This is the 1st piece of writing I have read by the author and wow its outstanding, I loved this 1st chapter of this book and can't wait to get the book to read the rest of it, I won't ruin this review with any spoilers but wow what an book it tells the story of a MP called Emma and her life .

many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book

Reputation by Sarah Vaughan
This novel is a fascinating insight into the world of a female politician and also an examination of the power of the media to create or destroy a reputation. It opens with Emma Webster, an MP for Portsmouth, giving an interview to a paper she feels will be sympathetic to her viewpoint. The photoshoot portrays her as a confident, powerful woman and there is an immediate backlash from certain males.
She is abused by internet trolls, the media and even some members of her own political party. Then at her usual surgery she is attacked by an ex-army veteran who is angry at how little she does to support soldiers returning from war torn countries. He accuses her of only focussing on issues related to women.
The story is told from a few different viewpoints there is her daughter, her husband’s new wife, Michael her contact at a paper. It is a compelling story about the effect that stories in the public domain can have upon individuals lives. It also examines the deeply ingrained misogyny which pervades every-day life. A strong woman is thought of as a suitable person for some men to talk about raping and maiming!
It how easy it is to destroy a reputation and how terrible the impact of social media trolls can be on a person’s mental health. It also tackles the very thorny issue of bullying in school and how devastating this can be. There is a terrific description of the court case which ensues and it conveys how every detail of your life is forensically examined once you step the wrong side of the law.
You are kept gripped to the end and the twists are unpredictable but definitely believable. Sarah Vaughan is an accomplished writer and throughout I felt as if I was in very safe hands. I loved her other novels and I will be highly recommending this at my various book groups.
Many thanks to Sarah Vaughan, to Simon and Schuster and to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

When Emma had already made so many sacrifices to realise her dream of becoming a politician, things take a turn for the worse. Being stalked, blindly not realising her daughter is being bullied and getting herself personally mixed up with a reporter all lead to trouble. When the reporter who was trying to expose her family affairs ends up dead in her London home, she is the likely suspect. Fighting to clear her name and realising who her true friends are, takes its toll. Can she survive this and get her life back on track? Fast paced with some twists along the way. A great read.

A former teacher turned politician, Emma has been through a lot and has given up a lot for her career.
Her daughter Flora is also learning the hard way, she faces a lot of bullying in her school. When they each are dealing with their challenges something unexpected happens – a man is found dead in Emma’s house, she was afraid of the man and all reasons could be thought of as to why Emma would want to get rid of him. Emma is now facing the reality of having to fight for herself, her reputation!
This book brilliantly talks about current issues – bullying, how a woman has to learn to survive in this world and has to learn to stand for herself.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster, UK and Netgalley for approving the ARC

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

a woman mp
revenge porn
journalist

an interesting storyline about a woman mp who is trying to bring the full force of her might to change legislation on revenge porn but as her career in politics goes along so does the daily abuse from online twitter and facebook gets worse, she is trolled left right and centre and with the imminent threat of acid being thrown in her face, she is constantly on edge

so when a man is found at the bottom of the stairs in her house at first the police believe her and then she arrested for murder and so begins her court case

a topical read dealing with arm chair warriors and mps and the struggles they have with online abuse...

Reputation by Sarah Vaughan is a powerful, dramatic story that deals with contemporary issues in a thoroughly gripping way.

The rise of Emma Webster from schoolteacher to campaigning MP has been unexpectedly swift and not without some personal cost, as her marriage has ended and her daughter's piano teacher moves into her former home.

Emma spends half of her time in a house-share with some parliamentary colleagues in London and the other half close to where she used to live to be close to her daughter, Flora who is having a hard time at school. Emma's dealings with a tabloid reporter advance her campaign to change the law but is there a price to pay?

Vaughan has crafted another intense thriller that really entertains whilst raising awareness of real issues.

