Trust Me, I'm Trouble

Gr 8 Up—In this sequel to Trust Me, I'm Lying (Delacorte, 2014), Julep Dupree, the skilled teenage grifter, is back. Still mourning the loss of her friend Tyler and her father's incarceration, Julep is living with the FBI agent tasked with arresting her last year, and fighting for her own life as she tries to uncover who wants her dead badly enough to hire a hit man. And it is not just her living situation that has changed. Sam, best friend extraordinaire, has transferred to a private school and is ignoring every text and email Julep sends; Lily, a transfer student to St. Agatha's, has joined their motley investigative crew; and Sister Rasmussen, St. Agatha's school president, has taken an unnatural interest in Julep's summer internship assignment. The only constant in her life is Dani, a 19-year-old Ukrainian mob enforcer who has taken it upon herself to play the part of Julep's personal bodyguard. Add to this mix a distraught wife hiring the protagonist to discover her husband's connection to "the blue fairy," which just happens to be a euphemism for Julep's long-lost mother, and readers will be in for an action-packed crime caper. The pace keeps readers wholly involved while successfully delivering a multilayered story line. The heroine continues to evolve as she struggles with her identity within a family, as well as her need to feel loved despite her incredible drive to survive on her own.