Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

A creepy read that shows just how easy it can be to manipulate people. The whole Insta mummies thing isn’t my cup of tea so I found it hard to relate to some parts but I still enjoyed the book.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Penguin Random House UK and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

The Family Friend by C. C. MacDonald is a psychological thriller focused on the perils of social media. YES, we have all been there, I bet there are millions amongst us who are so tuned into instant fame thru any social media handles that smart phones have somehow become an extra hand instead of an electronic device. The change from wanting to check the phone to being so needful of it and addicted to it is surprisingly so real that all of a sudden tour companies have started tagging #digitaldetox as the new trend for vacation. Of course, the pandemic hasn’t helped matters at all, making an already bad condition to worse.

Erin is an insta-mum who projects a happy cool façade to the world but is truthfully struggling with her 9-month-old son Bobby. Her partner Raf is trying to make ends meet and Erin is determined to make something out of her Instagram account and earn money out of it. The need for validation from strangers has Erin totally hooked into her social media but it is also her intense desire to give meaning to her life where she has always wanted to be an actor par excellence. But achieving fame comes with a price as troll videos of her less than happy moments surfaces. The arrival of Amanda, Raf’s friend from Australia is a god-send but paranoia grips Erin and things goes downhill soon.

The Family Friend has a solid story showing the readers about the pain of social media fame, and the effort it takes to maintain status quo especially with a child who knows only to scream his head off every single time. There’s also a journal of a young girl whose entries gives us the creeps. The story however fails to offer much in the ‘thrill’ element as the plot is honestly predictable for seasoned readers. It takes about more than half of the book for some action to happen coz of which there’s not much heart thumping ride that’s expected from a psychological thriller. So instead of the “OH, MY” moment at the end, the climax fell a bit short for me.

Going with 3 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ for this one.

This review is published in my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India and Twitter.

The Family Friend is an intense and enthralling psychological thriller about the terror of having an internet stalker, the struggles of a young family and the impact of relentless online bullying. We all should really know by now that the representation of themselves and their lives people show in posts online are rarely ever close to the truth. Erin Braune, her fiancé Rafael ”Raf” Donadoni, a hunky Italian interior designer, and their nine-month-old son, Bobby live on the southern coast of England. Struggling to bond with the baby, Erin becomes frustrated at his almost constant screaming and bawling and doesn't appear to know how to calm the little man down as it's her firstborn and she is consumed by guilt as she cannot seem to feel love for him regardless of how hard she tries. Wishing she could escape for some alone time, Erin finds that Raf spends more quality time with the baby than she does; he even sleeps with him at night but Erin’s apathy and increasing hostility towards the child confuse Raf and he doesn't understand how a mother can act like that having been granted such a precious gift. Naturally, this puts a strain on their relationship and it becomes both awkward and uncomfortable at times. She relies on Raf to keep the money rolling in as she is an unemployed stay at home mum and up to her neck in student debt. Erin is a failed thespian who missed the opportunity of a lifetime by being on holiday at the time she was contacted about a role. She becomes interested in being an insta-mom and begins posting snippets, pictures and videos online to share with the world her seemingly perfect life but we all know it is merely a facade.

She rapidly builds a following who adore her for her wholesome, funny and life-affirming posts and soon reaches 100k likes resulting in some lucrative offers. She's offered representation from an agent and also corporate sponsorships which give her the opportunity to start earning money again. @BRAUNEoverBRAINS is her handle where she claims to be a sunny mummy to Bobby. Salty sea-dweller. Reformed thespian. But her online persona is very different from that in reality. However, being in the spotlight isn't always a positive thing; Erin is targeted by an internet troll who also seems to stalk her in real life taking photographs of her that will damage the perfect, relatable portrayal of herself and spreading them online. Then there was the video. One day when Erin arrives home having attended a mummy bloggers weekend retreat she finds Amanda, an old friend of Raf's from Australia, has called in and appears to have already bonded with Bobby. Who is she and why is she here? This thought soon goes out the window when Amanda offers to babysit so Erin can attend networking events, a crucial part of growing your insta brand. But Amanda seems to be taking an unhealthy interest in her family and Erin begins to wonder if she is the stalker? This is a riveting, compulsive and drama-filled domestic thriller with a wickedly twisty narrative featuring issues of social media addiction, obsession, jealousy, secrets, abuse, mental health issues and toxic behaviour. It's a dark and unsettling cautionary tale highlighting the disturbed people who prowl the internet. A superbly woven, captivating and engrossing read. Highly recommended.

