This was an anticipated read for me because of the cover. I did not know what I was getting myself into when I picked this up.
An exploration of how social media can affect childhood and eventually adulthood. This is a book that is very timely. Anuri is turned into an influencer by the association of her stepmother. It provides a discussion on how much exposure is too much, whether kids should even have social media accounts run by parents, and how to obtain autonomy once your life is consumed by social media.

From the beginning of this book, it was hard to read. I had to switch from eBook to audio to understand how the author was framing this story because I was genuinely confused. Anuri is fighting to save her sister from ending up in the same situation as her, all while trying to get redemption for her exploitation. I was here for all of that once I understood what was going on. Where the book began to not hit the nail on the head was when Anuri really just gave up on me. I guess she did all she could do, but I feel like she could've done way more in terms of her sister. This is a white woman exploiting Black children at the end of the day.

I digress. I'd still recommend this because it centers on a timely topic.

A book on influencers from a perspetive I haven't encountered yet. This was good summer reading. Great characters, propulsive plot, stakes high but not too high...throw this in your summer reading bag.

Where do I start? I was so excited to read this after reading the synopsis. The step-daughter of an influencer wanting to live a life outside of the spotlight? These are new territories as we see social media only grow bigger every day. One might argue that Anuri is the more influential one, considering that's who Ophelia's audience really wants to see. I thought the story was really promising but unfortunately it did not live up to the hype. The plot had so much potential and I feel it didn't follow through. In the end I was left disappointed with the execution and an okay read that could been phenomenal.

I hate to say it.. but I had to DNF this book. It really saddens me because I RAVED about Onyi's last book but this story just felt like it was dragging.
Great premise but I just couldn't connect with the characters... I got to about 30% before I called it quits!

I really loved the premise and themes discussed in this book but never felt fully invested in the characters.

Anuri has had her entire life scrutinized by strangers as her stepmother started blogging and recording every part of it when she was very young. After the tragic death of her mother at birth, her father hired a nanny who then became her stepmother. Years later Anuri has a half-sister and is fighting to make sure that the same thing does not happen to her sister, while also dealing with the fall-out of not wanting all her childhood available online anymore.

I loved all the discussions of children who grow up with their lives broadcast on the internet and what part of that they can have control over. It's a very important discussion and timely topic.

I loved the relationship between Anuri and her sister and what Anuri was willing to go through in order to try and protect her.

I also loved the slow-burn romance that was developing between Anuri and Christian, their playfulness was so entertaining and he was so endearing. Anuri's friends were also very funny and provided some very sweet moments of support.

I will definitely check out more works by Onyi Nwabineli as I did really like the themes discussed.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

After reading both her debut and sophomore novels, I have to admit that I absolutely love Onyi's writing style. "Allow Me to Introduce Myself" narrates the story of Anuri and her struggle to escape the exploitation she has endured since she was fourteen, orchestrated by her stepmother. As an adult, she has managed to free herself from some of the harm, but to prevent her sister from suffering the same fate, she embarks on another emotional rollercoaster. Anuri undergoes significant self-discovery as she helps her sister, learning a lot about herself in the process. The novel primarily follows Anuri's perspective, but also provides insight into the minds of her stepmother and father, offering a more well-rounded experience. I am completely on #TeamAnuri though. I would like to express my gratitude to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC; I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

I thought this was a really great premise. Although the flow of the plot had some hitches. The characters were engaging. I did enjoy this book overall.

This one really sounded good but I just couldn't get into it. Likely just a wrong book wrong time thing or a me thing. Sadly I DNF at 20%. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read an early digital copy in exchange for my honest feedback. The writing was great but the audiobook was hard to connect with.

I really wanted to love this one. I was looking forward to Nwabineli’s critique of family vlogger/mom influencer type content. and while it was definitely there, it also felt fairly reserved.

throughout the book the author touches on topics like adults forming parasocial relationships with kids online, the importance of children being able to consent, and even the validation/need to be consumed that parents like ophelia thrive off of. but those points are so brief they end up feeling like occasional one liners. the audience isn’t given a chance to sit with it before you’re redirected to the central plot line. which would be fine except I didn’t find myself wanting to go back to anuri (the main character). in part because too much time was spent on her found family and too little on anuri’s character development.

the plot meanders along and ultimately comes to a very anticlimactic end. I wish more time was spent on the social commentary because that’s what makes the book interesting! instead of isolating that commentary to inner dialogues, it would have been much stronger weaved into the character’s interactions with each other so we could get more depth.

personal enjoyment aside, I think this was a solid effort that’ll hopefully prompt people to re-examine their relationship with social media.

thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. all opinions are my own.

