This book was so slow paced and for huge chunks nothing happened
The plot is so predictable
For a thriller it was very dull

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

This was hit and miss throughout for me.
The first 10-15% had me intrigued where the story would go. But I found the pacing too slow. By halfway I wanted to quit but something kept me reading. In a way I'm glad. The second half did pick up. There was more suspense and intensity. There was something for me to try figure out.
While I still wasn't wowed it was a decent book in the end. Just missing the correct pace at the beginning.

Menacing Undercurrent…
The perils of the internet are highlighted in this dark and twisty psychological suspense. Erin has a nigh on perfect life. Doesn’t she? That what her instagram followers are led to believe. Her real life and persona is quite different. When an agent makes her an attractive proposal and a family friend visits and says that she can help, Erin is hard pushed to refuse. Erin will soon learn that nothing is quite as it seems. With themes of trust, coercion and manipulation this is an edgy, pacy suspense with a menacing undercurrent.

I thoroughly enjoyed this psychological thriller. It centres around social media and online bullying. I highly recommend .this book.

This is one of those books where you’ll love to hate all of the characters! A psychological thriller with a twist. It’s the struggling mum who is the main character. No one is as they seem and it mirrors the social media we all know so well. 5/5. Going to buy the other book by this talented author.

I enjoyed this twisty thriller. It was very entertaining and well written. It's not totally unpredictable, but there are twists and turns. The ride was enjoyable.
Thanks a lot for this copy.

Erin wanted to be a celebrity when her acting career flopped. And she chose the single most addictive social media. Would you know what it is? INSTAGRAM

She wanted to be an Insta-mum living in a perfect home with a perfect baby and of course, those absolutely perfect pictures. But when video and pictures showing the reality was put up, her world crashed. Trolling started.

My first book by this author, this could have been so much better. The only good point about this book it showed how obsessed we could get about those numbers, those followers, likes, and comments, forgetting it was a virtual world.

The rest of the book was slow with not much of a thrill.

I was so interested in the synopsis of The Family Friend, and the social media/insta fame that this book based its story on. But it was a bit for me. I can’t quite place my finger on why.

I was really interested in the premise which focuses on a mom who becomes consumed by social media and insta-fame, while a stranger moves into her house. I thought the social media parts were well presented, I believed in the main character's online personality and her group of friends.

It’s very slow paced, I like a fast paced moving story. The story seemed to drag and some of the things that happen are too far fetched to be reality. I was waiting for something to happen and for the main story to start and it just seemed to be missing for me.

I’m sure others will enjoy and love it.

The Family Friend is an intense psychological thriller about internet stalking, the struggles of having a young family and the impact of online bullying.

Rafael (Raf) Donadoni, an Italian interior designer, his fiancée Erin Braune and their nine-month-old son, Bobby live on the south coast of England. Struggling to bond with little Bobby, Erin is frustrated as well as consumed by guilt because she cannot seem to feel any love for him. Raf, on the other hand, spends quality time with Bobby, even sleeping with him at night but he doesn't understand Erin’s apathy and increasing hostility towards the baby which is putting a strain on their relationship. A stay at home mum, Erin relies on Raf to keep the money rolling in, but becomes interested in being an Instamum and begins posting snippets, pictures and videos online to share a seemingly perfect life. As she rapidly builds a massive following her corporate sponsorships give her the opportunity to start earning serious money. Before long Erin is targeted by an internet troll who seems to be following her around in real life, snapping photos of her that are damaging to her image and sharing them online. Meanwhile, Amanda, an old friend of Raf's turns up from Australia and seems to bond immediately with baby Bobby. As Erin wonders what Amanda's presence could mean for her and her family a devastatingly revealing video is posted online.

Laced with malice, this is a riveting, compulsive and drama-filled domestic thriller with a great narrative featuring issues of social media addiction, abuse, obsession, secrets, jealousy, mental health issues and toxic behaviour. Dark and unsettling, C.C. MacDonald's execution of this cautionary tale is first-class. A superbly told, captivating, very highly recommended read.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Harvill Secker via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Firstly a big thank you to the publishers for my copy to review on netgalley. This is a new author for me and will definitely be reading more from him.

I raced through this fantastic psychological thriller. Having a baby is tough but having a baby while under the watchful eye of your Instagram followers must be even tougher!

