The Gatecrasher by Madeleine Wickham - 4 stars

[Theresa]

We meet beautiful charming Fleur buying hats and fleecing her latest victim of £10,000 before heading off to a memorial service where she hopes to find a wealth widower ripe for plucking. Fleur you see is a con artist, her specialty: funeral gatecrasher.

Only this time, she becomes entrenched into the fabric of a family, and along with her teenage daughter who appears when her school term ends, begins to see the possibilities of just staying.

Fleur is not a gold digger with a heart of gold. She has spent the last 25 years living behind facades while scheming to steal from rich men. She is a user, taking advantage of the trust and neediness of those around her. And yet...the author shows us Fleur's vulnerabilities and gradually shows us that she is actually always running away before she can be abandonned as she was as a teen. Plus all around her this time grow and achieve better lives because of her. Most of all, with this family, Fleur and Zara have found love and acceptance and security.

I really liked this, so much so that I bumped it up from 3.5 stars.