Look Closer by Stephanie Rogers

Sarah is broke abut cannot resist a little more online shopping. After all, one can never have too many bags, right? And as for relationships, well, she wasn’t really looking, but how did she manage to snog Chris? He’s well fit and has girls throwing themselves at him, so why has he chosen her? Strange that her flatmate doesn’t like him, though. Then there is Adam. He wants to be more than a friend, but Sarah just doesn’t feel that way.

 

As Sarah decides to start a vlog and show off her baking talents with the world, she realises just how broke she is so has decided to make herself feel better she’ll do a little online shopping… but window shopping only. Put the items in her cart, look at them and wish for them, then delete the cart. But when the same items start showing up at her door as gifts, there is only one way a person could have known about them. She was hacked! After investigating further, she finds that her webcam has been hacked too, leaving her worried about the fact that her laptop is on and open at all times – including when she sleeps and undresses.

 

Thus begins a battle of wills – the perp to cover themselves and for Sarah to find out who did this. The problem is the perp has no issues getting rid of anything standing in the way of Sarah becoming his for life…

 

While you hear of cyberstalking, it’s very different reading it from the mind of the stalker and how they justify it. It’s scary to think that you have control over when your webcam is being used but there are those who are able to hack in and find out every detail of your life. Not just by watching you, but reading every keystroke you make.

 

The author has done a fantastic job of bringing a gripping thriller to life, with the right amount of suspense, romance, and psychological warfare to keep you glued throughout the book. The mark of a good book is feeling so engrossed in it that it’s like you are watching a pantomime and I kept wanting to yell “Look behind you!”

 

The only thing that detracted from the great style the book was written in was the missing comma in vocative case (comma before/after person being addressed in direct speech). This was inconsistent in its use.

 

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and admire how the pieces were put together and that the author explains the sequence of some of the hacking events to make it that much more believable.