"An exuberant life story written with humor, panache, and heart." — Kirkus Reviews (Verdict: Get it!) Amazon #1 Best Seller, Publisher’s Weekly / BookLife Prize Score: 9.5 out of 10 , What if the American Dream was just a glitter-fueled lie? This Ferris Bueller fever dreamis part confessional, part caper—told through the eyes of a kid who believed every lie Ronald Reagan ever sold him. From cereal box sweepstakes to backyard get-rich-quick schemes, our antihero chases a million dollars with the charm of a rogue and the morals of a raccoon. "Personally," he admits, "I've found I'm more prosperous when I lie, cheat, and steal." You see, we've all been caught up in that chase: more money, more status, more validation. And I'm no different… "But he is different, because he dared live an unlikely life in a society that punishes those who try it." — Publishers Weekly In the end, one question remains: In a game rigged for the rich, can you beat the system—or will it beat you? Early Critical Acclaim: "This is a raucously funny book, with raffish prose full of self-deprecating humor regarding the distance between exalted pretensions and awkward reality... The result is a luminous tribute to the inestimable value of not quite getting what you want." — Kirkus Reviews (Verdict: Get it!) "The combination of memoir with a perceptive judgment of America’s often-empty vision of success is powerful.” — Publisher’s Weekly / BookLife Prize Score: 9.5 out of 10 “Readers who may have thought Catcher in the Rye and other coming-of-age stories held wry humor along with insights will find these classics must take a step back for contemporary authors such as Luke Stoffel.” — Midwest Book Review (Reviewer's Choice) --- A Mostly True Misadventure: This novel is based on real-life events. However, some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved. The story has been only lightly fictionalized for this purpose. Warning: May cause feelings: This story also delves into bullying, learning disabilities, LGBTQ+ relationships, illness, and the role of AI in creativity—handled with humor, honesty, and a lot of heart. So with that out of the way—ready to dive in? Let’s make a deal… Publishers Weekly / Book Life: Score 9.5 / 10 "We were all sold a sugar-coated lie—work hard, play by the rules, and success will fall into your lap," writes Stoffel in the promising opening to his picaresque memoir, which he's jokingly titled as a how-to. The truth, though? "Personally," he admits, "I've found I'm more prosperous when I lie, cheat, and steal." With wit and a sense of play that will keep readers of prankish comic memoirs turning the pages, Stoffel cuts the figure of a cad, a roué, a bounder on the order of Redmond Barry, the antihero of Thackeray's Barry Lyndon . "Let's just say, I'm okay with you not liking me by the end of the book," he purrs, swearing that after reading his book, "some of my closest friends could barely look me in the eye." That, though, might prove his biggest lie of all: turns out, you will like him, at least mostly. Stoffel is on the level in at least one clear way. He assures readers his tale "isn't a 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' kind of story." It isn't. It finds him forsaking a traditional, safe, button-down life for one of constant hustling and reinvention. It begins with him as a kid in the '80s trying to scam multiple national contests run by the likes of Cap'n Crunch and McDonald's. These ruses, though, are as hissable as he gets. The rest of his story finds him eking by in more or less respectable fashion: cleaning toilets for the original off-Broadway production of Urinetown ; bumming around Paris; surfing in Hawai'i; dealing with the early death of a loved one; dalliances with apps and crypto and, finally, AI (which helped him, someone with dyslexia, write the book, albeit not in toto). Stoffel's adventures prove to be rollicking fun, told with the élan of great dinner-party anecdotes, if not quite the criminal escapades he promises. That's likely for the best, as these are more useful examples of scraping by on one's wits than more tawdry tales would have been. Throughout Stoffel survives by being resourceful and open-minded. "Since 1980," he writes in the epilogue, "we've all been caught up in that chase—more money, more status, more validation. And I'm no different." But he is different, because he dared live an unlikely life in a society that punishes those who try it. Takeaway: Picaresque memoir that's less tawdry than promised, for the best. Comparable Titles: Natalie Beach's Adult Drama , Johnathan Walton's Anatomy of a Con Artist . Production grades: Cover: B+ Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A- Kirkus Reviews: How To Win a Million Dollars and BEEP Glitter! "An exuberant life story written with humor, panache, and heart." - Kirkus Reviews A quest for money cl