This will be a short review explaining my reasons for DNF - a book about how people get wrapped into social media should be interesting for a blogger. Our online and actual personas are increasingly blurred and there is a danger we get wrapped too much in likes for that lovely dopamine hit. In this story we meet Erin a popular social media star juggling online life with a new family. Her world is about to implode and someone is trying to destroy her.

This unfortunately became a quick turn-off. The introduction of this novel was pure information overload and while this may have been designed to show the hurly burley of life instead it felt like a colossal piece of non stop exposition as to who everyone is rather than letting us adjust naturally to the tale; Erin’s dual life and the family dynamics . The dialogue in particular between the main characters who all either knew each other or were strangers was especially clunky. I’m never a fan of books that decide to tell you everything in one go and this just felt full of ‘things you will need to know for later’ couldn’t grab my attention and just not the right kind of thriller for me. Disappointing

There seem to be a few thrillers about at the moment based around online influencers, and this is another - the main character, Erin, is a 'mum-fluencer' with a new baby and an apparently perfect life. It all goes pear shaped when a beautiful family friend of her husband's comes to stay. I found this one a bit of a struggle at times, as it was quite slow moving and the main character makes a series of stress-inducingly dodgy choices. It is well written, but for me the plot was a bit lacking, and it didn't really grab me.

On the surface this was an ideal book for me and I love the author's books but none of the characters really grabbed me.
It was an easy read but not as compelling as others that I have read.

I was given an advance copy of the book but the review is all my own.

Erin is a mum, living by the sea with her fiancé Raf. when looking at Erin’s Instagram it would easily fool you into thinking she is living the perfect life. With thousands of followers, her posts suggest she is super mum, managing to have it all, whilst remaining upbeat and happy. However, in reality Erin is struggling with anxiety, finding connecting with her son challenging and is estranged from her family.

One day Erin gets home from a retreat to find Amanda, at their house. Raf explains Amanda is a family friend, from Australia. Having never heard of Amanda, Erin finds this strange at first. However, these suspicious thoughts quickly turn to gratitude when a famous agent offers to help Erin with her Instagram career and Amanda offers to move in and babysit.

However, the novelty of Erin’s new career soon wares off, when she begins to get trolled. Videos are posted which not only leads to a backlash from her followers, but her agent isn’t happy. To make matters worse these videos could have only been taken by someone close to Erin, leaving her second guessing all those closest to her.

The Family Friend is a modern-day thriller, which could have done with a bit more thrill. From a thriller you expect twists and turns, but unfortunately the twists and turns failed to surprise and the plot was predictable.

Whilst the plot wasn’t amazing, I did still find this novel easy to read and enjoy the level of detail C.C. McDonald writes in. The immaculate detail really impacted the way I perceived the characters. For example, at first, I failed to connect with Erin, I wanted her to get off her phone (hypocritical really!), but the detail used to describe the trolling she experienced, as well as the details used to describe her anxiety, particularly around the other mum’s, really made me feel for her. I found myself feeling as though I was in her shoes and could really sense these worries and fears.

