This book was so good I couldn't bear to keep reading it at points. I was so worried for Emma, annoyed with her for being naive etc. that I literally couldn't bear to find out what happened next. But I kept coming back because this is a tight paced, gripping, unfortunately realistic terrifying story that is an unmissable read.

3.75⭐️ which I have rounded up.
A psychological /legal thriller by a UK author, who was previously a journalist. A new author to me.
It’s the story of Emma Webster a labour MP and mother. She is described as a conviction politician.
It feels relevant to modern politics, and the trolling of people by social media keyboard warriors.

There are various POV. The main one being Emma. I found the writing style very formal.

After an intriguing prologue It starts slowly setting the scene of the life of a politician, the pressures on home life, the bullying and threats. It has a decent level of anguish and fear instilled in the build up. We see a couple of catalyst incidents which commences a chain reaction.

The characters felt real even though I didn’t like any of them. The weighting is more character than plot. My dislike of Emma grew throughout the book.

The second half which concentrates on the court case I found very dry, and l struggled to stay engaged. There was a lot of repetition.
The ending brings all the lose ends together.
It’s a decent read but not a favourite.

I absolutely loved #AnatomyOfAScandal so couldn't wait to read Sarah Vaughan's latest; #Reputation, a political suspense. The opening chapters almost turned me off with the Twitter messages but of course this was setting the context for the horrors of being a woman politician who dares to speak out in today's political climate. A woman who is also the mother of a teenage daughter. Very topical and frightening, and although for me, not as riveting as 'Anatomy of a Scandal', still excellent. Thankyou to the NetGalley, the publisher, and outstanding author, Sarah Vaughan, for the Advance Digital Review copy.

This was a very compelling read covering many topical issues about the safety of women in public life ,bullying and the dangers of online trolls. Its main character is an ambitious MP,Emma Webster, who has sacrificed her marriage and relationship with her 14 year old daughter in order to pursue a career in politics.The cost of this soon becomes obvious when a tabloid journalist with whom she was previously close threatens to publish a story about her daughter and this leads to a series of events which end with Emma being tried for murder.
The courtroom scenes are gripping and had me staying up late to find out what happens.It certainly gives a good account of what life is like for politicians and made me wonder why anyone wants to be an MP.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.

I honestly thought I was going to DNF this until I reached 38% and it FINALLY picked up, and even then it wasn't until the court case began that I approached it with anything like enjoyment. I know a lot of the beginning was necessary ("speaks to the defendants state of mind your honour" - yes, I have seen way more American legal dramas than British!) but it really felt like it dragged on.

The book is very timely and raises some important issues about the overwhelming misogyny women face both online and in person, especially those in the public eye, but it's very heavy handed about it. Even I, a woman who cares deeply about these issues, felt browbeaten, so I'm not sure how those more ambivalent will take it.

Anyway, I found the book to be a very mixed bag but the courtroom scenes really elevated it. Once I reached the halfway mark it became truly gripping and hard to put down. Those used to a final jaw dropping twist may be disappointed, but those who enjoy a well argued courtroom drama should be quite satisfied.

What an excellent novel. It had me gripped from the start and was so true to life. It really hits home how cruel people can be to each other, and how easily the aggressive press can destroy someone’s reputation in a millisecond. I had so much empathy with Emma and could feel her pain throughout the book. The trial episodes were so well written I thought I was there, and the part where Gayle Parsons testifies was exceptionally brilliant and really made me think about how much (especially) women MPs have to put up with. This was a tense story with a fantastic ending. I felt there were times when there was a bit too much unnecessary repetition, and the only other thing that disappointed me were the numerous errors. Not including the missing hyphens (which I put down to Kindle’s fault) I noted 50+ wrong or missing words that caused me to pause and think and therefore spoiled a smooth read. For example, ‘… laceration on his check …’, and ‘… it was first time …’. I realise this is an ARC, and I can accept and ignore the odd one or two errors, but 50+ is too many. I would be more than happy to type them all out and send the list to the publishers for correction if someone will notify me where to send it. I don’t think for a second they will!
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. It was a great read.

Ok, confession time. I was drawn to this book due to the most unusual reason. I grew up as Emma Webster. It was my name for my first 21 years. Seeing those first few lines of the blurb was haunting, yet I felt compelled to read it.
I think having now read it, I am even more haunted.

