I could not put this one down! I love thrillers about social media. It's such a modern twist on timeless themes about obsession and stalking. And this book was one of the best examples I've read. It's told from three perspectives--Audrey, a navel-gazing Instagram influencer, her awkward friend Cat, and "Him," Audrey's nameless stalker. Audrey has just moved to DC and reconnected with Cat, as well as intensifying her stalker's obsession, since he lives there as well. The tension slowly ratchets up, and there are numerous men in Audrey's life who are potential candidates for the man who is obsessed with her. I was totally hooked on the story and highly recommend it.

A quick & clever story - a few good twists that kept this one from being too predictable. Not sure I'd go out of my way to push this into someone's hands BUT if asked, I would say it's a solid suspense novel. Fun & dramatic, a guilty pleasure that's easy to devour.

Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Audrey, an instagram personality with over a million followers, moves from NYC to Washington DC for a new job opportunity. An old college friend, Cat, and her old college boyfriend, Nick, are the only people she knows in DC. She doesn’t know that a guy who has been obsessed with her since she became an online personality years ago thinks it is fate that she is now in his city and begins stalking her.

I thought this was a really good and easy read. I was into it from the start. I liked the characters and the modern social media premise. Audrey was self absorbed but not so much that I was rooting against her. There were several people that could have been her stalker and there were some twists I didn’t see coming at the end. I loved it.

Another suspenseful book about social media? Yes, please!

I really enjoyed this fast-paced suspenseful novel about an Instagram influencer named Audrey Miller. Everyone envied her, but with love also comes hate and someone is out to get her. Audrey gets a new job and relocates to Washington, D.C. and, of course, shares it all on social media. Then, strange things start happening. Someone who has been following her online for years is now close enough to her to make dreams become reality.

Told from multiple points of view, this book will leave you guessing as to who her "secret admirer" is.

Thank you to Netgalley, Gallery Books and Kathleen Barber for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a review! This title will be released on Feb. 25, 2020 but you can preorder now!

For me, this book hit reaaal close to home.

Not only am I easily paranoid (just ask my husband), but I’m also a blogger. And while I’m not nearly as social-media obsessed or over-sharing as the main character here, parts of this book were SO relatable.

(Lightroom presets, Google analytics...Kathleen Barber is either a blogger herself or she really did her homework!)

The plot: Audrey, an uber-popular Instagram influencer & blogger, picks up and moves from New York to DC for a new job at an elite museum. As she settles into her new life, she slowly starts to realize that all that social media over-sharing might have attracted a stalker into her life. (And a particularly determined one, at that).

The story sucked me right in, and I loved swapping between the 3 POVs. Both Cat & Audrey felt like they could leap off the page and walk right into our world as real people.

Though the main character, Audrey, is clearly flawed (a little self-centered), I still found her likable. As the reader, it was so interesting to see others’ perspectives on her versus her own perspective & intentions.

This is a solid thriller with a fascinating and highly entertaining concept. And it’s SO relevant to this day & age.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!

**Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, is there anything more horrifying than the thought that some creepy low low-life could be watching and listening to everything you do without your even knowing it?? I don't think so either, which is why this one intrigued me and repulsed me at the same time...

The book creeped me out and reinforced all of my negative opinions about the ridiculousness and dangers of oversharing on social media at the same time. The two main characters are, frankly, unlikable. Both Cat and Audrey are strange beasts, each in their own right. One suffers from a startling over-abundance of self-esteem and the other an equally startling under-. They are equally damaged and equally irritating - if in very different ways.

They were, neither of them, sympathetic to me at all.

But their story still resonated with me, even when their personalities rubbed me entirely the wrong way. I chalk that up to Barber's storytelling, which was handled with a solid sense of pacing and misdirection that worked well given the subject matter. I can't say it was one of my favorite books of the year, but I I'm glad I read it. There were some genuine surprises, although things felt like they wrapped up a little tidily in the end. Still, I think it was a valuable read and kept me turning pages from the get-go.

This one kept me guessing to the end!
LITERALLY!
I still didn’t know how it would end at the 98%point!

Audrey Miller has hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers and has just landed a dream job at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC where she is tasked with generating interest for a new exhibit that will soon be opening...”The Life and Death of Rosalind Rose”

It is an exhibit of dioramas, based on a rising starlet’s murder.

But one of Audrey’s followers has become obsessed with HER.

Referred to as “HIM” he has found a way to install a RAT (Remote administration tool) to her computer, and he is watching her every move, while eating animal crackers, as she eats animal crackers and gazes back at him, oblivious that she is being watched.

Soon her life becomes as disturbing as the dioramas she is promoting...

