This is a fast paced young adult mystery that holds the reader's attention throughout, despite the fact that it deals with a fairly familiar trope. And with it, McManus has once again delivered another edition to her rapidly growing collection of highly readable stories!

This time she takes on the classic theme of a heist that goes wrong. Kat and Liam are both the children of con artists, with an unexpected connection, who find themselves at the home of a billionaire, where Kat's mother is about to undertake one last score and Liam's father has his own plans...

When things go badly wrong, Kat, Liam and Augustus - excellent characters, all three - find themselves unexpectedly working together. But can even their joint efforts deliver them all from a dangerously unpredictable situation?

This is a twisty action-packed story that will be enjoyed by fans of murder mysteries, YA fiction and heist stories. Highly recommended.

I highly recommend this book to fans of young adult mystery thrillers!

The book delves into the world of mother-daughter grifters whose final heist takes a deadly and dangerously personal turn.

I thoroughly enjoyed Such Charming Liars. Though the story took a while to build momentum, the initial slow pace was necessary for setting up the intricate background, building suspense, and developing the characters. Once the plot hit its stride, particularly in the last forty percent, it became utterly unputdownable. As a devoted murder mystery enthusiast, I did manage to predict the ending, but that did not detract from the thrilling journey.

Karen McManus remains a go-to author for me, consistently delivering gripping stories that keep readers on the edge of their seats. Thank you so much to Penguin for providing me with this ARC. Such Charming Liars is another stellar addition to McManus's repertoire.

Such Charming Liars is a fast-paced, twisty, mystery-filled thriller. Many times I thought I knew where the story was going, but I didn't! It starts off as a heist, a classic 'last job' before getting out, but things get complicated very quickly. It was so action-packed and suspenseful that I ended up reading this much quicker than I expected. One of those books where you just want to get to the ending, and keep reading one more chapter.

Highly recommended to fans of YA mysteries and thriller, and fans of Karen M. McManus' other books.

I’ve never failed to read a book by this author yet so every new release is an instant addition to the add to read list. She’s at the very top of her genre of young adult, murder mystery type dramas and I’ve always enjoyed her stories. This one was the best addition yet!

Such Charming Liars is not only a great title but has a great mystery thriller plot to sink your eyeballs into. We have high stakes heist, double crossing and a twisting tale, it really was a fab read.

We get to know the complicated lives of Kat and Liam and we know things are going to go down and keep us reading on. It’s addicting and utterly compelling and I’m glad I slowed this one down a bit to enjoy for longer. I both wanted to race through it to see how it was going to end and take my time so I didn’t finish it too quickly! The pacing was just perfect and I really enjoyed the story.

Have to admit, I think this one might be my favourite book by Karen M McManus so far, without a doubt!

Teenagers Kat and Liam find themselves at a party in a billionaire’s compound having tagged along with their respective parents’ nefarious schemes. Kat’s mum Jamie is on a final “job” before going straight whilst Liam’s dad Luke is a conman up to his usual tricks. When someone dies at the party, what should have been a fairly straightforward heist turns into something much more deadly for Kat and her mum.
This YA mystery has a complex plot but the pacing is perfectly pitched so that the reader can keep up with all the twists, turns and reveals. When you think the mystery is solved, there is yet another layer and another player to be discovered. I loved the relationship between the teenagers in this book as they gradually work out who to trust.
I have read other books by Karen McManus and for me, this is the best yet.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this ARC in exchange for my review!

Karen M McManus is an author whose books I have read over the years and this book is different from her other books and I think this may be my favourite one out of all of her books, a young adult heist turned murder mystery? I loved it.

I really enjoyed this! Reading about a heist is different for me and it was great to see it all unfold and end up turning into a murder mystery.

A heist turned deadly? I’m in! It hooked me as soon as I read the first page.

The book definitely had my brain on over drive trying to work out who did what and why and how are they connected some of it was easy for me to figure out but then there’s some parts in it that wasn’t easy to guess and there is definitely a big plot twist

Kat is raised by her mother - Jamie - who works for Gem at Spotless, Gem makes replicas of fake jewellery, and this next heist is a pretty big one with having to swap a really expensive necklace with a fake one so Jamie gets ready to go and says it’s her last job for Gem and Kat lies to go with, when they get there Jamie can’t do the heist and Kat tries to do it herself and ends up finding herself witnessing a murder.

Kat Liam and Augustus, I loved them! The three of them working together was great.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is and isn’t a fan of Karen M McManus, I loved the writing style as usual and it’s super easy to visualise exactly what she is writing.

I’ve had this authors books on my tbr for quite a while so when I saw this on netgalley I thought I’d give it a go.
It took me a few chapters to get into but once the story started moving I couldn’t put it down.
It was twisty and utterly compelling.
I liked Kat, I felt sorry for her and her mums bad past which led to questionable choices which made me root for them through the story.
I loved Liam and Augustus.
The story was quick paced and with so much happening it kept me hooked and wanting to know what was coming next right down the last page.
I will definitely be recommending this book.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this earc from the publisher via netgalley but this has in no way influenced my review nor opinion.

Karen M McManus does it again with this heist/murder mystery.

I loved the main characters of Kat and Liam, both dealing with different familial issues, but both drawn to protecting each other. With McManus’ usual easy to ready writing style, I flew through this book in a morning, hooked in trying to find out what happens next and solve the mystery.

Fans of other Karen M McManus works will not be disappointed in this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Children for the ARC.

Loved this. A fun, twisty, fast-paced YA jewellery heist that turns into a murder mystery. Great plot, unexpected twists and easy, bingeable writing.

