In Her Skin by Kim Savage was one of those books I dove into without really knowing what to expect outside of the summary. I love a book that centers around a con but this one turned out to be a bit more than that.

Jo Chastain is fifteen and hasn’t had an easy life. Having lived with a mother who taught her how to be whatever she needed to be, Jo has made a habit of adapting to her surroundings by telling herself “saying something three times makes it so”. Since she has been living on the streets, Jo has just been looking for the right opportunity to have some safety and when she comes across Temple Lovecraft in the library, Jo sees her chance. After doing a bit of digging, Jo finds out that the Lovecraft’s are tied to the mysterious disappearance of Temple’s friend, Vivienne Weir, when she was nine. This inspires her to claim to be the long-lost Vivienne and this is just the start of the story.

The Lovecraft’s welcome Jo to the family but right away it all felt a bit off and while Jo doesn’t feel like she is in danger, she can’t figure out why the Lovecrafts just welcome her into their family without any hesitancy. No matter what her misgivings are, Jo decides to stick it out and maintain her story but as time passes, she realizes she isn’t the only one who is lying. As the secrets are revealed and Jo realizes what is really going on, she has to figure out what she is going to do to get out of the situation she put herself in.

While the story focuses on this life that Jo has claimed, it is also about a girl who has never has safety or security in her life and when she sees an opportunity to claim a life that would give her that, she is willing to give up everything she has ever known get it. I can’t say that I really liked Jo but I could sympathize with her for the life she has had. I can see why she felt the opportunity outweighed the risk. Jo is also smart. As she starts to realize something is off and digs in to figure it out, she starts to consider her options and what she will need to do.

One of the things I found intriguing in this story was the relationship between Temple and Jo. I can’t say much about the things that happen between these two, but their friendship is interesting because of what we find out as everything moves ahead. I wanted to know more about Temple even though it wasn’t really her story. She was clearly manipulating Jo from the start and it felt like there could have been more to her as a key character in this story.

This book was a pretty quick read and I thought the writing was well done. Overall, I thought the story didn’t really deliver on the con so much as provide us with a story about an emotionally damaged girl willing to do whatever she needed to in order to feel safe and secure. The story is dark and the characters aren’t very likable but in the end I found myself turning the pages just to see how it would all come together.

Thank you to the publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review.