This book is good, but not THAT good. The ending was kinda cliche, and really weird. Do we really need another book? Ugh. This book wasn’t good, because there wasn’t that much of a MYSTERY. It isn’t a whodunnit. Right from the beginning it tells you who it is, so don’t bother with it if you want a classic detective story. There are hardly any character development here. Honestly, the author seemed to give up on the characters completely. However, it was actually quite addicting, despite the fact that it’s one of those mystery book where a random clue pops out out of nowhere. Honestly, this book is sort of hard to review. It sucks, but it’s good, and I was sucked into it.

2.75/5 stars. UGH. This book as a big disappointment. I love Sara Shepard and I loved The Amateurs, but this book was boring and unfortunately, unnecessary. The series is a mystery/thriller, and the reader learns absolutely nothing. It served as a boring setup for the third and final book. I have a feeling the third book will be good though. The following contains all you need to know about the second book so you don't have to waste your time reading it.

Brett abducts a girl named Chelsea who fits his profile down to a T. He never planned on killing her, and he led the group on a roundabout trick game in an effort to discredit them with the police. At the end, Brett abducts Aerin and that is where the book ends.

Such a good mystery read, 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Somehow I missed this book being published back in NOVEMBER but I finally remembered, got my hands on it last week, and flew threw it. Sara Shepard is one of my favorite authors, there's no arguing that. And while this sort of mystery is definitely a departure for her, I still like it. I wasn't a huge fan of getting Brett's POV during the story because I don't feel it enhanced the plot at all. I think that time could have been spent letting Seneca or Aerin have more introspective moments, being on the hunt for the murderer of their family members. Also, I really wanted Madison's POV! She's definitely one of the gang now, why don't we get into het head? I thought that she sort of popped up in the first one and that's why she didn't get her own section, but by now she's definitely a part of the group and I think she deserves some development.

I want to say I saw the plot twist coming but I didn't really. I knew Aerin was still a target of Brett's, but the end still surprised me. I'll definitely be waiting for the next one, and actually getting it when it comes out, not four months later. Promise.

 This book was a fun read, however I there wasn't much mystery. The book followed the same story line as the first, minus a dead body. Pretty blonde, who bears a striking resemblance to Helena, is missing. Can the gang find her before its too late. Can they  catch the killer before he has the chance to kill again. You know all the usual drama.
Yes we still have to figure out who the killer was masquerading as this time and honestly I feel like after spending so much time with him in the first book the gang should have been able to figure it out a hell of a lot quicker.

That said, I did enjoy the story. Shepard's writing is so easy to read, you really just get sucked into the story, even if the story is a little bit bland. The group are back to running in circles and getting absolutely nowhere, unless of course the killer wants them too. Seriously, they should give up and go back to their everyday lives, but then I wouldn't have a book to read. 

The characters seemed to be less whiny this time. I was sad that we don't get to see as much of Aerin and Madison this time though, they are clearly the more interesting members of the group. I get sick of the Seneca and Maddox show. 

There were a few twists that once again threw me. Sara Shepard is the queen of plot twists!! Anyway THAT ENDING!! Also is it bad to say that the bad guy is my favourite character in the book? Because he is, he's clearly the smartest person there, his schemes are pretty amazing and he is always about twenty steps ahead of everyone, which is not hard considering the other characters. 

So if you are after a fun, easy read with some decent characters and you love a good plot twist, you should give these books a chance. My reviews of this series never seem flattering, but I am still reading the series so it clearly can't be that bad haha.

I would like to thank Allen & Unwin and the author for providing me with a copy of this book, this has in no way influenced or affected my thoughts or opinions of this book.

This was a great follow up to the first book of the series. It kept me wanting to know more and had a great ending. I particularly liked the chapters from the killers point of view as it gave a deeper understanding into their character and their intentions. Overall, this book was a joy and I can't wait for the third instalment.

2 stars. I was extremely disappointed with this sequel. I knew The Amateurs wasn’t a great novel and my attachment to the story was entirely based on it’s addictive quality, but Follow Me procured no excitement from me, leaving me with just an unenjoyable, poorly written book.

