Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler.

This debut novel is a first person narrative of a young New York woman who grabs her boyfriend’s phone to discover he is an anonymous conspiracy theorist. Felix has never told her about his hobby, wanting to keep it secret. Follow her as she explores the issues of online lies and fake identities.

I did not like Lauren’s writing style, it rambled on and appeared to have no structure. Her story lacked focus and there was very little plot. Lots of characters popped into the story but character development was poor. There were no real surprises and the ending was a let down.

Lauren explored at great length the restrictions imposed by social media on the online character, identity and truth of posts. But this discussion on the scope of fake accounts on social media could be covered far quicker and better by reading a newspaper feature article.

I got very little pleasure from reading Fake Accounts and found it quite boring and uninspiring. It was a book that was very easy to put down and quite frankly, if ALL books were of this low quality, I would give up reading books as a hobby and move onto something else.

I am very surprised that a major publisher took a chance with this debut novel. I think Fake Accounts is a book to AVOID, so I vote it the lowest score of 1 star. The irony is that the best quote I can offer from this book also sums it up so well…

Keep in mind, too, that once you get with someone it’s easier to stay with them than to leave them, and that once you dedicate a certain amount of time and effort to a relationship or hobby or whatever, it feels as if that amount of time will have been wasted if you stop.

…Which is why I read this book to the very end. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher 4th Estate/William Collins for giving me an ARC on the understanding that I write a review.

Fake Accounts was written in 2021 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Sea to Sky (Hunter Rayne Highway Mystery #3) by R. E. Donald.

 A dead man rides a chairlift at the popular ski resort on Whistler Mountain. Follow Hunter Rayne as he gets involved in a murder investigation. Although the third in the series, Sea to Sky can be read as a stand-alone. This story is set way back in 1997, so make allowances for the changes in technology that people take for granted nowadays. Later on in this story Hunter goes into a public library to obtain information that today can be grabbed with a few taps on a smartphone anywhere in the world. On the trucking side there are no digital tachographs, telematics or vehicle tracking.

Sea to Sky is a mystery surrounding the private life of Hunter. This all makes for a very relaxed cosy murder mystery. There are bits of relationships that progressed from books one and two, a little romance, some trucking with the usual challenges plus the investigation to find the chairlift killer.

The pace of this novel was quite slow and laboured over the characters from the earlier books and those surrounding the chairlift killer. There were odd bits of dialogue to make you smile, for example…

“If you would just shut the heck up for five seconds and let me speak, woman!” boomed Sorry. “Sasha, Bruno. Say hello to the big lady.” The two kids looked up briefly from petting Peterbilt and said in unison “Hello, big lady.” One was a little girl about seven years old, the other a little boy of about five.

...The story plodded along with gentle and very minor sub plots. Apart from the actual scenes of the chairlift murder and how the victim was killed, nothing else was exciting or gripping in this story.

I found Sea to Sky a relaxing read to simply roll along with - better than a daily newspaper but nothing to recommend to a friend. Sea to Sky is an OKAY 3 star read but nowhere near as good as the previous novel called Ice on the Grapevine.

Sea to Sky was written in 2012 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Family Friend by C.C. MacDonald.

Erin comes home to her fiancee Raf and meets a stranger, Amanda, who he claims to be an old family friend. Follow Erin as she copes with this new visitor.

I enjoyed reading The Family Friend which is a psychological drama highlighting problems around relationships and social media. It is very current in it’s outlook and I liked how it explored people’s engagement with social media. Erin is an Instamum and has become an influencer on Instagram. She is successful on Instagram and has lots of #gifted items for her and her baby Bobby. I liked how the business model of Instagram was explored in this novel and how it affected Erin and her followers. A nice discussion was made about how people can so easily  become addicted to Smartphones and social media. I enjoyed reading about the psychology behind the creation and following of Instagram stories.

I liked how this story developed and how suspicions of Amanda and Raf grew. Okay the plot was not brilliant but the character development was wonderful. The Family Friend is a character driven novel and the reader very quickly develops an empathy for Erin with her screaming baby Bobby.

I loved how many social issues were featured in this novel. Although the author is a man, he puts the world along the Kent coast purely from a young mother’s perspective. I found it very easy to enter and engage with Erin’s world as she struggled with her screaming baby, mother and toddler groups, strolling along the coastline and managing an Instagram account with negative comments and trolls.

I think The Family Friend would make for a typical British television drama which are popular at the 21:00 broadcast slot. Reading this novel was engaging and had a nice steady flow. I consider The Family Friend to be a GOOD 4 star read and would be happy to read another book from C.C. MacDonald.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Random House UK/Vintage for giving me a #gifted copy on the understanding that I publish a review.

The Family Friend was written in 2021 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Ice on the Grapevine (Hunter Rayne Highway Mystery #2) by R. E. Donald.

A lorry driver pulls over for a regular mid-journey vehicle check and discovers a frozen corpse in the trailer. A nightmare for any truck driver, still these things happen even when double-manning. This incident leads to the drivers being arrested and their transport manager enlists the help of ex-RCMP trucker Hunter Rayne to assist in their release.

 

This second book in the series can be read as a stand-alone and thankfully the reader does not need any back story. I found this book to be a refreshing mystery with plenty of characters and sub-plots. The story progressed at a steady pace and there was a lot of warmth between the characters.

 

The trucking parts provided a good backdrop for this story and I loved the little details like cabotage. Where this story scores though is the relationships people develop with others and not just the two legged sort. We meet Peaches, a Pomeranian who, like most dogs, love to travel.

 

I enjoyed the chemistry that developed between the characters, Hunter warming to Peaches, romance among the adults and sexy scenes to make you smile. Angie was a big surprise, one of those scenes that once you read you can’t unread. As for the couple who after the third time shared a can of Budweiser, well - laughing out loud - I would be very disappointed if you offered me half a can of beer after performing three times. I would want a full can and three biscuits, thank you.

 

I liked how this mystery unfolded with lots of possibilities about how the victim ended up in the trailer and all the likely people who may have wanted him off the scene.

 

I think this character driven mystery is a GOOD 4 star read and is considerably better than the first book in this series, Slow Curve on the Coquihalla.

 

Ice on the Grapevine was written in 2011 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.