Review: The Almost Truth by Eileen Cook

Title: The Almost Truth

Author: Eileen Cook

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication date: December 4, 2012

Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)

Source: Publisher

Format: Physical ARC

Pages: 256

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Sadie can’t wait to get away from her backwards small town, her delusional mom, her jailbird dad, and the tiny trailer where she was raised…even though leaving those things behind also means leaving Brendan. Sadie wants a better life, and she has been working steadily toward it, one con at a time.

     But when Sadie’s mother wipes out Sadie’s savings, her escape plan is suddenly gone. She needs to come up with a lot of cash—and fast—or she’ll be stuck in this town forever.

     With Brendan’s help, she devises a plan—the ultimate con—to get the money. But the more lies Sadie spins, the more she starts falling for her own hoax…and perhaps for the wrong boy. Sadie wanted to change her life, but she wasn't prepared to have it flipped upside down by her own deception. With her future at stake and her heart on the line, suddenly it seems like she has a lot more than just money to lose.... 

The Almost Truth is not a full on romantic contemporary, contrary to what the cover may imply, it is the story of a con girl who is about to go through the biggest con of all time. Sadie, the main protagonist, is finally getting away from the island, away from her trailer home, her prisoned father, and her careless mother. She got accepted at Berkley and managed to get the initial payment.. through small scale cons. Nevertheless, she's going to get the fresh start she always wanted... until she finds out her mother used her saved up money and now she needs four thousand dollars fast. She stumbles upon a missing person flyer and what's creepy is that she looks exactly like the enhanced age picture of the missing girl (I know what you all think.. be patient). The absurdity of her being the heiress to the McKenney family is acknowledged, but her and Brenden, the hot guy in this book, scheme a way to get money from this situation. 

This is when the mystery and investigations start. At first I rolled my eyes at the obviousness of this plot.. DUH, Sadie is Ava, the missing girl! However Eileen Cook has twists and turns everywhere and I started doubting my initial conclusion. I tend to not read much contemporaries lately because they all end the same way, and sometimes the progression of the plot is even the same, but Cook knew how to keep me guessing and dying to know what happens next. The ending was very satisfying and it ended in a way that gave room for a future sequel, something that I would be happy for. So Cook didn't give us the complete happy ending, but the potential for one, so for all people who are sick of HEA, you'll like the open ending of this book. 

I really liked Sadie; she didn't get worked up on her maybe being the heiress, she just wanted the truth. She was also confrontational, a quality that is missing in many female protagonists or book characters in general. This leads to almost no misunderstandings, which are my number one pet peeves. We've also got Chase, who is a family friend of the McKenney's and very handsome, and Brenden, the play/bad-boy who secretly holds a torch for Sadie. Both of these characters shined in their own way but I always love the bad boys (yes I know! I never learn). Also, in the beginning I cringed at the relationship between Sadie and her mother but I was glad I witnessed the construction and mending of that relationship; the same goes for her father. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of contemporaries and also light mysteries.