Such Charming Liars: a new YA Heist Book

ByJen

Such Charming Liars: a New YA Heist Book! This new book by Karen M. McManus, author of One of Us Is Lying, is a bit of a departure for this author. What is she up to and will you enjoy this? My post contains Such Charming Liars Spoilers, which are protected if you haven’t read the book!

Such Charming Liars by Karen M McManus

Don’t We All Love a YA Heist Book?

I mean, as a reader of YA since the 2010s, I loved The Heist Society series by Ally Carter (you’ve GOT to try it if you haven’t already).

And there are a few new heist books coming out in 2020, including Such Charming Liars, Heist Royale and Thieves Gambit.

Check out my list of ALL the YA Heist Books here!

Best YA Heist Books graphic features a girl in a trench coat and sunglasses

Where Does Such Charming Liars fit into the Karen McManus Universe?

To review, Karen M. McManus has also written: One of Us is Lying (2017), Two Can Keep a Secret (2019), One of Us is Next (2020), The Cousins (2020), You’ll Be the Death of Me (2021), Nothing More to Tell (2022) and One of Us is Back (2023)

Her most popular books are clearly the One of Us is Lying series, which was made into a Peacock TV show. She has gone back and added two more books to the series in between other books.

The YA landscape has changed a LOT between McManus’s first book and today. The very awesome Teen Librarian Toolbox has a very insightful analysis of this. And it’s a topic I will discuss more going forward.

TLT’s point is that in then 2010s, a huge portion of YA readers were adults, and that as adults abandoned YA in the late 2010s, in the 2020s YA books have gone back to being more for teens. Thus, YA readership has fallen considerably.

So could Such Charming Liars be McManus’s new breakthrough title? Is it a good book for adult readers?

Karen McManus has gone back to the rich family with secrets theme, one she has explored in a couple of her other books. Plus she’s added a bit of heist flare.

Did I like Such Charming Liars?

On the positive side, Such Charming Liars (eventually) had a lot of great twists. It reminded me of my favorite Karen M. McManus book, The Cousins.

Even a grifter book needs someone to root for!

The characters in Such Charming Liars were either a) rich or b) grifters and thus borderline unlikeable. Or completely unlikeable.

I saw someone call Jamie and Kat, the mother-daughter main characters “grifty Gilmore Girls.” That is a GENIUS concept and one I would have liked to read, Gilmore Girls is a character driven show, and Such Charming Rivals is a plot driven book.

Such Charming liars had a lot of plot and characters

The plot of Such Charming Liars took a while to get going.

It felt overly complicated with a ton of characters all of whom had either too much backstory or not enough.

There’s also a little bit of a love triangle, as Kat seems in a triangle-ish situation with two guys: Augustus and Liam. But Augustus calls Kat “Chaos” so I’m assuming he’s the one.

I thought Such Charming Liars was too long and too complicated for a teen audience.

To me, Such Charming Liars felt like a two or three book series crammed into one 386 page book. Have we given up on YA series in the 2020s???

Such Charming Liars Spoilers

  • The book’s main characters are grifter Jamie, her grifter in training daughter Kat, and their grifter mentor Gem (fake grandma!).
  • Jamie and Kat were formerly known as Ashley and Kylie Burke.
  • We also have rival grifter Liam and his son Luke.
  • Liam and Jamie once had a quickie wedding in Vegas, making Kat and Luke sort-of step-siblings. I was worried: was this a creepy stepsibling romance like in Midsummer Nightmare, a popular 2010s YA book?
  • More characters: the rich Sutherland family: Ross (the patriarch), his kids Parker, Griffin, Annelise, and Larissa, and his grandson Augustus.
  • Jamie wants to leave the grifty life and go legit. But she agrees to do one last heist for Gem. All she has to do is attend Ross Sutherland’s birthday party and replace Annalise’s valuable ruby necklace with a replica. No problem!
  • But uh-oh: Luke’s also grifting the Sutherlands. He’s now romancing Annalise and he and Liam will be at the party.
  • When Jamie has a medical emergency after eating gluten, Kat has to take over the robbery.
  • Parker Sutherland ends up dead at the party and Kat is a witness. We learn that the family blames Parker for the death of his mother.
  • Kat thinks that Morgan, Gem’s daughter, poisoned Jamie with gluten so that she could steal the fake necklace and then swap it for the real one (and steal that one.)
  • The real ruby necklace was found in Parker’s pocket.
  • Kat discovers that Jamie and Luke are still married. A Sweet Home Alabama twist!
  • Jamie recovers and she and Kat discuss the situation. Was Parker working with Morgan to doublecross her mom Gem.
  • Kat learns that her long-lost father, Cormac Whittaker, was at the party. Jamie wonders if Parker was killed instead of her.
  • Cormac IS a psycho after Jamie.
  • Gem sent Cormac after the necklace. He was supposed to steal it, then kill and frame Jamie.
  • Gem hits Morgan over the head and then tries to jump off the roof. But Jamie prevents her and Gem gets arrested
  • Annelise breaks up with Luke. But she knew about the heist all along. Not only that, she has a file cabinet with dirt on all the eligible bachelors on the East Coast (what?).
  • Annelise knew about the planned heist and blackmailed Parker into stopping it. She didn’t care what happened to Parker (and perhaps even told Cormac to kill him) because she blames him for her mother’s death. I was confused about this part.
  • Liam recorded Annelise’s entire confession and he, Kat and Augustus go to the police.

What did you think of the book? Tell me in comments!

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Jen has been blogging about books since 2011. In that time, she has read and reviewed over 1500 books. She loves helping readers find their perfect next read and helping books find their audience.

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