reviews – Author Michelle Zink

A FOURTH Glowing Review for LIES I TOLD

You guys… pinch me. I can’t believe this is real. Yesterday I found out LIES I TOLD has garnered another lovely, gushy review from Publisher’s Weekly. Trade reviewers are tough to please, and I think this might be the first time since the Prophecy series that I’ve had across the board awesome reviews for a book.

Here it is;

Seventeen-year-old Grace endured the foster care system for years until a pair of thieves adopted her, employing Grace and her older brother, Parker, for their cons. Ever since, Grace has spent four months in one place, five months in another, changing her name, personality, and friends in service of her parents’ schemes. Now the family has landed in Playa Hermosa, Calif., gearing up for their greatest con yet—snagging $20 million in gold bars, hidden in the house of a local family. Grace’s job is to get close to handsome Logan Fairchild to find out where they keep the gold, and Zink (the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy) builds significant tension as Grace begins to fall for her mark and make real friends, throwing her loyalties and decision-making into flux. It’s a gripping, edgy thriller that’s driven as much by the internal conflicts of its sympathetic heroine as by the threats that the con will come crashing down around Grace and her family. A dramatic 11th-hour twist will leave readers eager for more. Ages 13–up. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Apr.)

I worked incredibly hard on this book and spent a lot of time fine-tuning my knowledge of craft. I couldn’t be more pleased that it’s is being received so favorably. If you haven’t preordered yet, would you consider doing so? First week sales (all preorders go to first week sales) are so important to a book’s success, and I would really appreciate it! Plus, if you order from Oblong Books and Music by April 1st, I can sign and personalize your copy, and you’ll get a pretty little peacock pocket mirror as well. If you order from Amazon or B&N, the price is significantly cheaper when you preorder, and they don’t actually bill you until the book ships.

Thanks so much for your support!

ANOTHER Awesome Review for LIES I TOLD!

You guys! This is crazy! I’m so excited to announce the THIRD (out of THREE!) awesome review for LIES I TOLD, this one from Booklist. “The sense of foreboding that pervades the novel explodes at the end, with irreparable damage to everyone. An addictive read.”

AN ADDICTIVE READ! Woo-hoo!

Full review follows. Thanks Booklist! heart emoticon

Lies I Told.
Advanced Review – Uncorrected Proof
Zink, Michelle (Author)
Apr 2015. 352 p. HarperTeen, hardcover, $17.99. (9780062327123).

Grace and Parker were adopted by a couple of con artists. Their cobbled-together family moves from state to state, integrating themselves into wealthy communities, learning the habits of their marks, and then robbing them blind. But the strain of leading this duplicitous life begins to send fissures through the family, and as their double-dealing house of cards comes crashing down around them, Grace’s deepening feelings for the handsome Logan, her assigned mark, only make the situation more complicated and wrenching. Grace is a complex and compelling character. Her parents give her a true sense of belonging, something that was missing while she was in the foster system. But what she fails to recognize, and what causes increasing conflict between her and Parker, is that by making the teens complicit in a series of long cons, her adoptive parents are being psychologically abusive, ultimately destroying Grace’s ability to have any real friendships or relationships. The sense of foreboding that pervades the novel explodes at the end, with irreparable damage to everyone. An addictive read.
— Eve Gaus

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