Jewel thieves, con men & murder! Perfection.

Kat’s mom is a jewel thief who wants to go straight, but first she needs to pull off her last heist.

Liam’s dad is a conman with a big fish on his hook, his latest mark, Anelise, is the daughter of a billionaire with a fantastic jewellery collection.

When chance throws Kat & Liam together at said billionaires’ fancy compound for the weekend, it isn’t the first time they have met: their parents were married for 48 hours when they were younger, and they’re surprised to find their old connection is still mutual. For their parents’ plans to work they should stay away from each other but things turn deadly and have to rely on each other, their wits, & Anelise’s handsome nephew to survive.

I have read most of the authors previous books & this is well up to her usual standards. I highly recommend this stand alone book, it’s twisty & thrilling. I can’t wait for the authors next release.

Unfortunately I struggled to get into the storm and becoming invested with this. I usually do enjoy Karen’s books but unfortunately I didn’t manage to connect with this.
The writing as always was great and the story was intriguing but something about it was enjoyable for me. I found myself not looking forward to read it and actually dreading it more than anything. Plus it felt as though there was a loooot of characters I got mixed up.
Thank you for the arc! :)

I read this in only a matter of days, it was very good! Karen McManus distances herself from her usual kind of mysteries: this is the story of a heist and I must say, it much more realistic than her other novels (a point in ber favour).
The characters were lovable but I simply don't understand why there must always be a romantic subplot. Can't people who have just met each other just be friends?
The story was entertaining, the mother-daughter relationship was well developed.

Overall, I must say, well done!

A really entertaining read for lovers of YA fiction, the twists and counter-twists are excellently plotted and the action never stops. Kat starts off as a little flaky, making foolish choices and taking unnecessary risks and I had to keep reminding myself that she's only 16 but once I started to go with the flow I very quickly got absorbed in the story. A great cast of characters and some very witty dialogue between the three teenagers make for an excellent story.

Another fantastic book from Karen McManus - gripping, twisty, character driven...I didn't expect anything less. The plot relates to a heist, a rich family, secrets, lies. All the good stuff!

Thank you for the chance to read this. I love KMM's books so i'm always really grateful to get the chance to read early.

I feel like this book has the potential to be a fan favourite, but it just wasn't my cup of tea at all sadly :(.

The initial premise felt really promising, I loved the Robin Hood-esque set up of stealing from the rich to give to the poor in a fresh take on the classic heist. The sibling rivalry felt really well written between Kat and Liam and I haven't read a book where two characters have had that dynamic without being directly related. I must say though, I found them being referred to as step siblings and 'like brother and sister' a bit confusing as the plot was progressing I initially was thinking wait are they actually step siblings, I'm confused!

Kat and Jamie's backstory was fun to read, it had a lot of depth and really made me reconsider the morality of the heist and how it felt justified in certain aspects. I also was a fan of the suspense building in the basement scene. It had all the ingredients of a good thriller scene and was perfectly paced.

There are a couple of things I wasn't crazy about in this book. Firstly, Liam and Luke's relationship felt more like they were brothers than a father-son dynamic. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but Liam mainly referring to his dad as 'Luke' did make it hard for that father-son relationship to solidify in my mind as I was reading. I feel like the potential of this book was so high, but I got bored about halfway through. It felt like the pacing was so slow at points and there'd be chapters where not much had happened that I really struggled to get through the second half of this book. I didn't feel like the stakes were that high and when there was a twist, I felt like I'd disengaged already by that point so it didn't have as much of an effect.

Another brilliant mystery from one of my favourite authors! This time it's a heist, with a bit of murder thrown in and some gripping twists. Absolutely loved every minute of it!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley for supplying me with an E ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Karen M McManus can always be trusted to deliver a twisty and turny mystery where every detail has a purpose, Although this is a YA book there's nothing inherently young about it, although I did appreciate that the violence was non-gratuitous.

The characters were engaging and enjoyable, and instantly distinguishable from one another. Gem was a particular favourite of mine, and I wish we'd heard more from her. Is there a prequal there around the set up of Spotless?

I found the setting of the Sutherland compound a little less well developed, such opulence is hard to picture and I would have enjoyed more description to really get the measure of the place.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and finished it in a couple of days. Highly recommended.

SUCH CHARMING LIARS is a heist going horribly wrong, and two teens caught in the middle of it.

It starts off with a jewellery theft that looks pretty simple and then falls apart from the get go. A terrible ex, a stomach bug, and more rip the plan apart before the murder even happens. It leads to a twisty tale of revenge and desperation.

It was a lot of fun to watch it all unfold, the layers of double crossing and family secrets. I was guessing throughout as the stakes rose and got deadlier. So many people are caught in the wide-ranging net of secrets and people using others like tools.

I loved Kat and Liam's relationship. They are thrown-together-by-trauma siblings who end up developing a deep bond. I loved seeing them instinctively trust each other initially and then coming to truly rely on one another and become a team who will protect each other in the most terrible situations.

It's also about families that do work and love one another, although they might be overprotective or cautious due to past trauma. Kat and her mother's relationship was another I enjoyed watching over the course of the book, particularly the way it ended between them.

Way excited to share my thoughts and review on this latest title I am interested in acquiring for our YA section. Full of intrigue, suspense, and drama this will perfectly fulfill young readers reading wish lists.

I really enjoyed this heist setting mystery from KM. There's something so fascinating about a murder at the home of someone so wealthy and I was quickly drawn into the chaos that unfolded. I loved Kat's no nonsense approach to things which paired fantastically with Liam's slightly more reserved and innocent approach. Looking forward to KMs next book!