This book could not be released at a more apt time for its subject matter. At a time where MPs, particularly female MPs are threatened on a regular basis, women's safety remains dangerous, tabloids rule the roost and social media/explicit images litter our worlds, Vaughan has encapsulated all of this into one thrilling read,

Hooked from the very first sentence, I was torn between wanting to race through this at an enormous pace to get to the conclusion, yet also slow down to devour every single word thoughtfully. This is such clever writing. I could not take my eyes off the page.

The courtroom scenes note every detail, movement, remark. It is chilling yet captivating. I felt I was sat in the room watching the reactions unfold moment by moment.

The points of view alternate in this too, including Emma, her daughter Flora and Flora's step mother Caroline to name a couple. This add layers and depths to the read and as more revelations spill out, makes for riveting reading. This also expresses a lot of emotions, Flora reacts to being bullied, Emma's threats put her on high alert. Fear driven by women has no place to go in a society where public commentary is everywhere and almost too accessible.

There is so much to think about in this read.
Addictive, chilling, intense.

Deeply topical for the current moment, done in a really interesting way. I really enjoyed that it leans into everyone's flaws. It's a booked packed full of imperfect people who make questionable decisions. And yet you can understand what drives them, even in their mistakes. It did keep the surprises up and kept adding to the story throughout.

My one issue is that it starts to get a little repetitive. It feels more like the author had concepts they wanted to address rather than a fully developed plot, so we end up fully centred around a handful of key moments. That makes sense given the situation our protagonist finds herself in but it's not so interesting as a reader. Continually returning to not only the same themes but the exact same incidents got a bit wearing.

Nevertheless, it has a lot to say about misogyny, the pressure of the public eye, surveillance culture, and the harm of online trolling. There couldn't be a more appropriate time to release something like this, and writing it from the angle of an MP is a particularly adept move. Definitely sets it apart from the crowd and I am glad to have read it. Thanks to Simon & Schuster UK for the ARC.

A novel that details the consequences of the Internet, some being negative, like online bullying, as well as positive ones, and it raises our awareness of these. Emma is a relatively new Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. She is divorced from David, supplanted by Caroline as the new Mrs Webster, and has a 14 year old daughter. The author weaves a terrific plot which moves at a steady pace, then goes faster. Emma is increasingly trapped by the publicity surrounding her in her profession and the novel highlights the safety issues that all people in her profession face. I particularly liked the characters in this novel, they are all so different and all believable. I recommend the book as a brilliant read.

This is an amazing read. Emma is a young labour MP but there is a body at the bottom of her stairs. We know this from the start but then we go back to the time that led up to her being charged with murder.
Emma does an interview in a Sunday newspaper that paints her as a very ambitious and sexy woman and this leads her to start campaigning for women’s rights over online abuse. Mike is a journalist who she has a one night fling with and it is his murder she is tried for. The court scenes are really well done and an exciting read. I won’t spoil the conclusion but the trial and the workings of parliament are a fascinating part of the story.
This is both a thriller and an exciting look at our parliament and what women have to go through every day that there are there..

Another highly readable intelligent thought-provoking book from Sarah. I thought the book was very grown-up all the way through in how it tackled the issues. Emma is a truly troubled woman and I didn’t know what to believe for a good part of the book. The court scenes were so vivid it felt I was actually in the court room itself and yes my heart was pounding reading them. The story deserved a twist and it got one! A very very good book which I am sure I shall remember long after I’ve read the final page. With thanks to the publisher for an early copy to read and review.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. Having read a previous book by this author I was looking forward to reading this one and I wasn't disappointed. A really good story and I thought I had worked out what had happened but I was wrong and I certainly was not expecting the end.

