“More and more these days, it seemed the internet ran on negativity rather than connectivity”

FMFM follows MC influencer and blogger Coco as she stumbles upon the death of local resident Stacy, on request from her current clients she involves herself in the investigation and begins to help local detectives piece together just exactly what happened to Stacy and who is responsible.

The MC Coco was a difficult character to review as there were times I did not really like her and found her self-centred, and despite the fact that she was able to recognise her behaviour as harmful in places she did not really make much of an attempt to change it. However, I did like the fact that she was willing to put herself at risk to find Stacy’s killer, and her relationship with Hudson was quite sweet, as well as her friendships with Charlotte and Jasper.

There are a lot of things I liked about the book, such as the fact that throughout the book you are provided with not just the dark and negative side of social media but also the positive sides of what social media is capable of. Plus, Hudson’s embarrassment at other women flirting with him in front of Coco was quite sweet, and I like the fact that he did not reciprocate.

I really liked the books concept and was completely engrossed by the synopsis and the plot, however I felt this was overshadowed with Coco’s constant mention of her app “liveit” and social media page “trending topic” But the shock reveal was great, and I hadn’t expected the individual responsible at all, so that was a great twist.
Overall, it was a great little read, just for me there was too much emphasis on Coco’s influencer/blogger life, and with this being penned as a mystery I would have liked more of that.

This was your basic, run-of-the-mill murder mystery with a light setting and cast of characters. I'd hesitate to call it a cozy mystery, but it was one of those that may help you get out of a reading slump because it's quick and not too consuming. Coco wasn't my favorite, and I thought she could've been a little more relatable, but I guess that's the risk you take when you have an influencer as your main protagonist, haha.

#FollowMe for Murder by Sarah E.Burr is the first book in what is to be a Trending Topic Mystery series.

I really liked the premise and the idea of an influencer as a sleuth, it certianly is different from the usual jobs amateur sleuths hold.
What I didn't enjoy so much was the fact that the main character is pretty self absorbed, calculating and not a very nice person. She quite often told herself off for not being nice and bit self centered which I found human and didn't hold it against her.
I also didn't enjoy long monologues and overthinking and unnecessary explanations.
I liked reading about some aspects of her job but it soon became too much and I thought not relevant to the story.
I didn't mind that it was almost half of the book when she started to investigate. With first book of a new series I like when the author takes the time to properly introduce her character. Still this felt too long and I quickly lost interest although I was quite invested at first.

In order to pay for my book reading habits, I’ve worked in public relations/marketing for the past year or so now. It’s a job that’s less glamorous than it seems—just think of all the usual woes that come with working a client-facing job and you’ll understand what I mean.

In #FollowMe for Murder, the job becomes infinitely less glamorous when branding consultant Cordelia “Coco” Cline finds a dead body in her client’s yet-to-be-opened secondhand store. With no leads and under threat of being defunded, the police just aren’t moving fast enough for Once Used, Twice Buy to open in time. That is unless Cline can crack open the case herself.

Now, I’ve done the marketing thing and the journalism thing too, and I’ll be the first to admit I am in no way qualified to solve any kind of murder. The only thing I have going for me is my love for murder mysteries. I guess Cline must have missed the memo. But where would we be if we stuck to our job descriptions? For what it’s worth, Cline at least has the legwork down; in between trying to reschedule her clients’ grand opening and managing their social media, she’s knocking on doors and talking to the victim’s loved ones to catch the killer.

The mystery here is a pretty-straightforward one with few twists and turns, to the point where even I was able to guess the murderer’s identity midway through. #FollowMe for Murder would have benefitted from throwing more obstacles Cline’s way; let’s give her a red herring or two, a problem that can’t be solved by simply calling in a friend or her boyfriend.

With Cline being bang on the money every time, I was frankly a little bored at how easy the mystery was. There were no great jumps of logic that had to be made, just some groundwork. Maybe the police should be defunded after all, if they couldn’t figure this out on their own.

But maybe I’m a little too used to my Poirot, my Kindaichi, my Ryeland. #FollowMe for Murder is an easy read for anyone looking for a palette cleanser between books, a light-hearted—or as light-hearted as you can be with a body count—mystery for those who maybe need a handheld introduction to the genre.

I loved this refreshing new category in cozy mysteries - the social media influencer. Coco and her friend were fun and I learned a lot about marketing yourself through social media (and common sense). The mystery was interesting and kept me guessing until the very end. Bonus points for setting the book in Delaware, only the second cozy that I can think of that was set here (making the Read the USA challenge difficult). I look forward to reading more of these in the future.