And, her stalker could be any number of people in her life..

Told from the perspectives of Audrey, her best friend, Cat, and “HIM” this was a fast paced story that I was engaged with from start to finish.

Despite this being described as a “cautionary tale of oversharing in the social media age” (which it is), I would recommend it for readers like myself who like the “fun thrillers”! It is witty and suspenseful, rather than dark and scary.

But, I did immediately cover the camera on all of my devices upon finishing this one!! 😬🙄

Thank you to Netgalley, Gallery Books and Kathleen Barber for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a candid review! This title will be released on Feb. 25, 2020 but you can preorder now!

I had to take a few minutes to process what I had read when I finished Follow Me. The entire story chilled me. I should have known that the book was going to be creepy when I read the author’s foreword about the RAT’s and the whole secret community that envelopes it. Talk about scary!!

Follow Me had a medium-paced plotline. For the type of book it was, I was expecting the plotline to be a little faster. But, then again, if it did go more quickly, some of the smaller clues (about who “Him” was, Cat’s mental state…etc) would have been passed over.

I liked the flow of the book too. Usually, I don’t like it when there are more than two POVs’ in a book. The flow of the book is often thrown off. Not in this case. The author was able to switch between Cat, Him, and Audrey effortlessly. That made for a better reading experience for me.

I didn’t like Audrey. Her preoccupation with her Instagram, followers, filters, and brand was almost too much at times. She drove away her friends because of that. Even Cat wanted nothing to do with her by the end of the book. But, as much as I didn’t like her, I did feel bad for Audrey. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.

I didn’t know what to think of Cat at first. But, as the book went on, I began to understand her character. In her way, Cat was just as obsessed with Audrey as Him was. Her deteriorating mental state was apparent in the latter half of the book. I do wish that Cat’s secret was discussed earlier in the book. But, I can see why the author held it back until the last half of the book. It made sense.

I loved that the author kept Him’s true identity a secret until almost the end of the book. It made his chapters scarier to read. Him was completely obsessed with Audrey. It sickened me how easy it was for him to track her. He was able to use spyware to watch her at home. He knew everything about her. What scared me even more about Him was that he was unhinged. He imagined killing his family and decorating the house with their intestines. I wish that the author spent more time on that, but at the same time, I am grateful she didn’t.

The suspense/mystery angle of the book was wonderfully written. The author did a great job of keeping Audrey off balance and showing Him and Cat’s deteriorating mental states. She also did a great job of keeping Him’s real identity under wrap until the end of the book. Four people were on my list, and it was the last person I thought it would be.

The end of Follow Me was chilling. I did figure what happened between Him and Audrey was going to happen. Not to the degree, it happened, but I guessed that basic. But I wasn’t expecting Cat to do what she did. That threw me for a loop. But, it was the very end of the book that chilled me to the bone.

This book had potential to be a great thriller, however it did not live up to that acclaim. It had all the necessary landmarks but the author throws in to many cliches. I wish she could have given us more background on Max . It certainly was a cautionary tale on how our lives are on full display for anyone to stalk us on social media. If you loved the book You this is a pale comparison.

Definitely a page turner, and it kept me guessing! I liked the Washington D.C. setting and the entertainingly awful characters..

I loved the opening of Follow Me. "Everyone on the internet is a liar. Every last one of us. The difference is the magnitude of our lies." I knew I was in for an interesting read right then. Social media is everywhere. I know I enjoy seeing pictures and videos of my loved ones who are far away. But what happens if a creeper develops an unhealthy obsession with someone who overshares? We have no control over what they might think of or do with these photos. Kathleen Barber wrote an interesting introduction about what hackers can do with your computer without you even knowing.

The story is told from three viewpoints.. Audrey is the social butterfly. She pretty much lives for her followers. She has over a million. Cat was her college roommate. She is a lawyer with a good firm and socially awkward. The third person is HIM. We don't know who he is but there are plenty of suspects. I had no idea who he was and changed my mind several times about who it could be. The final reveal is good. You can look for this book late February 2020.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.
#Follow Me #NetGalley

I liked but wasn’t tot sally crazy about this book. It kept me interested but could also be kind of predictable too. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for review.

I wanted to love this book, but I ended up just liking it. It was a quick, easy read, but it didn't have the creepy scare factor I was looking for. I enjoyed that the story was told from multiple points of view; it worked well for this type of thriller. But I just didn't enjoy the characters. Audrey was so superficial and narcissistic that I had trouble relating to her. While the story line moved quickly enough to keep me reading, I honestly didn't care much about what happened to anyone by the end.

I would like to thank Gallery books for emailing me this arc and Netgalley for the opportunity to read for an honest review.

