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 secrests, 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.
Trust Me, I'm Lying is Mary Elizabeth Summer's debut novel, filled with deceit, Russian mobs, and a little bit of romance. However, be forewarned; everything turns to shit near the end, and someone you love will die.
I enjoyed reading this book; I've not read anything like it in a long time. While Ally Carter's books are similar, Trust Me, I'm Lying is still unique and takes some crazy turns that I didn't expect from it. I really enjoyed reading from Julep's point of view, she's a very real character. She can be quite dark and seemingly selfish at the start of the book, but she's perfectly flawed, which is something I love in a character. It's a pain in the ass when your main character doesn't have any flaws, her flaws were thrown in as an after thought, or she just doesn't make sense. Luckily, Julep is a believable character and you can understand the actions she take.
The book is written in present tense, which I've never been a fan of, and I thought I'd find it extremely hard to get into this book. I was goddamn surprised when I started enjoying the book despite the tense, as it's an overall very well written book. As with any first time author, you can just sort of tell it's their first book. Sometimes it's the way they write, the words they use, the worlds they create, or just a general vibe that screams newbie. You do get that with this book, and I feel like some things can be improved. For example, Julep's inner monologue was at times ridiculously annoying, as I felt like the writer was just making her go through stages to advance the plot. Not realistic! It's definitely not an amazing book, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I actually felt like I was Julep at some points during the book, I felt simply immersed in her life and whenever I put the book down I had to actually remind myself that I'm not her. Our protagonist is a con artist, and therefore has to get into character quite a bit to pull of various scams. When I read those scenes, it made me feel even more like Julep, like I was the one dressing up to pretend to administer university interviews.
All in all, I like this book. I believe it's the first in a series, but I will not buy the next books. Either way, I do like Julep. She has flaws, strengths, she's well rounded, and I think the overall story (although the ending is a stretch) is believable. While I, personally, haven't experienced someone putting a dead rat in my locker, Julep handles it like any real person would. I also like that our teen protagonist isn't immune to a certain boy's charms, she's a teenage girl after all.
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