Erin is trying to have it all but she could be risking it all.. who can she trust? Who is telling the truth ? And is she really being the best parent she can be…

A intense twisty roller coaster of a book that you can’t foresee what’s coming. Fast paced and will leave your heart racing.

Published 4th March

Erin lives an idyllic life by the seaside with her baby boy and Australian fiancée. She's upbeat and happy - a natural mum. At least that's what her thousands of followers on Instagram think.

In the real world, Erin is struggling with anxiety and finding it difficult to connect with her screaming son. So when a famous agent offers to make her the biggest Instamum out there, she's over the moon. And when Amanda, a family friend who's visiting from Australia, says she'll move in and babysit to help make it happen, it seems like the stars have finally aligned for Erin's exciting new career.

But when a devastatingly revealing video is posted online by an anonymous troll, Erin's brought crashing back to earth. As everything she's worked for starts to slip away, Erin must find out how far she can trust those closest to her...


I did enjoy reading this book but I felt that it lacked the suspense and the domestic noir that the synopsis promised

The story follows Erin, an influencer, and her life. This story did actually make me reassess my life and look at how much time I actually spend on social media and wonder whether it it worth it half the time. As a society now, we are obssesed with social media and likes and popularity. And at the end of the day; as we learn in this book; does it actually really matter. We are not living the day and making memories with loved ones

It was interesting to read just how many clues Erin missed out on because of her social media interest. I think the author did an excellent job at portraying Erin as a character. She was not likeable and I don’t think we are meant to like her

The book is very slow burner and as mentioned previously I did not feel the suspense

However, the book and story was interesting and I would recommend this book

I've read a few thrillers recently that involve social media, and as someone who works in digital and follows a few 'influencers' this really fascinates me.

This was an interesting premise and left me feeling unnerved at times. I did struggle because I found the characters slightly unbelievable and a bit frustrating. The relationships, even between characters who were supposed to know each other well, felt stilted. I struggled to keep going with the book at times because the plot wasn't enough to make up for this. There was a lot of detail thrown at the reader and I think the book definitely could have been shorter. It seems common with thrillers to try to pad it out but it can just leave the reader feeling annoyed, especially if it's not particularly enjoyable in the first place.

I think I would try another book by MacDonald in the future though, I think it's probably unfortunate that a lot of similar books are out at the moment.

I was really interested in the premise which focuses on a mom who becomes consumed by social media and insta-fame, while a stranger moves into her house. I thought the social media parts were well presented, I believed in the main character's online personality and her group of friends.

I liked the writing but I thought the pacing is slow. Not much happens other than the main character being suspicious. I also felt she was passive and it was hard to root for her because she makes questionable decisions. I didn't believe in the characters' motivations because they keep changing their minds within a single conversation. I don't mind when plots are a little far-fetched but I didn't really buy the ending and there were no surprises. I did think the book does a good job showing how manipulation and gaslighting work. But I wish the story is more exciting.

This story follows the life of Erin, Insta-Mum and influencer in the making, as she struggles to juggle her Insta-perfect expectations of motherhood with the reality of a screaming, demanding and not always easy to contend with 11 month old. Throw in an online troll and the sudden appearance of her fiancé’s old friend in to the mix, and you have the potential for utter disaster.

As a fan of Insta, and someone who spends a certain amount of time curating content for Bookstagram, I knew parts of this would really intrigue me. The ideas around real life versus fake life, the genuineness of relationships, the pros and cons of sharing too much information online etcetera were all handled well.

Equally, I was heartened to see a clear arc surrounding maternal health and the struggle to adapt to parenthood. I feel that both of these issues are vitally important, and for the largest part, hugely linked. I know, as a mother myself, that it’s easy to assume everyone else totally “has it,” whilst you’re covered in baby puke and on day 79 of using dry shampoo.

However, as the book progressed, I felt like there was a bit too much going on. So many different elements that had to be touched on that actually it all lost any of its potency and, for me, became a little gimmicky. A tried and tested nod to the Mums; there, we talked a bit about post-natal depression, I can tick that off now. Perhaps I’m just cynical (entirely plausible, I’m of an age where it becomes a little bit of a hazard), but it became a bit tedious in the end.