Reputation - Sarah Vaughan. New book from The Anatomy of a Scandal writer I thought this would be a light zippy read but I found it a bit dull. It's about a female MP who is getting lots of hate and threats for pushing a domestic violence bill forward and how she ends up in court on a murder charge. The book spent far too long scene setting and repeating and illustrating how awful it is for a female MP out and about (it must be but don't need reminding for chapter upon chapter)without getting on with the murder story it teased in the opening page.

Another brilliant book by Sarah Vaughan.
Loved this tense, stylish thriller it kept me hooked from the start. Would highly recommend.

Reputation, a simple word that can make you do anything to maintain it clear, even killing? Possibly, it depends on how important is your Reputation.
This is a slow paced thriller, told between different voices helping the reader to see the full story. I don’t think we can say that this is an easy story; yes, the main character, Emma, is a high profile politician, but her desire is to protect her daughter, to keep her safe. Is it not what every parent wants to do? To try to heal our children’s wounds and repair the damage they’ve done?
Being honest, I don’t think this story seen from the perspective of a male character would be the same, their reputation can be healed or covered on the contrary as women that they will have the stigma for the rest of their life. Is it fair? No, and that’s what this story tries to show us.
Emma’s daughter, Flora, is bullied at school and as an act of vengeance does something she should never do, but I am sure that if her mother wasn’t a politician the things would have been different. For sure. So, when the journalist that wants to write an article about Flora’s story appears dead at Emma’s house, everyone suspects she did it on purpose. Accident or murder? This is what you’ll have to decide. But, at the same time, if you were on her skin, you are a woman, being bullied everyday by messages, co-workers, journalists… What would you do to protect your daughter?
Are you ready to protect your “Reputation”?

You can’t really beat Sarah Vaughan for this type of story, can you? She grabs the Zeitgeist by its throat and somehow manages to render it even more sinister and all too believable.

Another novel in which not a single character is likeable, and yet it doesn’t matter. We want to know what happens to them, how they are affected by this tale of an MP and a tabloid journalist ... and a horrible old university lecturer whose ghost will never be fully put to rest.

An absolutely stunning book, and I’m grateful to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC. Would recommend to anyone.

Excellent book, very apt for our times. It highlights the abuse MPs are subject to especially by social media trolls. This would certainly put me off becoming an MP!
I am not a huge fan of courtroom dramas but that is just a personal thing, the majority of the story was excellent. I did feel for poor Emma who was just trying to do her best in her job and as a mother, was not impressed with her former best friend Caroline! The majority of my sympathy went to her daughter Flora who suffered horrific bullying at school from her former best friend and I felt the consequences of the actions of the young girls in the story were very unfair..
Certainly a multi-layered story, and I like the way the same scenes are retold from individual points of view.
One thing I picked up on was that Mike was a widower with a teenage son, however, later on in the story the mother/wife seems to reappear again? I could be wrong right enough!

An interesting book, it keeps you gripped from the outset. It gives an interesting view on how public figures are treated in person and by the media and builds its characters and plot well

4.5* --> 5*

Goodness gracious me, talk about a compelling story!

Let’s set the scene. Someone’s lying unmoving at the bottom of the stairs. Someone else is staring down from the top of the stairs. Who are these two characters and how did they get here? Once the story starts, it doesn’t really take a genius to figure that out. But the why is more important than the who and to truly understand how things came to pass, we first have to go back to watch past events unfold.

If you hadn’t yet guessed from the title, ‘Reputation‘ is all about … reputation. In Emma’s world as an MP, reputation is everything but it takes very little to destroy that reputation completely. When a young girl takes her own life, Emma sets about lobbying for a new law that will protect women and girls from online abuse or revenge porn. Meanwhile Emma’s daughter makes a mistake when pushed to the brink by bullies at her school. And before Emma realises it, that reputation she’s been trying so hard to uphold, comes under threat.

This clever multi-layered story is, unfortunately, very much of our time. The online abuse Emma has to deal with on a daily basis made my skin crawl. If you’ve spent ten seconds on social media, you realise how realistic and completely believable all of these comments are and they are positively terrifying. But it’s not just about Emma. There are various characters and thus various points of view, each dealing with reputation challenges in their own way.