I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.

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https://bookshop.org/books/followme-for-murder-trending-topic-mysteries/9781685120733

Publish Date: February 15th 2022

Coco Cline moved back to her hometown after achieving internet stardom. She runs the very successful Trending Topics Blog, the social media consulting firm Center of Attention, and solves murders? Coco becomes involved when she stumbles across the body of Stacey at her clients store. When they ask for her help, coco, Jasper (editor in chief of divulge magazine), Charlotte (owner of ) and Hudson, her newly promoted to night news anchor boyfriend will take on digging the dirt to uncover Stacey’s killer.

I really loved this book. The use of pop culture references made it super fun. While coco is a bit self centered the way the author @authorsaraheburr explained the logic behind her thinking made her very relatable. My favorite part is when she says that if bakers and librarians can solve murders on hallmark than a social media influencer could too. The other characters in the book Charlotte, Jasper, Hudson and even Amanda are delightful and entertaining. I am patiently waiting for the next installment in #trendingtopicsmysteryseries and I would happily read this book again.

Ps. Adding #follwmeformurder defiantly adds me to some FBI watchlist or something right?!

#followmeformurder #trendingtopicsmystery #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #cozymysteryseries #buylocal #supportsmallbusiness

I hate when a book is over. Especially a beautifully written book such as this. I loved the plot, the wit and the easy to follow writing done by Ms. Burr.
This book will leave you reading till the last page.

I loved the concept of influencer turned amateur sleuth. The mystery behind the murder kept me guessing till the end. Having said that, the protagonist - Coco Cline was too self-centered for my liking. Her expectations from her boyfriend (been together for over four years so she expected him to propose on their last dinner date) and her insecurity that her boyfriend is being recognized by people (Coco is supposed to be on the spotlight, not Hudson!) ruined the read for me a tad.

Overall, this was an okay read.

I made the mistake of reading “the cartographers” before this and I couldn’t help but compare them. It was a surface level murder mystery book that I guessed pretty good. Maybe my mind is messed up like that. But it’s a good beach read if you’re tired of the regular Rom-Coms!

#FollowMe for Murder was a light-hearted romp that really caught my attention because it had a plot that depended on the use of social media. It's a very updated cozy mystery since the main character, Coco Cline, is a media consultant and an influencer. Not sure I've ever read a cozy with those elements. I really enjoyed it.

Coco is just starting her career as a social media consultant and her first customers are Sean and Olivia Chen whose china store will be having a grand opening soon. Who knew Coco would arrive first for a meeting and find the dead body of their assistant, Stacy, in the store? This would take some amazing spin to keep Coco's career from beginning with a disaster. Their grand opening is only a week away. Not sure "no publicity is bad publicity" works in this case.

Burr uses an intriguing group of friends to help Coco investigate this homicide since her career depends on it. Even her worst enemy from high school, who made her life miserable back then, appears in the wealthy but fake country club world of Coco's clientele. Reminds one of how wonderful other peoples' lives look on social media. The snippy undertones of their conversations are hilarious. Investigating the murder victim via social media leads to some startling discoveries.

A subplot involves Coco's relationship with a boyfriend named Hudson, who is an anchor on a local television network. I would have liked to have seen a bit more about their relationship since it seemed like a great possibility as subplots go. He kept a second apartment while he lived with Coco, and it didn't seem to make a lot of sense. But perhaps he will have a bigger role in the next book in the series.

I felt this mystery was well-written, and I loved the social media angle. Glad to see Burr will be writing more books in this series. It is a refreshing concept that I haven't encountered before. Fun, light read that will keep you turning the pages.

Thanks to NetGalley and Level Best Books for allowing me to read this book and give an honest review.

A fun, quick read. If you go in knowing this isn't going to be a particularly deep book, you shouldn't be disappointed. Plus, I happen to love anything, plot-wise, social media related.

A social-media-esque murder mystery. A cosy mystery where a social media sensation finds herself in the middle of a murder scene and then goes on to solve it, at first to save her business and clients, and later just for justice. Again, a quick read which you can pick up while travelling or on vacations when you don't want to pick very heavy reads.