The themes which were discussed throughout The Family Friend I found very relevant and relatable to today’s society. These themes included social media vs reality, trolling, anxiety, being a new parent and control in relationships. Pretty much all of us have a different persona online, and if you think you don’t then ask yourself how often you post about your worst days. Not to mention, those who feel parenting does not come naturally to them often feel too afraid and guilty to admit it, particularly when on social media it looks like all the other parents are doing everything swimmingly perfect. Therefore, I thought it was an important portrayal, which is not often seen, or if it is it is normally a bad character (think wicked non-maternal stepmothers in fairy tales). I would hope that Erin’s characterisation would make at least one new mum feel a little less alone/guilty.

Overall, I would give The Family Friend 4/5 stars. It was well written, an easy read, discussed important issues, it would have just been nice to have a little less predictability.

Thank you to Random House UK and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tried twice to read and engage with this book and I really wanted to,apologies that ai couldn’t
The Insta part ie messages and comments were a distraction and did not flow well with the rest of the story and just seemed to appear randomly and unlike other books that use social media comments as part of the story just felt awkward and not part of it
As say ai really did want to enjoy this book but ultimately found was not for me

This review will go live at the link below on 19/2:

Meet Erin Braune. Erin used to be a struggling actress and now she’s a struggling mum. The “sugar and spice and everything nice” feeling her peers seem to have is not something she’s experienced herself, being a mum is a near constant guilt trip, and sometimes she wishes she was miles away from her bawling, howling offspring.

Meet @BRAUNEoverBRAINS, a fun sunny supermum madly in love with her super cute baby boy, influencer, queen of gorgeous pics and catchy hashtags, receiver of #gifted stuff!

One woman, two personas. Erin is really good at keeping up appearances for her Instagram followers, and her account has grown so significantly that although she truly enjoys it and it’s a form of escapism she sorely needs, she can hardly keep up with all the likes and comments and it’s become an extra source of stress.

And then Erin gets picked up by an agent who promises her the moon and stars of Instagram, she’ll be the biggest mummy-influencer in the whole Instaverse. (Seriously, Instagram influencers have agents?! Who even knew that was a thing?!). However, being in the spotlight has its downside: 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 Erin’s fiancé, has popped in from Australia and seems to bond immediately with the baby, more than Erin herself ever felt capable of.

I found it so very refreshing to have a struggling mum for a protagonist. A while back I had a long talk with a girl on the brink of a postnatal depression. She was going through some of the same things as Erin and, like Erin, felt utterly alone with her feelings of inadequacy. I think it’s important to show that not all new mums are planted firmly on cloud nine, that there’s no need to feel guilty.

Does that mean I loved Erin and agreed with all her choices and actions? Weeeeell… Not quite. Her angsty paranoia sometimes made me roll my eyes, and at times I found myself thinking “seriously, Erin, WTF?!” or “get over yourself”, or “put down your bloody phone and make an effort”. On the other hand, I did feel Erin is entitled to do whatever she wants for a career, despite having a baby to take care of and a troll chasing her, if she wants to be a macroinfluencer and can make a living that way, well good for her and to hell with all the judgmental people who surround her. Everybody either wants a piece of her or wants to control her and there were moments when I got frustrated for her and just wanted to scream.

So no, I didn’t particularly like any of the main characters. However, I did keep racing through this story because I did want to know what was what. I didn’t trust anyone and I didn’t know if that was due to honest misgivings of my own or it was just Erin rubbing off on me. (In case you’re wondering: in the end I found out it was both.)

There is a lot of focus, especially for the first half or so, on Erin and her baby and her social media etc, so I think this is a thriller best enjoyed if you can relate to or at least feel for a new mum struggling with a fussy baby and if you can appreciate just how carried away one might get by social media.

The Family Friend is an entertaining and rather fast-paced thriller that’s perfect for this day and age. The combination of domestic drama and mystery really worked for me and I loved how I ended up somewhere completely different from where I thought I would.

The Family Friend is out on 4 March (hardcover, eBook and audiobook).

Thanks to Vintage for the NetGalley widget! All opinions are still my own.