Emma Webster is a promising Opposition MP who is making an impact on Parliament with her campaign for victims of revenge porn to be given the right to anonymity. Mike Stokes, the Political editor of The Chronicle, seeks her help to facilitate a meeting with the family of Amy, who committed suicide following revenge porn. She agrees, believing that he could be trusted and knowing that wider publicity would help her campaign..
Flora, Emma's teenage daughter lives with her father and his new partner, spending weekends with Emma. who is not picking up Flora's deteriorating relationships with her school friends or indeed her growing resentment of the demand Emma's job places on her. Is this a ticking time bomb?
One afternoon Emma returns to the apartment she shares with two other female MPs. and is surprised to find the lights are out and the security system does not activate.. In the Hall, she senses a presence but by the time she has found the fuse box and the lights on there is a body at the foot of the stairs to the basement. It's Mike Stokes! How is he there and why? Emma is subsequently charged with his murder.
Sarah Vaughan provides a vivid picture of aspects of an MP's life, with pressures on time, priorities and relationships. There are threats and abuse through social media to be endured. Couple this with a murder charge leaves everyone seeking to understand just what is going on. Does anyone know the whole story?....What is the truth? Will justice be done and what does the future hold? And so the the Trial.
Reputation is an excellent political thriller and hard to put down as the tensions rise. It is another potential 'best seller'. Congratulations and thanks to Sarah for the quality of her writing and her attention to detail with the intricate webs she weaves.
Oh,... for the outcome of the Trial you will have to read the book. You wont regret it.
Highly recommended..

I really enjoyed Anatomy of a Scandal and waited in anticipation to read Reputation as it sounded like a similar concept. I really enjoyed the introduction to Emma and how her job as an MP consumed her, particularly as the novel progressed. There were some really interesting characters here and I liked how the book was presented from multiple narratives. It covered very topical subjects, namely women's safety/revenge porn, which I'm sure will resonate with many readers. I loved the pulsating tension throughout the novel and did find it gripping. It was well-structured and the climatic courtroom scenes were good. Would recommend.

Reputation is a real page turner. I highly recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this advance copy of this book.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: nada
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

The is a brisk, competent thriller with an extremely compelling court case at the centre of it: basically, and this isn’t shade, for everyone who really got into Anatomy of a Scandal (and that was literally gazillions) this is more of the same. For me, I think I admired Anatomy of a Scandal more than I really loved it—which, thinking about it, doesn’t make me an ideal person to review Reputation. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognise an excellently put-together page-turner when I encounter it.

The book opens with The Guardian publishing an interview with Labour backbencher, Emma Webster. It focuses on her feminist political agenda, particularly tightening the laws around revenge porn, and comes accompanied by a bold photograph of her in red lipstick and a leather jacket. Her attractiveness and her feminism make her an immediate target of hate groups and online trolls, resulting in a barrage of (sexualised) threats against which there is precious little the police and government and her own office can do to protect her. As Emma’s sense of confidence and personal safety unravel in this highly pressured environment, she is soon implicated in the death of a journalist she was previously close to.

Reputation is a self-consciously zeitgeisty look at how we treat women in the public eye (spoiler: we treat them badly) that also touches upon bullying, sexual double-standards, revenge porn, misogyny, and the impact of patriarchy upon public institutions (like Westminster and the legal system). I will say that the reality of Emma’s life—having to sit with bottles of water on her desk in case of an acid attack, the fitting of anti-explosive letterbox—is pretty horrifying on its own terms: I think it’s a case of knowing in abstract that this is the likely the situation for women in positions of high public scrutiny, but having it relentlessly detailed made the reality of it inescapable. And, for me, these (along with the court case itself) were the most successful elements of the book.

Like Anatomy of a Scandal, Reputation is told from multiple points of view, but I found the choices of perspective more utilitarian than I did in Anatomy of a Scandal. Without wanting to spoil a different book, Anatomy is centred a rape trial, and the story is narrated in terms by the prosecutor, the accused (another MP), and the wife of the accused. Here we get Emma, Emma’s teenage daughter Flora, the journalist, and Caroline, the woman Emma’s husband divorced her for. Emma’s by far the most vivid voice, the others feeling to me less well-realised, as if they existed primarily to drive the story forward, rather than as whole people in their own right. It’s been a while since I read Anatomy, but I recall James’s sections (that’s the MP, accused of rape) having an infuriating consistency to them that both fitted his role in the story and felt true to his character. I liked having Caroline’s perspective in theory, because it allowed her to develop beyond her role in Emma’s life as The Other Woman, but I … I don’t know what was going with Mike (the dead journalist) at all. I don’t know if I was meant to, but if I wasn’t meant to, why include a couple of lack-lustre sections from his POV at all?

