PRETENDING TO BE ERICA

The author's debut is a thriller about the daughter of Las Vegas' best conman, who is posing as the abducted daughter of a wealthy family in order to steal the family's most valuable asset.

What if you were groomed from birth to be someone else, down to plastic surgery and emotional presentation? What if you knew your whole future and millions of dollars rested on your ability to live a lie?

Violet has been groomed for a very specific future – more that than, a very specific act in the future. Her con artist father adopted her because she looked exactly like Erica Silverman, heiress to half of Las Vegas. Erica was abducted when she was five. She would be eighteen now. Other girls have claimed to be Erica in order to live a gilded life, and been exposed. Violet outclasses them all. She has become Erica, and thanks to her father’s connections and conniving, been accepted by the Silvermans as their real daughter, brought home by some kind of miracle.

Violet faces countless people who want to expose her, but she is determined to reach her goal – to steal the almost mythical “Silverman painting,” an Old Master worth hundreds of millions – and divide the money with her father. What Violet doesn’t count on is how much she comes to care about the Silvermans, as well as the friends she’s made under false pretense. Walking a razor’s edge, calculating every decision, not sure sometimes who she is or what she is doing it for, Violet is an unforgettable heroine, and Pretending to be Erica is a killer debut.

Michelle Painchaud is 22 years old and has a lifetime of stories inside of her. She’s adorable and loves her social media.