A con artist can make you feel like the luckiest person on earth just to be in their presence. But when the jig is up, they ghost, and you’re left wondering if you ever mattered
After the death of her wife, Shelby feels more alone than ever—until she meets Cammie, a charismatic woman unafraid of what anyone else thinks and whose own history of trauma draws Shelby close. When Cammie is fired from her job and admits she is in treatment for kidney cancer, Shelby devotes all her time to helping Cammie thrive. But Shelby’s intuition tells her there are things about Cammie’s past that don’t add up. Could the realest thing about Cammie be that she’s actually a scammer?
Gibson is almost forty, fresh from a divorce and deeply depressed. Then he meets and falls in love with Cammie. Suddenly, he’s having the best sex of his life with a woman so attractive he’s stunned she even glanced his way, and for the first time ever he feels truly known. This is the kind of desire and passion that musicians have been writing love songs about for centuries. But Gibson’s friends are wary of Cammie, and eventually he too has to admit that Cammie’s dramatic life can feel a bit over the top.
When Shelby and Gibson find out Cammie is a pathological liar, they struggle to understand what they really want from her—sometimes they want to help her heal from whatever causes her to invent reality, and sometimes they want revenge. But the biggest question of all is: how honest can Shelby and Gibson be about their own characters?
THE FAKE
Zoe Whittall
I recently finished THE FAKE by Zoe Whittall.
The first couple of chapters are jarring. I had trouble getting in rhythm with the writing. There isn’t an air of mystery, you know who the players are and you’ve been told how they’re going to play the game. It might feel futile especially if you’ve seen the game played before.
THE FAKE comes out today.
THE FAKE is about Cammie. Don’t get the star of the show confused if you decide to pick it up. Cammie is a liar, pathologically so. She came into Shelby and Gibson’s life like a burning flame, knowing all the cold areas to warm. Soon Cammie has weaved a web of deceit with Shelby and Gibson pinned in the middle.
Will they get out with what they went into the toxic relationship with or will Cammie burn everyone’s house down.
The writing is sneakily human-smart. The characters are believably constructed, and the story plays out like one you’ve heard before. Both Shelby and Gibson want to be helpful to varying degrees and at times want to reparent her. They choose to see her as they want her to be rather than how she is.
The book is very short, just over 200 pages and it is efficient with those pages. There is a “moving walkway” feel to part of the text as the author summarizes and skips over certain areas in time. It didn’t bother me too much because I was ready to get on with the story but it did fell somewhat incomplete.
This is a super-quick read, feels like a stretch to call it a thriller, and lands right in the middle for me at three stars.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books for the advanced copy!
THE FAKE…⭐️⭐️⭐️
For this title I recommend:
Le Temps des Récoltes
2020 Bordeaux Blanc from Bordeaux AOP, France
An exceptional vintage of our award-winning Bordeaux Blanc
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