Genuine Fraud

Lockart, E. Genuine Fraud. 2017. 264p. 406 mins. ISBN 978-0-385-74477-5. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Why is it always men that are portrayed as the muscled saviors in movies, while women stand to the side as eye-candy or love interests? Jule enjoys being an action movie star. She has created her own origin story, with her parents being murdered by villains, and her being rescued by her aunt, who works for a secret special ops outfit. The fact that none of that happened to her doesn’t matter. That’s she story she likes. Working out every day has bulked Jules up, and she sports serious muscles, something two kids harassing her at the arcade violently find out. Jules very much enjoys using her strength.

Moving from a small southern town to Florida then to New York, she is mistaken for the classmate of a rich and spoiled girl who has just run off to Puerto Rico and cut all contacts with her parents. Imogen’s parents hire Jule to go to Puerto Rico and report on what their daughter, Imogen, is doing. Instead, however, Jule and Imogen become fast friends, and begin spending a lot of time together. As a multimillionaire, Imogen can afford to support Jule. Her cotlery of friends are also rich and shallow. But as time progresses, Jule, who has passed for one of Imogen’s old classmates, realizes she could very well also pass for Imogen ...

Told in reverse chronological order, this book starts with Jule being tracked down by law enforcement in Mexico, and each subsequent event, which happened in the past, explains how she ended up in the previous chapter. A thoroughly unsympathetic character, readers will nonetheless appreciate how Jule manages to keep ahead of her lies and secrets to keep her freedom.