THE HARDEST ONES TO FOOL

A La Jolla, California, girl’s clever dating scam spirals into something dangerous.

It’s senior year, and Chinese American Amelia Wu has her hands full. With help from her best friend, Ingrid Mitchell, who reads white, she’s running an elaborate scheme in which she dates multiple high-profile guys at once while posing as different girls. She justifies it by thinking of how the material perks help her struggling single mom and her own college fund. As Mia Leung, she’s with Max Bracken, white-presenting son of a pharmaceutical CEO; as Amy Fang, she’s dating Dalton Burke, who’s cued white and the son of a congresswoman; and as Ellie Tsai, she’s falling for Indian American tennis phenom Aditya Kalra. It’s the perfect con—until Ingrid is found dead the morning after a party they all attended. Reeling, Amelia is forced to confront the cracks in her scheme in order to get answers. She teams up with her academic rival, Korean American Jackie Anh, a student journalist and true crime junkie. As Amelia questions her boyfriends and Jackie pieces together timelines, secrets start to unravel. Keeping her identities straight becomes impossible, especially when it seems Amelia’s boyfriends might be connected to Ingrid’s death. This fast-paced thriller is packed with shocking surprises, shifting loyalties, and blurred motives. The characters are sometimes tricky to keep straight, especially as Amelia’s worlds overlap, and one subplot adds interest but feels underdeveloped, but readers will be left guessing until the final page.

Twisty and fun.