Die schönsten Dinge: 6 CDs (original 2010; edition 2012)

Della belongs to a family of con artists. She is in her 20s and lives with her father, her father's partner, her brother, her uncle and aunt and her cousins and they are all in on the game. They have weekly meetings where they assess each other's con ideas and vote on whether or not to proceed. All family members help out others on the projects they decide to proceed with. Della's latest idea is to con a private trust to get a science grant of $25,000. Here she meets rich Daniel Metcalf who has claimed to have seen a Tasmanian tiger in Wilson's Promontory National Park when he was a child - a perfect mark and a perfect con. This book is great fun, easy to read. HIghly recommended. ( )

Very clever - who is the scammer and who is being scammed? ( )

“Fall Girl”, the latest novel by Toni Jordan, is the sort of book you can’t stop reading, yet you don’t want it to end. This book has a bit of everything: humour, intrigue, romance, sexual tension, witty dialogue, characters you can’t help liking, even a chase! When I read the summary on the back cover, I thought I could predict which way the plot would go, but I was in for a few surprises. Jordan deals with a few issues on the way: knowing who you really are; what you tell yourself about your past; family loyalty and how people justify their (mis)deeds. Full of con artists (but who is really being conned?) who may (or may not) get their comeuppance. I thought it would be difficult to maintain the standard of Toni Jordan’s excellent debut, “Addition”, but “Fall Girl” does so with ease. I look forward to Toni Jordan’s next novel. ( )

Would I normally choose to read this book? No. I read this because it was the set bookgroup light read for December. I was definitely out of my comfort zone. To begin with, I felt irritated spending time with Della Gilmore and her family. They are professional grifters( new word for me) i.e. con artists. Della has come up with a scheme to con $25,000 out of a trust fund. However things don't go according to plan and Della finds her self in situations she can't control. I didn't like this family or plot but nonetheless found myself caught up and wanting to read it to the end. In hindsight, I see the front cover pretty much gives the plot away.
I can see this being picked up for a movie. ( )

This book appealed to me because I liked Addition, Toni Jordan's first book. This is nothing like it really, but is still another enjoyable read. What I liked about it was that it was original, a bit of a change from the norm. It's also fun, although I felt it did get a little bit silly towards the end.

It's about Della and her family of professional grifters (as other people have commented, it's quite similar to Hustle). They are trying to get some money out of millionaire, Daniel Metcalf, but things don't always go to plan.

A good read, and I'd read more by this author. ( )