Review: Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes

Title: Liars, Inc.
Author: Paula Stokes
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: March 24th 2015
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

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? Paula Stokes starts with one single white lie and weaves a twisted tale that will have readers guessing until the explosive final chapters.

This a very good YA thriller that kept me on the edge of the seat, throughout the book, is really captivating, with a good pace (I devour it), with a believable plot and that gradually unfolds until it shows what is happening and it´s great as everything were interwoven

The story is told from the point of view of Max Cantrell, a average guy in his senior year of high school, he´s best friend of Preston, the most popular and richest kid in school and boyfriend of Parvati an impulsive girl, but that appears to be the student perfect and perfect daughter, so only Max and Preston really know her. And they decide to profit with lies, so they create Liars Inc., where charge their classmates for making false permissions or alibis or any other kind of lie that their peers need to stay out of trouble at school and business is doing well.

So when Preston asks Max to cover him for the weekend, he accepts without question, but when comes Monday and Preston hasn´t returned and soon after he´s being questioned by the FBI because he was the last person to see him, so Max lies, which brings him problems because as the investigation progresses evidence begins to emerge that incriminates Max and once that he lied, he doesn´t know how to untangle his lies without looking guilty. Which generates him more problems and Max does not know how to get out of it.

About the characters: Max is a 17 year old boy that lives with his adoptive parents and younger sisters, he is of those who regularly complains when he has to help at home, so he prefer to receive school detention than babysit his sisters; but I liked his interactions with his mother and one of his sisters. Preston is Max's best friend, he´s the son of a US senator, he´s rich and very popular. And Parvati, is Max´s girlfriend, she´s the daughter of a Colonel and has aspirations to work in the CIA, so she know things that later are helpful when Max gets in trouble.

Liars, Inc. is fast-paced and engrossing story. I loved it!. This is the second book I read of Paula Stokes and I´ve greatly enjoyed both, so I’m looking forward to reading more of her work.