Trust Me, I'm Trouble by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Trust Me, I'm Trouble is the second book in a series by Mary Elizabeth Summer about a young grifter who goes by the name Julep Dupree. It picks up not long after the events of the first book, Trust Me, I'm Lying, with Julep now living with a foster family and grieving over the loss of a friend. She's still taking on cases only now her client base extends beyond the halls of her private Catholic high school. When a woman asks for her help in finding out how her husband became an embezzler, Julep knows she should walk away. She doesn't of course, not even when it requires her to infiltrate a shady "leadership" organization. When her new case appears to be connected to her long lost mother, Julep is even more drawn in. Pretty soon it isn't clear who's the con and who's the mark.

Between vacation and National Novel Writing Month in November (my fourth year participating) I inadvertently took some time off from reading books. Trust Me, I'm Trouble was what I picked up when I started reading again and it was exactly what I needed. It's a smart, young adult mystery with some unexpected romance thrown in. It has a great main character in Julep (though I did get a little tired of her self-recrimination over the events from the first book). Julep straddles the line between criminal and hero well, helping others, helping herself and always trying to protect the people around her. The plot was well executed. It had more twists and turns than a roller coaster. Overall it was a very good read and exactly what I was looking for when I started reading again. I don't know what the plans are for this series, but I'm hoping there is more to come.