‘Reputation‘ combines the dirty game of politics with the sleazy world of journalism and ends up as a tense court case. It’s remarkably easy to imagine yourself ending up in this exact same position after everything Emma has to deal with. Never mind worrying about your reputation when it so often feels like your life is in danger. I do enjoy a good court case, although they are mostly utterly tedious and incredibly repetitive. And yet, I found myself completely hooked, putting myself on the jury bench and trying to determine guilt or innocence.

Needless to say the entire tale is immensely thought-provoking and ‘Reputation‘ is truly excellent. I dare say it’s Sarah Vaughan’s best to date and I for one absolutely can’t wait to see what’s next from this exciting author.

Another great book from Sarah Vaughan, a well written and thought provoking novel that really hits the zeitgeist of the pressures of being a girl and of being a well known, particularly political, woman in contemporary UK society. The courtroom drama that plays out just adds to the tension and the need to stay up late to finish it!
thank you to netgalley and Simon and Schuster for an advance copy of this book

Designed to make you think this is a gripping story exploring reputations; perceived and real, as well as trying to protect them at all costs and how easily they can be destroyed. The characters, whilst not particularly engaging, were well developed coming under ever more pressure until they react on the spur of the moment. This was told mainly from MP Emma's perspective but also other POVs, and across two timelines - the present day court case (which I really enjoyed) and past events leading to trial. This did mean, however, there was some repetition with the same points made again and again. I wasn't sure about the ending either but overall a good read.

This was a compelling and timely read. While it read like a fast-paced thriller, it managed to draw characters that were three dimensional and called on the reader's empathy. in places, I wondered if it was far fetched but reading around the subject was shocked to read just how plausible the events of this novel are. Very much of our time in all its shocking brutality - gripping read and deserves to be a best seller

Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC

I found this to be a solid 'good read'. A political, legal thriller with interesting characters. Emma is an MP who fights for the rights of women and this story encompasses that role, family issues and cyber stalking.
I did struggle to maintain interest at times, to be honest, but, it's worth sticking with and I'm grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review.

An unusual setting but very relevant. Multiple layers and captures your attention and keeps it to the very last page. A modern female, gaining a very visible public profile, broken family and social media stalking.
I felt my heart racing in time with the anxiety levels of the characters.
An engrossing read.

Interesting complex thriller which was a quick fast paced read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an Arc in exchange for an honest opinion

Emma Webster is a backbencher but she gains publicity after a Guardian interview with striking photos and especially when she makes the case of a girl who committed suicide after being cyberbullied with a private video of her ex-partner her prime topic. But then, things go quickly down the hill, she is harassed and threatened increasingly by frustrated men, her daughter Flora becomes the victim of bullying at school and online and makes a huge mistake. Emma, too, loses her temper and thus becomes the prime suspect in a murder case. How could this all go so wrong when she just wanted to protect her own and her daughter’s reputation?

I totally adored Sarah Vaughan’s novels “Notes on a Scandal” and “Little Disasters”. Her latest, “Reputation”, too, did definitely not disappoint. The author greatly used an important topic to fire up the plot and brilliantly outlines how, still in 2022, there is much more men can do than women and how fragile their public picture is. With Emma, she created an authentic protagonist whose point of view shows the contradictory feelings and constraints a woman in a public position is under.

On the one hand, the novel is a murder mystery in which you are repeatedly surprised as little bits and pieces surface unexpectedly making things appear in a different light. On the other hand, the novel lives on the personal perspective of Emma and her daughter being subject to bullying and harassment. Sarah Vaughn greatly develops the characters who come under ever more pressure until it gets too much and they do things they themselves would have considered unimaginable. The female characters are brilliantly developed since they have mixed feelings which make it all but easy to decide what to do and thus underline that life is far from being just black and white.

A great read with an important topic that outlines how cruel people can be and how important it is to have good friends you can rely on.