Book Review: In Her Skin by Kim Savage

Book Title & Author: In Her Skin by Kim Savage
Published by: FSG on April 17th, 2018
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old con artist Jo Chastain is about to take on the biggest scam of her life: impersonating a missing girl. Life on the streets of Boston these past few years hasn’t been easy, and Jo is hoping to cash in on a little safety, a little security. She finds her opportunity in the Lovecrafts, a wealthy family with ties to the unsolved disappearance of Vivienne Weir, who vanished when she was nine. 

When Jo takes on Vivi's identity and stages the girl’s miraculous return, the Lovecrafts welcome her back with open arms. They give her everything she could want: love, money, and proximity to their intoxicating and unpredictable daughter, Temple. But nothing is as it seems in the Lovecraft household—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. As hidden crimes come to the surface, and lines of deception begin to blur, Jo must choose to either hold onto an illusion of safety, or escape the danger around her before it’s too late.


Review:
I've had some bad luck with Savage's previous two books. One of them I gave 2 stars and the other one I DNFed, so I was worried about giving this book a shot. I generally have a 3 strikes policy with authors, so I was extra nervous about picking this one up.

I am so THRILLED to tell you that my nerves were for naught. This book was her best book yet and I am super stoked to see what is next for her.

Initially, I thought Jo was the manipulative one. The troublemaker, the one to watch out for, but that's before I met Temple and was introduced to a truly manipulative, calculating young lady who was fooling everyone, including me! As much as this story was about Jo and how she wormed her way into the Lovecraft's life, I found myself absolutely fascinated by Temple and the degrees she would go to in order to bring some excitement to her life. Clearly being filthy rich & all that comes with it wasn't enough excitement for her. No, she got into all sorts of crap. Crap I didn't expect from her initially.

There was much more to the Lovecrafts than I initially thought. There were more secrets than I expected. More unexpected twists that involved this family. I wondered how they could so willingly and so quickly believe that Jo was Vivienne Weir. I mean, being gone for as long as she supposedly was, only to have her reappear again and have her immediately welcomed into the Lovecraft's life seemed to be too much too soon.

The one issue I have with this book is that the few male characters, mainly Wolf and Slade, weren't as well developed as the rest of the group was. I was a bit disappointed by that. I wanted more from Wolf especially. I feel like there was more that Savage could have explored with Jo & Wolf's backstory.

Final thoughts: This book surprised me in a great way and it is definitely Savage's best book yet.