Interesting concept but predictable also after finishing it...what was the point. of it all. Just why?

The synopsis of this book intrigued me, especially as it is written by the author of We Were Liars.

I like many others, found the book hard to get into in the beginning because the story is told backwards. This made it confusing at times, although if the story had been told in order it probably would have been a little dull. The characters are interesting, although not particularly likeable.

One of the biggest problems with the book however, is if you have read a The Talented Mr Ripley then you will know exactly how this story is going to go as it is less of an inspiration as the author states, and more of a direct ripoff. The idea that someone could get away with so much with no hint of police is also a glaring issue.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

I am sorry I just could not get into the storyline and i did not understand the plot at all. Who is who?

Told in reverse order with time spiralling backwards to reveal the plot of the book, Genuine Fraud keeps the reader guessing until the end.

I really wanted to love this book after reading another of her's, but I couldn't connect to the characters or the plot. I was surprised by the twists in the book but I found it hard to stay interested. I understand it is based on The Talented Mr Ripley so maybe I would be better off reading that.

E. Lockhart creates some of the most compelling YA characters out there, and this is a fun if somewhat implausible read. This didn't grip me in the same way as We Were Liars, and if you struggle to suspend disbelief you may find this a battle to complete, but it's a page-turner all the same

Despite loving the unreliable MC and plot; I struggled to enjoy the complicated time jumps that the book follows. It made the story feel disjointed and also tripled my reading time as I tried to figure it out. However I still enjoyed the idea so would still offer this to others who are usually fans of Lockhart's works.

I hate giving low reviews, I really do, but I finished this book feeling nothing but relief that it was over and disappointment that it wasn't better. I didn't connect with a single character, which probably didn't help me when it came to connecting with the book. I really did have high expectations of this book, as We Were Liars is one of my favourites, but it just didn't measure up for me.

What a twisted tale and ride for the reader! Genuine Fraud by E.Lockhart has my brain still mulling even after the book has been finished. I am honestly unsure about how I feel about the book. First of all the book is not a linear forward story. It goes backward in vignettes, each showing more and more of a story that is really hard to take in. Perhaps it would have been easier if I was reading a paper book and could look back at times or if I took notes.

The main character seems to be Jule. She is a chameleon and I never felt like we had the chance to know the real Jule. She seemed to constantly take on the role of another. Imogen was another one of the main characters. She seemed to be searching constantly for something. Her up and downs and changes were significant. Why she ran away and why Jule was her friend or why Jule ran away and Imogen was her friend were unanswered questions for me…

Having said all the confusing parts above, I did not stop reading the book. I wanted to follow the trail backward. I wanted to know what was happening and how things twisted and turned. I found the characters interesting and the story line compelling. Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart was an interesting read with many hidden pieces.

DNF. 14% through and nothing like We Were Liars in terms of pace or plot. Just a bit confusing and not my kind of book.

This book started out so promisingly. A con-woman with an obviously shady identity, hints at a dark past and seeking vengeance. Parallels with Dickensian orphans was a fun touch too. But as the book went on, I became increasingly disappointed. Telling the story backwards meant that I figured out fairly quickly what had probably happened and the 'how it was done' segment didn't really live up to the plot. I was also left with so many questions at the end. What was Jules' real background? Had she actually been trained in all the things she seemed to know about subterfuge? It seemed not, but then why did she invent this tragic origin story for herself? What was her intended endgame? It wasn't really clear. A fun read, but I won't be rushing back to reread any time soon.

Oh dear. I am so sorry but I just didn’t enjoy this book. I didn’t like any of the characters, the story was told in reverse which although clever and original just didn’t work for me. I was left confused (easily done) and felt rather unsatisfied as I finished the book with more questions than answers.

I loved We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. LOVED. IT. If you haven’t read it please do, it is one of the few books my non-bookworm sister has ever re-read and is a work of brilliant Young Adult fiction. So I had really high hopes for Genuine Fraud and I tried to keep these hopes suppressed lest it didn’t live up to expectations. I went into it with an open mind, (I did, I promise!), unfortunately though – and I really hate to say it – I was disappointed.

Told backwards we meet Jule who is staying at a plush hotel in Mexico, she meets a woman seemingly by accident in the gym but it appears this woman has come to track her down for an as yet undetermined reason so she escapes. Time then jumps backwards, sometimes it is by a week, at other times it’s a day or two but the story is slowly revealed until we have a full picture of what led Jule to a sumptuous resort and who she is fleeing.

Whilst I usually love a clever narrative structure like this, it, for some reason didn’t really connect with me on this occasion. I kind of guessed the ‘twist’ relatively early so the book became a bit of a fact-finding mission to see how the pieces fit together. There was also a real lack of suspense which was a real shame as I loved the concept of the plot, it was really clever and I was totally on board with the way things fit together. There are many pieces to this puzzle and some really great, ‘Oh My God’ moments that were brilliantly written – I just found it a bit difficult to keep track of.

I found it really hard to ‘get’ Jule, whenever I discovered something about her the rug was pulled out from under me in the next chapter. She is a difficult character to get to know and an even more difficult character to like, which is the point I think – it is far more interesting to read about an unlikeable and challenging character. She was cleverly drawn though and the glimpses into her were drip fed nicely (despite it being wholly frustrating for the reader!).