An amazing book. Highly recommend. An amazing book. Highly recommend. An amazing book. Highly recommend. An amazing book. Highly recommend.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli is a work of art. I am typically not a fan of literary fiction because for me, only on a few authors are able to make artistic writing interesting, but once I was able to get past the first few chapters, I found this book quite interesting. The central theme of the book is an important topic and also made me think about how much I expose my children on social media (not so much). This book has many strong characters and that got a bit much for me, but overall, it was a good read. Thank you, Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, for giving me the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

(4.5/5 stars)
Thanks so much to Onyi Nwabineli, NetGalley, and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Graydon House for a free ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review!
Instantly I was drawn to the main character Anuri. She is deeply flawed, but who in her position wouldn't be? After being exploited by her stepmother via social media throughout her entire childhood, and having strained relationships with multiple people in her life, who wouldn't have trauma to deal with?
The author beautifully describes the experiences and feelings of many of the supporting characters as well, showing that there are many sides to the same story, while not making excuses for some of the truly abhorrent behaviour coming from certain individuals. The writing as easy to follow, even when I didn't understand some of the language, because the author skillfully captures the essence and feelings of the scene in a way that makes the dialogue clear even if you only speak English (like myself). Overall this book was extremely well written and I'm glad I got the chance to be an ARC reviewer.
This book is now available to the gen. pop. so go pick up a copy if it piques your interest!

This is a gorgeously-written novel, but it is for sure a difficult read. The prose is complex and fascinating but doesn't really lend itself to skimming, but what I really mean by "difficult" is that it's just so very hard to read about how terribly the MC's stepmother treated her and is now treating her half-sister. I realize that's much of the point of the book, but...it's still overwhelming at times. It's all incredibly well-executed, though, and it's definitely worth a read.

Anuri Chinasa has had enough. And really, who can blame her? She was the unwilling star of her stepmother’s social media empire before “momfluencers” were even a thing. For years, her stepmother Ophelia documented every birthday, every skinned knee, every milestone and meltdown for millions of strangers to fawn over and pick apart. Now that Anura is an adult, she has stopped it. However, Ophelia simply shifts her focus to Anuri’s young stepsister. Anuri refuses to have her sister endure what she did.

Wow, this book would make a great book club book as there’s lots to discuss around parenting, kids & social media, family dynamics, and setting personal boundaries. I love that Anuri has a great support system in her found family. I’ll be thinking about this emotional, slow, thoughtful read for a long time.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself was one I was very curious to read- the synopsis sounded really fascinating and I find the gray area of what is ok for influencers to post about their children an interesting topic to explore.

This one ended up just being ok for me. I found the writing style hard for me to connect with. It seemed very flowery and clunky and I found myself having to concentrate pretty hard to absorb what was happening in the story. While it was mostly told from Anuri’s POV, there were little snippets with the father and step mother’s perspective. I think the book really could have benefited from more lengthy alternating POV. I never really understood some of the character’s behavior and it would have added a richness to the story if I knew more about what motivated them to act how they did.

It also felt like it was pretty repetitive and I found myself not connecting to the characters or the story. Anuri was a frustrating character who I didn’t really find myself wanting to root for.

I personally wouldn’t recommend this one.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review

A timely novel that is introspective and thoughtful. It took me a little to get into as it was slightly slow paced in the beginning but I enjoyed it start to finish.

I was expecting to love this one but I thought it was pretty slow going for too long. Too much set up for a fairly straightforward story. It did feel timely (all these children of early influencers are growing up!) but it took too long to get there. I wondered if it might have been better consumed as an audiobook. It might have flowed better read aloud.

I have this a 3.5 star. This is the second time of me reading a book by this author. And once again i feel the same; beautiful words but they just feel confusing on the page.

I love how different and fresh this story is. Mommy bloggers that exploit children and an inside on how they felt during and after.

I too like other reviewers read this book and sometimes felt like I didn’t understand what was written on page. Some of the beautiful words and descriptions in the book was so lyrical and poetic but it was so drawn out that it felt like jargon. I had to reread parts over and there was no separation or clue when a scene changed. I think what would work is if this author breaks up her books into shorter chapters, and when scenes change either introduce that into another chapter or have a line separation in the text to not confuse the reader.

Once again, the premise was good but my favorite part would have to be the relationship between the friends. It felt so authentic and it shows that the author is very strong in expressing bonds through the paper.

3.75 stars

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. I thought it was a very important and relevant topic in today’s society with the normalization of “mommy bloggers” who grossly exploit their children.

Anuri was such a strong female lead and I was entertained by how she chose to handle the repercussions of her stepmother’s decisions and her approach to handling her little sister’s uncomfortability loving through a similar situation.

Throughout, I really felt that Anuri’s friends were a great source of support for her journey to finding herself after her childhood was quite literally stolen.

For me, there was a bit of a disconnect with the writing style. I found myself rereading paragraphs because I wasn’t quite absorbing what I had read. Something about the flow of the writing was just not clicking for me.

This is a book where the synopsis drew me in and the execution was so well done!

This story encompasses so much and everything is well fleshed out. It made me think and look inwards for sure.