The other plotline I felt was slightly underbaked was that of Simon Baxter, a man who is very aggressive with Emma because he wants her to petition for better treatment of soldiers returning from overseas. This is something Emma disregards, either because Simon comes across as threatening in a context of her constantly being threatened, or because she is so focused on the issues she wants to push (specifically the revenge porn, but she has other feminist policies in mind for the future). Speaking of questionable POVs we do get a chapter of two of Simon but he’s basically just “I’m going to stalk this bad woman until she cares about my son with PTSD”; and then later the son kills himself and Emma takes out a restraining order on Simon.

And the truth is, I wasn’t sure how to think about this, or how the book wanted me to think about this. Because, uh, I think we’re all agreed that young killing people themselves is a bad thing, it’s just revenge porn disproportionately affects young women, and insufficient access to mental health care for veterans disproportionately affects young men (though, let me be clear, women also serve in the army, and men can be the victim of revenge porn). I wondered if I was being invited to see parallels here—to Simon as a father who wants to protect his son, much as Emma is a mother who wants to protect her daughter—but Emma really does not give a fuck throughout the entire book, nor does it give her a single qualm that she doesn’t. Not that I think she should have to give a fuck when someone approaches her in a manner that is aggressive and makes her feel threatened: but then it is clear to Simon Baxter that Emma isn’t going to listen to him from the outset of their meeting. A perspective that could very well be rooted in misogyny but turns out to be actually true.

Similarly, much like the lawyer in Anatomy of a Scandal, it turns out that Emma has a personal stake in her revenge porn policies over and beyond wanting to do right by one of her constituents or right in general. And, again, that’s slightly complicating I think. Is the Simon Baxter subplot a nod to “patriarchy harms everyone” or does it inadvertently imply that women only care about women’s issues and men only care about men’s issues? Or that women only care about women’s issues when they’re directly linked to their own experiences? Of course, now, I’ve written an entire paragraph about dude problems in a book that is very explicitly centred on women. So, uh, well done me.

In any case, I did find this an engaging, carefully structured read. I just wish I’d come out of it more certain about what questions it wanted to me to be asking, but that’s as much as to do with me as the book itself.

I found Reputation to be a little slow going at first but after the a couple of chapters I was hooked.

Emma Webster is a politician who is permanently in the public eye. Death threats, abusive emails and trolling seem the norm to her now but her personal life is suddenly thrust into the spotlight and Emma finds herself fighting for more thank hysterical her career.

Gripping and brilliantly written I can highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster and the author for the chance to review.

I loved Anatomy of a Scandal, it’s one of my favourite books of recent years, so was really excited to read Reputation.

Reputation focuses on Emma Webster, a Labour MP, who appears to be a rising star within the political world. She’s recently been profiled in The Guardian and is dedicated to a campaign to change the law on revenge porn. She’s also been the target of several abusive and threatening communications. And now she’s being accused of the murder of a tabloid journalist…

I really enjoyed this book and thought the storytelling was excellent - the way the tale unraveled was very well done. We hear the story from various points of view, drawing upon the testimony of the major players, before we land on the truth at the end. I guessed the way it was going but it didn’t ruin the book for me at all.

The pacing didn’t feel particularly fast but always left me wanting more - I found it difficult to put down and always needed ‘one more chapter’. It’s gripping and exciting (especially throughout the court case), and maintained my interest throughout.

I know Anatomy of a Scandal will be on Netflix soon, and I can see this working really well as a TV series or film too.

Really great work yet again from Sarah Vaughan and can’t wait to find out what she does next.

I expected to really enjoy this book but sadly I can't say that I did. Whilst the writing style was good the storyline was laborious and dragged after about the first 20%. The same points made over and over and the second half of the trial felt like I sat through the whole trial; I found myself skimming over most of it. The characters weren't particularly likeable, which I don't mind but I didn't connect or find them engaging at all. The ending was very predictable, which I anticipated about 25% into the book. Sorry, but not for me.

I loved Anatomy of a Scandal and was hoping to be wowed again. Unfortunately I found this novel dragged on and really laboured the points it was trying to make. Yes these topics need to be highlighted and talked about but it felt like it became so dreary. So I didn’t care what happened to Emma and her daughter.
It made life in politics seem as nasty and misogynistic as I imagine it is.