by Shana Silver
Published on August 25, 2020 by Swoon Reads
ISBN: 1250266815
Format: eARC
Pages: 336
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
By day, seventeen-year-old Fiona Spangler runs small cons for her ritzy prep-school classmates: getting them out of tests and forging fake hall passes. But by night, Fiona joins her dad on riskier heists: stealing back the clue-filled forgeries her mom scattered across the country before she disappeared. Fiona desperately hopes that her mother will be waiting at the end of the scavenger hunt she left behind.
And they are SO close. Just three more heists remain, but then disaster strikes when Fiona’s dad is captured by the FBI. Desperate to finish the job and save what’s left of her family, Fiona assembles of crew of teen criminals: a master of disguise who can transform into anyone, a talented hacker who only communicates in glares, and a rival con artist with a vendetta against—and possible crush on—Fiona.
All they have to do is perform three nearly impossible heists, solve her mother’s incredibly complex clues, and evade the FBI. Easy, right?
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A Fun, Fast Heist Story That Will Keep You Entertained
The Highlights:
- Heists!
- Morally gray characters
- Good pacing
- Could have used a little more depth
Shana Silver is becoming an auto-read author for me. I had so much fun reading Mind Games last year, and The Con Code was a great follow up. It’s a fun, light read that I flew through. Ocean’s 8 but with teens, it’s a perfect summer read. So while it wasn’t the best book I’ve read this summer, it was fun and I’m really glad I picked it up.
The characters in The Con Code were good. Not great, but good. I liked Fiona a lot as the main character, her motivations were clear from the beginning and she stay true to those throughout. The side characters all felt a little one dimensional to me. Honestly, I’ve forgotten most of their names now that I’m several weeks out from reading the book. They were fun while reading, but didn’t leave a lasting impression on me.
I felt that the story for this one was a little unbelievable, but it was fun! If I hadn’t been reading with critique in mind I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. And I thought that the ending was especially good, easily the strongest part of the entire story. So it’s definitely worth reading for that aspect.
The pacing was a bit off for me. Yes, it was a fast read, but it’s a pretty short book so that was almost a given. There would be really fast-paced action sequences, followed by slower in-between bits, but they didn’t feel quite balanced. Sometimes those in-between bits seemed to drag on a little too long, or there would be a weird time jump that made me feel like I was missing out on some of the story. Still, there was enough action that, paired with the overall shortness of the book, it was a quick read.
So yeah, I liked The Con Code! Is it an instant favorite? No. But it was delightful to read, funny at times, and really stuck the landing with its ending. I know that I can go to Shana Silver’s books for fun, so I look forward to more in the future. In the meantime, I can see myself revisiting The Con Code if I’m looking for a fun heist book that isn’t fantasy.
About Katie
I'm a twenty-something aspiring writer who really, really needs to get back to revisions. I've been reviewing books since 2014, and am determined to somehow make stories my day job. I truly think that every book out there contains something good and is meant for somebody.
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