Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud

I've fallen down on the reading and blogging in the last few weeks.  I've actually started and not finished about 4 books.  In my usual fashion, I've picked up books that are due in days intending to finish them, but I've had almost no reading time.  I've had a house full of teens, which has been a blast, and we did some fun stuff.  Then, this week, when things should have gotten more or less back to normal with Davan and Sue off to school on Sunday and Daniel off to Colorado to visit my parents this week, I up and came to Colorado with Daniel.  I only really thought about coming on Sunday.  I booked my ticket Sunday evening and Daniel and I flew out early Monday.  Now, usually, Colorado means a lot of reading time for me.  Not this trip.  We've been doing the tourist thing all week, which has been fun, too, but, again, not a lot of reading time.

During this time, though, I've actually managed to finish two books.  And today, I've got time to write about them, as my parents took Daniel on a scenic drive in the mountains.  Long drives are really not my thing, so I stayed home and am spending the day mostly chillin.

Earlier this week, I finished Pretending to be Erica.  Violet has been raised with the sole purpose of impersonating, when the time is right, Erica.  Erica was the kidnapped and never recovered daughter of a wealthy family.  Violet's "father" is a con man who once shared a jail cell with the man who killed Erica.  With the inside knowledge learned from this man, he shapes Violet to be Erica.  The mission is to steal a painting worth $20 million.  We join the story when Violet is just starting high school as Erica after having been "returned" a month before.

I thought this book was okay.  I liked the premise a lot, but didn't like the implementation of the premise as much.  I had a hard time really getting into Erica/Violet in part because she was so split herself and neither of the two selves were super appealing to me, even though I think I might have liked the in between.  I did like the ending, which I felt was somewhat realistic.  So, all-in-all, okay is the word for Pretending to be Erica.