Mini Reviews: Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud and Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams

From Goodreads: Seventeen-year-old Violet’s entire life has revolved around one thing: becoming Erica Silverman, an heiress kidnapped at age five and never seen again. Violet’s father, the best con man in Las Vegas, has a plan, chilling in its very specific precision. Violet shares a blood type with Erica; soon, thanks to surgery and blackmail, she has the same face, body, and DNA. She knows every detail of the Silvermans’ lives, as well as the PTSD she will have to fake around them. And then, when the time is right, she “reappears” - Erica Silverman, brought home by some kind of miracle. But she is also Violet, and she has a job: Stay long enough to steal the Silverman Painting, an Old Master legendary in the Vegas crime world. Walking a razor’s edge, calculating every decision, not sure sometimes who she is or what she is doing it for, Violet is an unforgettable heroine, and Pretending to be Erica is a killer debut.

My Rating: 3 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Michelle Painchaud’s Pretending to be Erica captured my interest because I love stories involving cons. Sadly, while I enjoyed reading the book, I do have to say there was nothing particularly memorable about it. You don’t have to be a genius to predict that the main character, Violet, will end up feeling conflicted about her situation and who she will ultimately side with.

Pretending to be Erica was released in July 2015 by Viking Books for Young Readers.

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From Back Cover: When she wakes up with a concussion in the bed of a moving pickup truck, she realizes she has been entered into a contest she can’t afford to lose. At a remote, rotting cabin deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ruth’s blindfold comes off and she comes face-to-face with her captor. A man who believes his mission is to punish bad girls like Ruth. A man who has done this six times before. The other girls were never heard from again, but Ruth won’t go down easy. She escapes into the wilderness, but her hunter is close at her heels. That’s when the real battle begins. That’s when Ruth must decides just how far she’ll go in order to survive. Back home, they called her Ruthless. They had no idea just how right they were. 

My Rating: 2.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams started off great as the main character, Ruth, woke up concussed and bound in a truck, unsure of what had happened to her. The tension increases once she realizes that she has been abducted by a serial killer. However, the further I delved into Ruthless, the more bored I became with it due to its repetitive plot. The bad guy finds Ruth, she escapes, rinse and repeat. Neither the bad guy nor Ruth seemed very competent in their roles, although I did like Ruth’s determination to survive.

Ruthless was released by Simon Pulse in July 2015.

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Simon & Schuster Canada).