This book is a good story which could be great. It has good and interesting characters and some well thought out and thought provoking situations, however there are times in the book when I was just disengaged and lost interest.

I very much like the idea that the new mum is trying to juggle her Insta career with her new baby and trying to bond being difficult in real life and not appearing so online. He concept was well thought out and the trolling that young mum Erin received was described in great and shocking detail.

The female friend who comes from Australia to stay with Erin’s fiancé Raf is clearly odd from the start and the reader is immediately out on edge. We hear snippets from an old journal that show grooming and abuse mistaken for teenage live for an older man and it isn’t difficult to put two and two together.

The ending is as expected and probably the best part of the book and well written. Even though what I expected to happen did I felt that the story had ended well and was not rushed.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Braune over Brains.
Mum to Bobby. Salty sea dweller. Bright up your life. Reformed thespian.

Such is the description of instamum Erin Braune, mother to nine month old Bobby and fiancée of Raf, her handsome Italian graphic designer. Living somewhere on the southern coast of England, this couple are grappling with parenthood when a family friend of Raf’s from Australia unexpectedly arrives on their doorstep. The book opens with Erin arriving home from a mummy bloggers weekend retreat to witness Raf, the family friend Amanda and baby Bobby playing happily families. What a welcoming tableau and one that immediately raises Erin’s hackles. The perils of Instagram fame combined with the difficulties of motherhood form the basis of this psychological thriller in which delusion features heavily.

With Amanda occupying the studio at the bottom of Erin and Raf’s garden you wonder whether the presence of this family friend is a godsend or a hindrance as Erin attempts to bond with her ever fractious bundle of joy whilst simultaneously building her following on the social media platform. How long is Amanda intending to stay and how exactly did she locate Raf after years of no contact? Although welcoming Amanda into their lives, I was wary of this woman who seems to waste no time in making herself invaluable to Erin. We all know the debilitating effect of sleepless nights and a non stop crying baby can have on our mental well-being so part of me could understand why Erin resorts to handing over Tommy to an almost stranger who is by her own reckoning experienced in childcare. By relying on Amanda’s presence and availability she frees herself up to attract the attention of an agent who can pursue bigger and better contracts on Erin’s behalf. Wise move or incredibly short sighted? The decision is yours!

The rise of the mummy influencer is fast becoming a topic for writers of fiction to embrace and so this novel is as much a cautionary tale about living your life online, attracting trolls and other individuals keen to tarnish reputations as it is a psychological thriller. With Erin a once aspiring actress I immediately drew parallels with this profession and her new role as an influencer;both require a level of pretence, a glossing over of the truth that makes the whole enterprise fake and shallow. What constantly surprises me is the amount of people who fall for this modern day trickery so you can hardly blame Erin for jumping on the bandwagon. This character is the epitome of someone addicted to all the likes she can amass with every new post, her fear of missing out controlling her everyday life. In relinquishing her and Raf’s private life for a very public one where the freebies are never ending , she is placing herself in the firing line, an easy target for unwanted attention so it doesn’t take much imagination to predict where this storyline will lead. I didn’t particularly like this woman, so caught up in becoming the next Instagram sensation she fails to see what’s going on right under her nose before it’s nearly too late. If there’s anyone more in need of practising mindfulness it’s Erin, who would benefit from discarding her phone in favour of spending quality time with her son, however demanding he may be. Deluded she most certainly is but is Erin the only one suffering from the same fate?

As events take dramatic and unwanted twists and turns, portraying Erin in an unfavourable light as a mother, questions are raised as to who could wish ill of this woman. A complete stranger trolling her posts or someone closer to home? All eyes are on Amanda as the most obvious suspect as details of the kind of woman she is coupled with her strange beliefs trickle down to the reader. Snippets of her life in Australia together with a past toxic relationship add to the mystery surrounding this woman. However with Erin exhibiting increasingly paranoid behaviour there are plenty of other female friends,acquaintances and mummy influencers who could be jealous of Erin ‘having it all’. The author attempts to sidetrack the reader from the more obvious clues but will you be fooled by these diversions? Delusional behaviour is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these characters; hints of coercive control and predatory behaviour are also prevalent in this storyline where the past is on a collision course with the present.

