Quote: “I guess it’s true what the French say: fortune favors the innocent. Lucky for me, it also favors the moderately dishonest.”

I didn’t like this. I don’t think I would recommend this, but here’s a positive review that might help you decide if you want to read it or not! Initially, I gave this 2.5 stars, but I think I’m going to bring it down to 1.5, rounded up to 2. I hope you enjoy it if you choose to read it! (Kelly’s Positive Review)

One sentence summary: A disappointing read with a naive main character.

Overall, 1.5 stars rounded to 2

★★☆☆☆

I got the idea to include positive reviews in negative ones from Kat @ Novels and Waffles!

Have you read Trust Me, I’m Lying? Did you enjoy it? I’m not sure if I want to give the second book in the series a try. If you’ve read it, do you think the story gets better? Let’s chat in the comments below!