#EricThornObsessed

Follow Me Back and Tell Me No Lies by A.V. Geiger

Series Summary:

This is a story of Love, Obsession, Jealousy, and Murder.  This is the story of what happens when people become obsessed with the object of their fantasies.  It is the story of Tessa Hart and Eric Thorn.  They meet through twitter, and fall in love while direct messaging each other.  But when they finally meet in real life, all hell breaks loose and things come crashing down around them.  Told through tweets, direct messages and police transcripts this is a thriller for the digital age. 

Tell Me No Lies ARC received from Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley for an honest review.  Publication date June 5, 2018.

Confession:

Both of these books are super fast reads.  I think I did both of them in a couple of days.  The plot is very fast paced and fascinating, quite the page turners.  I was completely compelled to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.  

Tessa was a very interesting character, she has anxiety and because of something that happened to her at a summer writing institute, she has become a recluse, refusing to leave her house.  She becomes totally obsessed with teen pop star Eric Thorne and spends her days following him and his fans on Twitter and other social media.  She also writes fan fiction about him.  I liked Tessa and felt her to be a very sympathetic character.  I totally understand her paranoia and anxiety about being watched and observed by strangers.  The fact that we are not told what exactly happened to her earlier that summer until quite late in the story,  makes her paranoia and anxiety all the more interesting.  What could possibly have happened to her?  But she does end up being stronger than she thinks.  

Eric is the newest teen heart throb that every young girl dreams about.  But he feels trapped by his record contract, and doesn’t understand why all these girls just fantasize about them.  He definitely has an anxiety disorder, seeing murder in every fans eyes.  He decides to troll one of these fans on twitter which ends up backfiring on him.  He ends up falling for this fan and will do anything to help her and to meet her.  I liked Eric a lot and I don’t pretend to know or understand what it is like to be a rock star, but you can’t help but feel sorry for him and understand his anxiety and paranoia as well.

The romance between Tessa and Eric was very sweet and well done.  I especially liked that Tessa didn’t even realize that the person she was talking to was a guy at first.  Eric uses the name Taylor, which of course could be either.  The DM’s when it is revealed to Tessa that Taylor is a guy, is done very well.  I liked how quickly they develop a friendship that is supportive and caring.  It isn’t until almost the end of the book, that they realize the feelings going deeper. 

The plot of Follow Me Back is a little slower than the second book.  It mostly is about how Tessa and Eric meet online and what their current lives are like.  It is told through their points of view with some police interrogation transcripts every few chapters.  This format is a bit jarring at first because the transcripts take place time wise after the events of the book, if that makes sense?  So we get foreshadowing  of the events before they happen, but never enough of the whole story that it spoils it for the reader.  I ended up liking this, as it made the read more intriguing and kept me wanting to know what happened. 

Tell Me No Lies starts exactly where the first book left off, which made reading these two books back to back that much better.  I can’t tell to much about the plot without giving away either things that happened in the first book away or spoiling this one, but I will say that it was really hard to put this book down.   The obsessions and creep factors of the first book continue and definitely go up a few notches.  There are a lot of suspects and even a few red herrings that keep you guessing as to what is really going on.  There is also a very nice twist at the end, that just blew me away.

If you are looking for a thriller that deals with obsession, fans, stalkers with a romance this is the series for you.  It would make for an excellent beach read, but it might make you a bit paranoid that someone might be watching.