The Family Friend is an easy if fairly predictable read. As the penny finally drops for our instamum, the pace dramatically intensifies, events entering the realms of the unbelievable until the rather inevitable conclusion brings some of these characters to a full stop. Overall this is an enjoyable if average thriller and may appeal to those who have also read People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd.

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.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this one

an instagram influencer who videos her life and uploads to her fan base

on the whole there wasnt anything in this one to keep my interest sorry

This book follows new mum Erin. Erin is struggling to connect with her baby and suffers with anxiety. However she shows off a completely different reality on her fairly popular Instagram feed.
I liked how this book highlighted the difference between Instagram and reality but I really did not connect with the characters and found the story a bit too slow which made it a struggle to keep turning the pages. Unfortunately not for me.

Very clever book. At the outset it's very hard to like Erin very much. She appears vacuous and all 'style over substance'. It would be easy to dismiss her as a pathetic, whiney non-entity who deserves everything that happens to her. But keep reading and before long everything you assumed is wrong and the plot you had all figured out is entirely different. Took a while for the sharp, cutting edge to reveal itself but once it did I couldn't read fast enough.

FTC disclosure: I would like to thank Random House UK, Vintage for providing me with an advance reader copy via access to the galley for free through the NetGalley program.

I loved the tension in this one. I think anyone looking for a modern read with a bit of a twist of side story/pastime hobbies/dabbles you wouldn’t expect will enjoy this one.

The story
I really enjoyed how developmentally the story sparkled. This tension was kept tight in nature with good timing of reveal of the side stories, the peculiar elements, the intrigue of questioning if this was going to turn supernatural or stay within a realm of certain contextual, highly calculated, psychological play on the mind.

The story encompassed important issues of mother-child bonding, the waxes and wanes of having a public life on social media, and relational development, all of which I loved the insight, the perspective, the impact in the way it was portrayed.

I loved some of the social media effects pointed out in the story like forgetting that there are people in existence who don’t judge.

The atmosphere
The atmosphere was driven by the plot but I think could have had a little more spark to tying into the personality of the characters and the world they lived it, how they perceived it as a defining characteristic unique to each character.

Suspense
It was there in tension with the slower pacing at the beginning but became too slow and content-wise I would have liked to have seen signs of what was to come in a subtle way, hidden leads to red herrings, rather than focus on the plot as the driving force outright because when it was slow, it was really slow.

Pacing
Page 72 is when it picked up for me, almost DNF’d it around 30. The beginning mettled around the slowest parts, dramatizing the drama, extending the drama, dramatizing the drama.

Some of the scenes are a bit drawn out as far as pacing, some overdramatized.

The ending
The worst part for me was the ending. I liked certain aspects of how elements were tied together but then, spoiler alert, the coroner didn’t even request an inquest? All of that work to build a tight story and bam, no proper police procedural? It all came down to something that made a bit of sense, but when the end that would have been justified by the means, it concluded with a sloppy, overlooked police investigation? No satisfying remediation? OMG. #unsatisfyingendings

The writing
Great at keeping the tension and chapter transitions. Probably my favorite part of the writing.

The POV/tense felt inconsistent. I had often wondered if it might have been better served in first person or past tense perhaps. Times I connected with it, other times I had to think and I didn’t want to have to think that hard with this one.

It’s omnipresent action commentary but doesn’t dive deep enough into their thoughts and the separation is inconsistent. Some contrary to what I already thought and expected of the characters in my mind.

Descriptions
The beginning was rocky for me. It was pronoun verb, pronoun verb. Adjective noun, adjective noun.