This was a fast paced story of a social media infkuencer, Audrey, who moves to Washington DC for a new job. She moves into a kind of creepy basement apartment and that’s when the trouble starts and she begins to feel like she’s being watched and stalked.

I was hoping for a quick read and this was a solid 3.5 for me. It doesn’t rate higher because it just wasn’t a super compelling story for me. It didn’t scare me or keep me turning the pages like crazy.

Another gripping thriller by Barber! The story moves very quickly, which was just what I was hoping for and I did not expect most of the twists and turns, eagerly reading until the end. Recommended!

Riveting story, wonderful writing, and great characters. If you enjoy mysteries with suspense on every page, you will love this one, I highly recommend it! I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of this book.

This book will have you thinking long and hard about how much of yourself you share on line. And if it doesn’t? Well, I warned you!💁🏻‍♀️

Audrey is a social influencer. With over a million followers on Instagram she posts anything and everything about her life on line. She’s literally made her life an open book, available for all her followers. And yes, for her Stalker!

A job opportunity of a lifetime takes her from her beloved New York City to Washington DC. But that’s OK! She considers it a small price to pay. After all, her former sorority sister from college lives there! Not to mention her college boyfriend that she still has unfinished business with.
The looming question is, will this move keep her safe and away from her stalker? Oh come on! Not a chance!

Wow! This book kept me pondering and pointing my judgmental, accusatory finger at who I thought surely was the stalker all the way up to the big reveal! Even with that...there were some extra juicy twists sprinkled in!

There were a few parts where my believability had me rolling my eyes! But overall a fabulous thriller that I think will be an explosive hit for 2020.

A fabulous thrilling buddy read with Susanne!

Thank you to Bianca Salvant at Gallery Pocket Books via Netgalley and Kathleen Barber for an ARC to read and review.

Do you ever wonder who is on the receiving end of your post? Ever consider if the person viewing your Instagram account is mentally stable? Or if your followers could use little tidbits from your posts to gain personal insight into your life? Probably not. It isn’t necessarily a thought that courses through many of our minds when uploading pictures, videos and comments. It seems innocent. But maybe we should be more aware. I bet Audrey wishes she had thought twice.

Follow Me has an enticing premise. We all know a girl like Aubrey, we may even follow one or two. But we never give much thought to their followers. Those who are lurking behind their screen into the details of your life which you have volunteered. Most lurkers seem innocent but a few of those trolls are down right sinister. Like damn that sounds fun as hell. But for me, it was average as hell.

First, I would like to compliment the author. One of my biggest complaints with thrillers, there are often not enough characters to keep the reader from having a good idea of who the culprit might be. I actually found myself going back and forth between a few suspects which I really enjoyed. While I had my suspicions, I couldn’t definitively say since there were a few shady characters. I actually really appreciated that.

I also thought there were a few problems. I found the story initially intriguing but by the end of the story, I felt as if not a lot had happened. Don’t get me wrong the end picked up, but I specifically wrote a note about having one hundred pages left and feeling as if not too much has happened. I can be a bit tough to please when it comes to events. But I really felt like small little things happened but not anything big or memorable until the end. I also had some sort of problem with the Cat – Emily situation. Unfortunately, I read this book a month ago and the details have vanished from my memory.

Overall, I think the premise is kick ass. It has great potential for many to be a fun and awesome read. But for me it really turned out to be an average read. Which might be more of, “It is me and not you thing”. But upon release we will see.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for a copy of this read.

Wow. Wow. Awesome book.

I'm super freaked out, so I'm going to shut off my computer now and hide it in a box in the closet under a blanket.

Great book.

Audrey Miller is an Instagram sensation. Every day her million followers click onto her feed to see her latest post.  But when she moves from New York  to Washington D.C. to take on her dream job at the Smithsonian, she suddenly and unknowingly falls right into the hands of someone very dangerous.  He has been tracking Audrey's every post since she first started out, and now he's no longer content to follow from a distance.  Audrey's growing sense of unease slowly morphs into fear as she realizes she's not just being paranoid- someone really is stalking her, watching her, making one move and then another. When will the next threat come?  What will he do next?  One thing is certain:  to make her his, he will follow her to the ends of this earth...and nothing is out of bounds.⁣
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Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!  As an Instagrammer myself, I read this book with a little trepidation (eek!) and a lot of wicked delight. Told in multiple perspectives, it often felt like a cat and mouse game, which worked splendidly with this storyline. I did feel it was a bit predictable and that the ending was a little too "Lifetime movie dramatic", but all in all this was a fun ⭐⭐⭐💫 read.  I look forward to reading more Kathleen Barber books in the future. 
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