Ellen Byron makes me want to go to Louisiana. I am not a hot weather person so this is a feat. Every time I read one of her books, I’m ready to go. ShEllen Byron makes me want to go to Louisiana. I am not a hot weather person so this is a feat. Every time I read one of her books, I’m ready to go. She does an amazing job bringing Pelican Louisiana to life between the covers of her books. It’s not just the scenery that Ms Byron brings to life either. You can smell the Cajun cooking delights waft up from the pages. She makes me drool! This book is set at one of my most favorite times of the year...Halloween! Louisiana is in my top five places to spend Halloween in. I loved they way Halloween was included but didn’t obscure the mystery. The mystery was intriguing. Far away family comes to visit and brings with them a few issues. Don’t you just love when you open your home to family and they have a plot against you already going? There is a lot going on with the holiday, the B&B, a play and the double wedding preparations. Which I can’t even say how much I love the grandma/granddaughter wedding plan! That just warms my heart and Grandma is a hoot, making it so fun to read about. If all this doesn’t have you turning pages how about a rougarou and death? I was delighted to see a rougarou in the mix! If you are new to the term, it is a werewolf/vampire like creature. They make my horror loving heart beat faster. There is no graphic horror in this book though. It is most definitely a cozy mystery. The mystery part kept me guessing. When you read this book you will understand why. I definitely recommend you read this book. I am grateful to having won a copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Reviews are not required but I chose to voluntarily review this book. I want all cozy lovers to read it! I had a good time with it. It is a book I read slowly because I didn’t want it to end but all good things do have an end. I’m looking forward to the next book! ...more
This book intrigued me with the title. Unfollow Me. I have an odd relationship with social media. Most of us probably do. I love how you can stay in cThis book intrigued me with the title. Unfollow Me. I have an odd relationship with social media. Most of us probably do. I love how you can stay in contact with family and friends who are far away. That’s what sucked me in. I had moved across the country, leaving behind everyone I knew and loved. It was lonely. Seeing everyone on social media made me feel closer to them. Like I hadn’t lost everything. I saw it as an amazing tool. Then games became big and I accepted friend request from people I didn’t know. From there, I found a book community. An introverts heaven! I still have a lot of those people on my social media. I can tell you quite a bit about them. I’m positive they can do the same. They became real friends, some very close. A few years ago social media expanded. More options became available. I started playing on a game site, meeting people there. Writing a blog, I started reading blogs. Some were awesome. I was still innocent, though. Believing everything people said about their lives. It didn’t occur to me to lie or that others would. How can you have friendships if your lying? I did notice that some people started living glamorous lives. Some people changed. A number, the bloggers, worried about numbers of followers. Then my world was shaken. Someone I had met on the game site lied about who they were. Actually two people did and it resulted in the death of a young man. I played games with them. I didn’t question who they said they were. After that, I changed. I became more wary of the Internet. I knew people lied and it could go horribly wrong. So when I saw this title on NetGalley, I was prepared for it to be a story about people who lie and it goes horribly wrong. I wasn’t prepared for all the twists and turns. I wasn’t prepared for how close to reality the writer was going to take us. I wasn’t exactly prepared for a thriller to give us a reality check message in the form of entertainment. Because it is a cautionary tale. We leave clues all over social media of who we are, where we live, what we have and what we want others to think we have. It is what Violet did. As an influencer, she opened the door. I’m not certain yet how I feel about her and Henry. I like Yvonne’s sense of humor. She has some of the best lines. There are also Simon, Lily and Luke. I’m not going into the story more than this. You know who the players are. You know someone lies and you know it goes wrong. There is so much, though, that you don’t know. Put this book on your TBR. It’s what you know combined with all the twisty turns that will have you turning pages.
A big thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for offering the book for review consideration. All thoughts on it are mine. I’m delighted I read this book. If I hadn’t been so busy analyzing the characters and the situations I would have probably finished it in one sitting. I’ll most likely read this again. Flawed characters and social media are a huge draw for me.