What it Seems by Emily Bleeker Book Review! #WhatItSeems #NetGalley

Bestelling author pens page-turning novel of suspense about the sinister truth hiding

Adopted by her controlling foster mother at the age of eight, twenty-year-old Tara has seen little of the outside world. Lonely, punished for the slightest offense, her only distraction comes from watching the Feely family’s online videos. They’re an affectionate vlogging quintet and an internet sensation. Most important, they are Tara’s mental refuge. Then the opportunity arises for them to be something more. When Tara accepts an internship with the close-knit clan, they’re her escape.

Daring to run away, and defying Mother’s rules, Tara is welcomed into the loving fold. But the more Tara gets to know them, the more she realizes that not everything is as it seems. As secrets slowly surface, the image of the perfect family begins to crack. For Tara, it’s another trap.

To claim a life of her own, she’ll need a new escape plan. Because as the show’s popularity explodes, reaching even more fascinated viewers, Tara can’t shake the feeling that Mother is among their ranks. She’s watching. She’s waiting. She’ll never let her go.

What It Seems

Emily Bleeker | March 17, 2020 | Lake Union Publishing

Paperback | 978-1542043748 | $10.99

Ebook | B07T23V938 | $4.99

Audio | 978-1799723141 | $14.99

Genre: Psychological Thriller

More about

Emily Bleeker

Emily Bleeker is the best-selling author of five novels. Combined, her books have reached over a million readers. She is a two-time Whitney Award finalist, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and was recently listed as one of the top 100 Kindle authors “of all time.” And her first novel, Wreckage, is soon to be a pilot on ABC.

Emily lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with her four kids and a growing menagerie of animals. Between writing and being a mom, she attempts to learn guitar, sings along to the radio (loudly), performs with a local improv troupe, and embraces her newfound addiction to running. 

https://emilybleeker.com/
My Review

"I run my hand over my ever-swelling belly. The ill-fitting maternity dress is almost too small on me at this point. And it's purple. I feel more like a love-starved singing dinosaur than a grown woman."

As this is the first look that starts the beginning of the book, sounds pretty normal, a young woman pregnant but is it really? No, she is only pretending to be pregnant so her and Mother can go and steal stuff and sell it online. Twenty-year-old Tara had been adopted 8 years prior by a woman who she hoped could be a real mother to her as she lost her own. But life with Mother is not all it is cracked up to be. She is punished for the smallest infraction, especially if she does not do what is expected of her.

When she is locked in her room, she has her computer for company and takes to watching YouTube videos of a vlogging and internet sensation family. When she finds out that they are looking for an intern to help out for the summer she is excited to apply. She is very shy and thinks that she did not do well in the interview but is excited to find that she was actually chosen as the intern. To do this she needs to run away from Mother and never be able to go back. She takes the position and finds that the family is not what she thought they were. But what is the perfect family, was it something that Tara was hoping for?

This book is a page-turner and the end blew me away! Never saw that coming! A story that is well thought out and suspenseful. It is the first book that I had read by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I received a copy of this book for review purposes only.