I have mixed feelings about this book as there were aspects that I loved and others that I had more of a lukewarm response to.
I liked that this is a modern and up to date twist on the traditional cozy mystery.
I've given it a solid four stars simply because I enjoyed but it was glaringly obvious from the clues given who the most likely culprits were so it didn't come as any surprise when it was all revealed. I also found the first chapter a bit of a slog to get through. I understand the whole concept of being a social media influencer so I didn't need a full chapter dedicated to explaining Coco's history in that respect.
But once I got past that the story became quite fast-paced and enjoyable. I liked the fact that she wasn't dating a police detective but I was surprised that she was so focused on why her boyfriend hadn't proposed yet. For a book set in today's real world, I felt that Coco could have been more modern in her personal life and more broad-minded. There was a lot of slut shaming going on in relation to the victim as well which I found old fashioned and eye rollingly unnecessary.
I loved the ending. It was suspenseful and humorous. Hudson really grew on me as the story unfolded as his regard for her certainly shone through despite Coco's insecurities.
I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the series.

What a fun take on the cozy-murder genre. I've seen very few social-media-focused murders where the victim isn't the social media star, so this was a great twist. Coco is smart, talented, and actually helpful to the case. A great cozy that's actually fast-paced and you will not want to put it down!

4/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Level Best Books, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#FollowMe for Murder, the first book in the brand-new Trending Topics Mystery series by Sarah E. Burr, is a fun-filled social media-centric cozy mystery. With today’s society obsessed with celebrities, cellphones, and tablets, and constantly checking their social media sites, Ms. Burr successfully weaves that obsession into a murder mystery. The protagonist, celebrity blogger Coco Cline, has launched a social media consulting firm and her very first clients end up with a murder victim in their store right before their grand opening. Talk about a PR nightmare! The store owners beg Coco to assist the local police in getting through the investigation so they can open their business on time. I loved that Coco uses social media pages to find suspects and clues, while learning more about the victim…who might not have been the sweet, upstanding citizen she purported to be. This only makes Coco more curious, so she delves deeper into the mystery instead of just giving some assistance to the police. With a tightly woven plot, there are suspects sussed out and red herrings thrown in to keep the reader guessing.

Ms. Burr writes great descriptions, so the reader feels like they’re right alongside Coco. She also captures Coco’s voice: young and enthusiastic. The characters surrounding Coco are well-developed. Although one in particular, Coco’s boyfriend, I felt detracted from the story with the amount of jealousy he inspired. All I can say is, I think Coco can do better for herself. Rounding out the supporting characters are Coco’s friends, Jasper and Charlotte. Their banter adds lightness to the mystery and their willingness to help Coco out solidifies their friendship. In addition to a well-thought-out mystery, great setting, and unique characters, Ms. Burr drops in tips for social media usage for businesses, which shows her thorough research into the field. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to Coco and her fledgling business next!

I received an e-arc of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.25/5 stars

Something lately has been calling me to cozy mysteries so when I saw this one on Netgalley and that social media would play a role in this book I knew that I needed to pick it up. This book mashes up small town feels, social media, and friendship rather nicely. I'm from a small town myself (even smaller than the one featured in this story) and I can say that it's accurate. People gossip and know everything in a blink of an eye and especially big news travels fast.

I did really enjoy this book with only a few minor things not quite hitting for me. The main one being our main characters love interest Hudson. He wasn't always the most supportive or understanding but then there were other times I was pleasantly surprised by his behavior. But there were a couple of bigger things where they didn't see eye to eye and it made me think our main character could do so much better.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that I had guessed the murderer and the possible motive behind it pretty early on which doesn't usually happen for me. But even with guessing it early on I still wondered if I was correct and if other people could be the potential murderer. I definitely still enjoyed myself and I think the friend group in this one is really nice. I even liked the addition of new friends in the end. Overall this was a fun, quick, cozy murder mystery.

A really enjoyable cosy mystery. I found it fast paced and it kept me intrigued. Coco and her friends made great amateur sleuths. I can't wait for the author to write more books in the series!

I truly enjoyed this book and I could not stop reading it! As I was reading along I kept coming up with my own theories of who it was and I was blind sighted in the end. I loved that the main character was not a perfect person and did in fact have her own issues with ego and an inferiority issue that was just sprinkled in the story but not made the main point. The only thing I would have liked to know is why the separate apartment was needed, however it would make a perfect bridge if this story had a sequel and a new murder was committed .

I so enjoyed this cozy mystery. While most books in this genre are formulaic, I found #FollowMe for Murder to be modern and interesting. Will recommend to my students.

This book starts off a bit slow, but once Coco begins investigating the murder, it does pick up and become more interesting. Overall a fun mystery if you have some spare time to read.