(Review) Liars, Inc.

Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes

Publication Date: March 24, 2015

Pages: 268 (kindle)

Genre: Young Adult/Mystery

My Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

It all starts with one little lie…

Max Cantrell has never been a big fan of the truth, so when the opportunity arises to sell lies to his classmates, it sounds like a good way to make a little money and liven up a boring senior year. With the help of his friends Preston and Parvati, Max starts a business providing forged permission slips and cover stories for the students of Vista Palisades High. Liars, Inc. they call it. Suddenly everybody needs something and the cash starts pouring in. Who knew lying could be so lucrative?

When Preston wants his own cover story to go visit a girl he met online, Max doesn’t think twice about hooking him up. Until Preston never comes home. Then the evidence starts to pile up—terrifying clues that lead the cops to Preston’s body. Terrifying clues that point to Max as the murderer.

Can Max find the real killer before he goes to prison for a crime he didn’t commit?

My Review: 

I kept seeing good things about this book for a while and it definitely intrigued me. It wasn't until I saw a link on Twitter about the book being super cheap did I finally pick it up. (I know, I know. My goal last year was to not buy a lot of books. It didn't work.) 

I am, of course, really glad I finally picked it up. This book took me a few hours to read, which is always fun for me to do. Lucky for me I was still on winter break and stayed up past my bedtime. 

This book starts out pretty interesting and stays that way. It's told from Max's point of view, who is a teenage boy with all of his teenage boy thoughts and everything else that goes with it. Max is dubbed a "bad boy" by pretty much everyone around him, but I don't really feel like he deserves that title. 

He's adopted, spends time with his younger sisters, and helps out his parents at their touristy shop. And, of course, he's got a hot girlfriend and a super popular best friend so, despite the bad boy image, Max's life doesn't suck. 

When Max, Parvati, and Preston decide to start Liars, Inc. things get a little complicated. They're making money and helping their friends get out of class, go on field trips, and hang out with boyfriends and girlfriends that they are supposed to see. 

It's all fun and games until someone asks for an alibi and never comes back. 

I loved how smoothly this story flowed from beginning to end. Being in Max's head was fun, especially his interactions with his friends and family. You could tell that he cared about all of them, despite having a difficult life. Max really tried to make the most of everything he had. 

Which is, of course, why I started disliking some of the other characters. Parvati wasn't my favorite, but mostly because I knew she was hiding something from Max. This book is full of secrets and I enjoyed that a lot. Reading about Max figuring everything out was suspenseful and interesting enough to keep me up late, so there's that. 

The way the mystery played out was not only thrilling, but it was also pretty dark. There was a time when I thought I had everything figured out, but the twists and turns just kept coming. I didn't really have any problems with this book and I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery. Highly recommended. 

Yes, read it.