Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC.
This was a good read, I liked the premise of the story.
Emma Webster is a politician, good at her job and ambitious, which has caused a bit of a rift with her daughter Flora. She's always in the news, well spoken and good-looking. She also receives a tremendous amount of harassment from certain (male) members of the Twitterati, so creepy she starts to fear for her life and has trouble sleeping.
When a man is found wounded at the bottom of her stairs and subsequently dies, she goes to court accused of his murder. It's a nightmare as she fights for her freedom, terrified she won't be there to care for Flora.
It's a very tense, suspenseful read, but I did get a bit tired of the lengthy courtroom scenes, which is why I didn't give the book 5 stars. I will definitely read other books by the author, though, and recommend this read.

I love Sarah Vaughan!
The pacing here is strong, and I read Reputation quickly.
This is a compelling and very addictive read.
Very character driven, with outstanding talent on her writing.
This storytelling is so realistic and honestly I was hanging onto her every word.
A tense thriller which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. And couldn't get enough of.
I believe most will love this one by Vaughn!

Atria/Emily Bestler Books,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review closer to pub date.

<i>Reputation</i> is a two-fold novel about MP Emma and her teenage daughter, Flora. The novel is written in multiple parts, perspectives and timelines but is quite easy to follow.

Emma’s political platform is that of cyber bullying and revenge porn - she’s pushing hard for “Amy’s Law”. Amy had killed herself after her boyfriend posted sexually explicit videos of her on the Internet and sent to her family and friends.

After posing for a provocative cover for The Guardian, with a story featuring Amy’s Law, Emma felt like she was doing some good, getting more traction for the platform. Instead, she’s ridiculed online by trolls, bullies and even in person at meetings.

Soon, Emma doesn’t start to feel safe - she feels like someone is following her all the time and she’s receiving menacing text messages to her personal phone number.

There’s much more to this novel but the <b>Reputation</b> of not just Emma is on the line towards the end. I found this novel to be gritty, real and very on point with the world we are living in. Excellent read.

Delightful thriller with a strong female lead. This is a really ingrossing story that a lot of readers will love. I was immediately interested in a plot and remain so until the end.

Another read-in-one-sitting book from Sarah Vaughan! A recommended purchase for collections where thrillers are popular.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Emma is an MP who campaigns on women's issues and as such receives a lot of online abuse. This is something which is described repeatedly all through the book and, while I am sure that it is true that real life women MPs do experience this, and obviously it is appalling, reading about it was depressing and grew tiring. I didn't warm to Emma, and none of the characters around her; her ex-husband, her daughter, her flatmates etc really came alive as characters.

It is mentioned early on that Emma is eventually tried for a crime, and I enjoyed the court scenes the most, although there was repetition here too with the same ground being covered in opening statements, witness examinations, cross examinations and closing arguments etc. I anticipated most of the plot twists and was very glad to get to the end.

I really enjoyed Anatomy of a Scandal and I went in with high expectations for Reputation but for me, this was a very lukewarm feeling for a book. Unlike Anatomy of a Scandal which tended to piece out the pieces of the mystery beat by beat, Reputation felt like you were milling along for entire sections of the book before getting to the end where you're hit over the head with reveal after reveal after reveal.

This wouldn't have been so frustrating if I liked the characters more. While Emma and Flora were enjoyable, Caroline was frankly annoyance inducing at every turn, which at times seemed like the point and at others, it felt like the book was justifying her behavior? It also doesn't help that Flora is completely lost after part one with her entire POV shelved.

I did appreciate the way that the novel took on the double standard for women in the public eye and women in general. Certain points were very powerful in how women have to walk through the world in order to feel safe that men just do not understand.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

WOW!
"Sarah Vaughan, the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal (soon to be a Netflix series) is back!"

Emma is an up and coming MP and grabs the spotlight as she lobbies for a new bill to protect woman from online abuse. Her controversial speech however brings ire and further alienates her from her ex husband, his new wife, and young daughter. Her daughter Flora, actually has her own issues due to social media and makes a choice that necessitates police interaction which draws reporter interest.

As Emma navigates these issues a man is found dead in her shared apartment. Who is he and what happened?
#atriabooks #atria #netgalley