I feel bad for criticising Genuine Fraud, I really do, it isn’t badly written at all, in fact it is pretty gripping in places and some of the imagery is incredible. I loved all of the references to being the star of your own film (something I like to think I am when I’m walking around with my headphones in listening to music), the complicated relationships between women were excellent and there were electric moments of pure intensity between some of the characters but, when I finished it I felt completely flat. That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t recommend Genuine Fraud because I would – I didn’t hate it by any means, it just didn’t hit the spot unfortunately.

I absolutely loved this book! It's so gripping and suspenseful. I honestly don't know how E. Lockhart managed to pull this off backwards - but she did.

I read this novel courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

On occasion, I find a thriller soothing. The more terribly amoral its characters, the better. So this is how I approached Genuine Fraud: hoping for some terribleness and page-turning. And I got a little bit of both, but ultimately, the novel falls short of an ambitious goal.

This is a story of a girl told in reverse. We begin with a mysterious, Alias-like character, a chameleon putting on a mask, and gradually, a mystery unravels. Who is she? Who is her best friend? What really happened to make her this way?* What has she done? The clues are plentiful and every plot twist is properly foreshadowed and yet compulsion remains to at least see textual confirmation of one's theories. It works as a mystery, and there are flashes of interesting characterisation and both playing with genre tropes and with fictionality: the character imagines herself as a character; there's some intertextuality going on, too.

Unfortunately, the execution falls short of the promise of this premise. The most interesting questions either do not get answered or the answer is slight or cliched. The connection between Paolo and the protagonist, the ending: just doesn't seem big enough. There is just no big surprise left at the end: I reached the final page hoping for some properly jaw-dropping reveal only to find out that's it. Perhaps it's fitting - the book, in the end, cheated me, too.

*(view spoiler)

3 stars for compulsive readability and the first half of the novel. Half a star should be deducted for nonsense POV thoughts on ethnicity (what is it with guessing / describing everyone's origins? There's no facial shape that's recognisably ~Eastern European~, only some of us are graced with the magical beauty of the potato) and authorial decision to name a (very minor) Polish character Lita Kruschala. Seriously. Selecting a Polish name is not that difficult. Find a Polish soap opera on Wikipedia in English, scroll down the list, choose names, google pictures to check if gender and age is about right, build a database, mix and match. I don't know what tools people use to decide that "Kasha," "Ludo," "Gierek," "Lita" or "Roza" are Polish names, but seriously, this needs to stop. It's embarrassing. (And nope, choosing names of third generation immigrant people in the US is not the solution, they often have mangled and implausible names to give to a character who is first generation, Poland-born.)

I would probably give this book 3.5 stars in reality.

I'm not sure how to describe this book exactly. I had read We Were Liars and enjoyed it so I had requested this book from Net Galley and received it as an ARC (thank you Net Galley!).

It is definitely a page turner and a quick read; but I found it a little hard to keep up with the action since it was going back in time and I was reading on a kindle. I felt I needed to go back and reread but it was hard so I would suggest to read this book on actual paper.

The main character is definitely unique and the plot keeps moving and you are never sure what is going to happen next (or before?) since you are reading back in time. That keeps it interesting.
I found the ending a little abrupt and kept hitting the next page on my kindle because it took me a minute to realize it was finished!

If you are into thrillers and unreliable narrators and not upset by random violence I would recommend this book.

This is a genuine grab you by your collar and don’t move till you’ve finished kind of novel , greatly intense and gripping with a very clever story line and plot.
Would very highly recommend

This is a superb, intense page turner. A unique story which will leave you at the end of your seat. I highly recommend this thriller to everyone!

There are definitely comparisons to be drawn to The Talented Mr Ripley, just with main characters of the opposite gender.

I think at one point I lost the plot and wasn’t sure who was pretending to be whom. It was a wee bit confusing at times, which is probably what made this a less enjoyable read. Too disjointed, and not enough clarification.

We begin at the end and return to the beginning to understand how Jules and Imogen get to know each other, and how the two of them end up the way they do. The longing for a connection and a friendship leaves one of them dead and the other hiding.

It’s a story of lies, delusions and about the social status of each girl. How the desire to belong and be friends becomes an obsession, which culminates in an uncontrollable internal anger.

Personally I think the story was flighty and underdeveloped. It lacked clarity, and the characters were weak versions of what they should have been. It could have been so much more, despite the similarities to the aforementioned book.

An interesting idea. I usually love noir and this has a good go at bringing that genre and style to a new audience and tries to blend styles to allow for a feme fatale/comic styled heroine protagonist to carry the story.

The pace of the writing is enough to make this a book you can finish and one which doesn't linger long enough for it to be a complete write off. In fact, this book almost works, but it suffers from being too close in plot to 'The Talented Mr Ripley' and too close in style to 'Memento' without ever reaching the heights of the works it emulates and seemingly aspires to be.

I couldn't put the book down, even when I wasn't reading I was thinking about it. It was so intense and such an interesting plot. I really liked it and I hope it becomes a huge success. In the end we understand why the main character does what she does, I didn't agree though. In this book we are going to follow themes such as friendship, freedom, maturity, betrayal, family... The book is written backwards which is a bit confusing when I started reading, but after few pages I got used to the style. Plus, the book is full of crazy twisters and we can easily get shocked by the events. Anyway, I really liked the book, it was my second time reading a book by E. LOCKHART and I look forward to read other books from her.