Book Review – The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
Thriller | Young Adult | 356 pages
Published on 4th Feb 2021 by Hodder Children’s Books
Synopsis
A deliciously commercial YA page-turner about the daughter of a con artist who is taken hostage in a bank heist.
Nora O’Malley is a lot of things. A sister. An ex. A secret girlfriend. Kind of crooked, but reformed… somewhat.
Nora O’Malley’s been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up her mother’s protege. But when mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape.
For five years she’s been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:
#1: her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they’ve all been inseparable for months, Wes didn’t know about her and Iris.
#2: The morning after, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised together. It’s a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly.
Because #3: right after they get in the bank, two guys start robbing it.
But they have no idea who they’re really holding hostage.
The robbers are trouble. Nora’s something else entirely.
My rating:
Review
I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Ooh, this took my fancy as soon as I heard about it. It had such potential and, luckily, lived up to it! While the blurb makes Nora out to be a con artist, she’s more someone raised in the life who has the tricks. But she’s got a long and complicated past, and a tricky situation right now to deal with.
Both those elements are key to the book, and going through her past adds more and more as we get into it. The first couple of past sections didn’t seem too interesting until she talks to one of the bank robbers. Then it suddenly starts to tie together *and* we see the way she’s using how she grew up to manipulate those in the bank.
Plus we get the amazingness of her being stuck in the bank with Wes, her ex, and Iris, her girlfriend. AND Iris has chronic pain. I could rave about great bi rep or pain rep all day, as neither of those are things we regularly see in books. I also LOVE that Nora and Wes are best friends still, and that he’s protective of Iris, and there’s just so much goodness there. It’s found family wonderfulness.
Also, getting to see Nora mess with people’s heads (especially with the number of plans – I love that it isn’t one person’s plans, and that nothing goes right) is just fun.
Honestly a fun thriller that tackles some serious issues (such as abuse of a child, sexual abuse, gaslighting). I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars.
Buy The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe from Waterstones.
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2 Comments
Ellie
I’ve seen so much about this recently! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it, this is a great review!
LiteraryLeisha
I loved this!!