Largely, I disliked the main character of Erin – she was so one-dimensional that I couldn’t really get to grips with her. I never felt like I “got” her personality or motivations, and in the end, felt quite bored by her. The wonderful parts of her character, that was allegedly turning her in to an Insta sensation, just never came through, so for the largest part, the whole thing just didn’t make any sense to me.

As for the actual story itself – it seemed convoluted and by 70% of the way through a whole lot still hadn’t happened. This is an exceptionally slowly paced read, and ultimately I found it quite a struggle to finish. That said, this is one of those situations where I’m glad I did persevere, as the idea behind the “twist” (meh – not really, it wasn’t obvious as such, but there was no big OMG moment either) is very good – it just took far too long to get there.

Ultimately, I can see why people have enjoyed this, and why others have struggled. It is very middle-of-the-road and I have no doubt, if you asked me to write a synopsis in three months, I’d barely remember a thing. It could have been so much better, but as a debut, it’s a solid start. I’d give one more book a go by this author to see how the style develops (dialogue needs some work, in my humble!).

The Family Friend was a book that appealed to me straight away. A face from the past where you couldn’t decide if they were friend or foe, a family with a young baby learning to adapt and the increasingly popularity of social media influencers. It was the latter of these that interested me most, like many I am dubious about the reliability of influencers and how genuine those who get paid a fortune to promote a product are.

Erin was somebody I would definitely describe as an unreliable narrator and at first I didn’t like her at all. She seemed more obsessed with her on screen image and number of followers than she did with her baby. But as the novel progressed and she started to spend less time on screen and more time bonding with Bobby I liked her more. And I felt that she liked herself more too, she was definitely a character who was too hard on herself.

This novel is all about manipulation. The way the public are made to believe what they see on social media and the effect that the desire to be seen had on Erin’s life. And there are also glimpses of a diary from the past where a different side of control was shown.

It isn’t an easy novel to read but it is one I would recommend.

I continued reading this book because I kindly received a copy from the publisher and Netgalley. I'm happy I did because thanks to this persistence I can recognise this novel for what it's trying to do. It's just not for me.

This story is about Erin, Raf and baby Bobby who live in a quiet seaside town near London. One day Amanda, Raf's childhood friend from Australia comes to visit. Erin is getting more and more enthralled in her Instagram account where she is posting happy mum photos, that Amanda is a very welcome babysitter. That is until Erin has a stalker who is taking sneaky photos of her and the baby, she's suddenly starting to wonder about Amanda's arrival.

I wouldn't have called it much of a thriller when I started the book, but there are plenty of twists and turns and a bit of a suspense element.

The dialogues start off stilted, but the writing gets better as the story progresses. The setting in a small town is great and Amanda is a really interesting character.

I don't like books about insecure women who start doubting everything around them and who become consumed by an investigation. I also don't really enjoy novels about people who want to attain Insta-fame.

I think there will be plenty of people who will like this novel, so don't mind my very personal star rating but check out the description and decide if it's for you or not. Believe me, it is a bit of a rollercoaster and there are plenty of suspenseful elements.

This is a very modern day scenario - Instagram, followers, instant fame and with it trolls. Erin is keen to become famous on line at the same time as she is struggling with motherhood and bonding with her young son. Add to this the effect it has on her relationship with her fiance, Raf, and the appearance of an old friend of Raf's and problems begin. For me there are too many issues addressed in this title, although it did keep me reading. I found it became rather confused at the end and was wrapped up rather too quickly.
Interesting.
Many thanks to Netgalley/C.C. MacDonald/Random House UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Family Friend was quite raw in the portrayal of Erin. Her experiences with motherhood could be quite uncomfortable to read, and the need for Erin to present a perfect facade of family life through social media is pretty real.

When Amanda arrives claiming to be a childhood friend to Erin’s husband, she seems like a gift, brilliant with the baby and seemingly friendly with Erin. When someone begins to post negative things about Erin, she begins to suspect Amanda is not all that she seems.

I wasn’t expecting the story to go along the lines it did at the end of the book; I am happy I was surprised, it was a very good read.

Oh hell, I didn't expect that! The book makes a huge critic about social media (instagram) and how that affects your real life, the struggles of a young family. Really liked how the instagram bit was portrait. Also, the way Erin was always suspicious but never quite there to get the answers she needed. For someone who doesn't read a lot of thrillers this one will do the job of letting you on the edge of your seat and making loads of theories.