I think there could have been a bit more creativity in the descriptions for a bit more something something. A bit more variety. Example, instead of middle-aged man, something like beginning to gray, faint roots of gray, gray at the temples, peppered beard, or beginning of some sort of facial lines, some sort of description to show rather than tell.

Atmospheric consistency in description was an issue for me. Like I imagine where this takes place in the hemisphere based off what I'm being told about the scene, but one day is described as cold January, yet descriptions of a grassy hill are noted. I just feel that if something is described in writing, it should reinforce the atmosphere. The feelings of a cold January were mentioned, but then to switch to a visual most would probably associate with summer was a bit weird for me. Grassy was unnecessarily mentioned again, no strength or purpose given to this. Would have probably been better served as withered lawn or frosted fields or dusting of frost on the mountainside or the windy draft bit my cheeks. I don't know, cold January, followed by grass (as in my visual of live, green, healthy grass), just didn't put me in the scene very well.

The characters
I don’t think you have to like every character, but spoiler alert, she’s kind of mean. And that would be ok, except I’m sure if that was the intent. There were certain disconnects between the characters, their actions, and dialogue. Especially toward the end. The two ladies became so squirrely with their trajectory. It became a game of I love you, I love you not. I love you, I love you not. The main, contempt for her son, there was this sort of this misplaced character arc where I wanted to be satisfied in my mind rather than this moral obligation to wrap it all together neatly at the end. And then the end, my thoughts already said, but characters didn't match or counter the strong emotion I wanted to see restitution with.

Kind if disconnections with interactions, it was hard to gauge where characters stand with each other. It was hard to make the connection of how the characters came to know each other from the beginning. It was more of a telling review style over hints of showing readers the information the author wanted us to have.

A lot of over-explanation and pointing out rationales of behavior and back story. Kind of come to know things about the characters a little too late.

Sometimes I felt like I was diving into a conversation I didn’t know anything about. There was quite a bit of repetition in the beginning, like Ground Hog’s Day movie repetition of activity.

Dialogue
And it was hard to follow the dialogue. Certain tensions of example argument suddenly jolted into a jovial conversation. Even in the dialogue the characters switched opinions. I thought one was thinking/leading to a certain way, the it’s suddenly they were contradictory.

Overall I think the suspense elements could have been strengthened by a few bits that would have made this story and the writing move from ok to fantastic. Plenty of the it factor was there from a creative aspect, but not executed as strong as it could have been for me. I’ll be curious to read more by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the arc of The Family Friend by C.C MacDonald.

3 star read- This was a quick read and a good read and well written but not really compelling or as thrilling i thought it would be but still a good book

This felt like it was going the same way as most Instagram mom stories but it definitely skipped in to an intensely strange and involved with witchcraft book.

Erin is a popular instamom and comes home from a retreat to find her husband has an old family friend from Australia to stay. He seems as unhappy about it as she does. Erin is having a hard time bonding with her baby boy Bobby, and Amanda is great with him.

It’s not going where you think it is. But it’s a hell of a ride.

This wasn't for me, so I couldn't finish it. I don't think there's anything wrong with it or it's badly written, etc. I think I have just read a few too many Insta/Influencer books recently.

Like the glossy, 'perfect' images on Instagram that disguise a very different reality, 'The Family Friend' starts off as a cautionary tale warning about the perils of Instagram, hiding a much darker core.

Buckle up, enjoy the ride. There's social media induced competitive bitching, FOMO, curated images and superficial friendships. Cringe at the hashtags, the addictive personalities desperate for that dopamine hit and be very grateful you haven't attempted to become an Influencer. Then try and work out whether Erin is suffering the side effects of her Instagram addiction; anxiety, disrupted sleep, low self esteem, or whether there really is someone determined to ruin her chance at making a career as an Influencer.

It's a fantastic escapist read, just what I needed during the miserable January lockdown and I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.