I was very hopeful that with Follow Me being the sequel, my issues with the construction would improve. I’m happy to say that by the end of the story, the writing improved significantly in my opinion. I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s “great” but it at least felt more natural and cohesive rather than stunted and awkward. Unfortunately, the rest of my critiques from book one worsened. The characters became even LESS developed than they were originally. One character (who happens to be one of the only two people of color in the story, interestingly) was virtually non-existent throughout the entire story, I can barely remember a scene she was present in, much less any contributions made to the story. Any interesting traits from the individual characters are sacrificed completely. They are demoted to having no personalities as their only purpose of the story is to solve the case (or engage in unnecessary romantic plotlines). And although I did not think the mystery of book one was great, book two was even worse. Overall, this sequel is a serious downgrade from the first installment in almost every aspect.

While my overall feeling during The Amateurs was “I don’t know why but I can’t stop reading!”, Follow Me caused me to feel perpetually frustrated and annoyed, and it was an immense struggle to finish. In regard to the mystery, everything is just so dumbed down? Nothing is thought-provoking, clever, or takes much work to figure out. The characters are either going in circles or have an idea out of thin air without using any deductive reasoning or previous knowledge that *somehow* manages to produce evidence. I feel like I could go on endlessly about all of the “leads” that didn’t make sense, the completely ridiculous plot points

I’m sorry, I don’t believe you can sit in a room with the person you are looking for, *especially* after spending every day with them a few months ago & being friends, and not recognize anything familiar, no matter how good they are at wearing sunglasses and pretending to be a surfer.

.

Additionally, I hated how the victim for the story is villainized the entire time? I have to include my explanation under spoilers, but overall, I could have been so in love with this particular plot point and it was completely ruined by how the victim is portrayed by not only the people investigating her case, but also when she is with her captor:

I actually LOVE the idea of Brett planting evidence to discredit Chelsea to make her kidnapping seem like a publicity stunt that Chelsea planned herself – SO CLEVER. I probably would have given this book 3 stars had this been done well. But throughout the entire story, the Chelsea is slut-shamed and is portrayed as constantly unfaithful, but I’m typically all for uncovering dark secrets about seemingly innocent people; It creates complex characters. My biggest issue is how she is supposed to be kidnapped, terrified for her life, but is written to be exactly as vain and self-conceited as she appeared to be before? I’ve never been abducted personally, but I’m sure even the vainest individual would not care about doing their makeup and dressing nicely *and enjoying that* (not reluctantly doing so just to satisfy their captor) while constantly fearing for their life at the mercy of a stranger. She genuinely asks how many Instagram followers she’s gotten since being kidnapped. WHAT. And what BOILED MY BLOOD was when Brett told Chelsea that “she does want to watch TV because she wants to see herself on the news” and she goes to watch TV, confirming that judgement. It would have been different had she countered with something about only watching to see how her family is doing or see how far along the police are in finding her, but no. The tone and perspective of the story tells us that she really does want to watch herself on tv in this situation. It’s not even that I can’t feel bad for this girl because she’s self-absorbed, but I’m honestly upset at the author for butchering what could have been a fantastic story ARC by making the victim constantly viewed in a negative light.

There was SOOOO much potential for this plotline that would have seriously impressed me, but I ended up angrier about this than I expected. I’m probably being a little overdramatic and angry over nothing with this, but the entire plot was sloppily crafted in my opinion.

In conclusion, I’m obviously very disappointed with Follow Me. It’s probably one of the biggest sequel let downs of my entire time as a reader. I will likely read book three though, because one of the only good things about this book is although the ending was easily predictable, it sets up the story of book three perfectly and has me interested enough to hope it can be my saving grace for this series.

This book was sent to me for free by Freeform Books as a part of a paid YouTube campaign. I had no obligation to review this book as a part of this campaign and all opinions are my own.

Mysteries where you already know the identity of the killer for the majority of the plot can be a hit or a miss. It worked for me in [b:There's Someone Inside Your House|15797848|There's Someone Inside Your House|Stephanie Perkins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493650191s/15797848.jpg|21520760] as I felt it added a layer of suspense to the story. It became more about the cat-and-mouse thrills than the clue-hunting. Follow Me also managed to blend those two elements together quite well and I think that is why I enjoyed this a smidge more than The Amateurs.

The characters did still tick me off, don’t get me wrong. Seneca and Aerin have so much potential that I desperately want Shepard to tap into. Aerin’s grief and feelings about the events of the past books needed more fleshing out. They were brushed over, and the same with Seneca. It was hinted that she was suffering from mild PTSD - the panic attacks confirmed it - but it is never addressed. Maddison was barely in the plot again and felt disposable. Maddy did not improve either. While we did not have to suffer through Catherine situation in this book, his petty jealousy of Jeff was definitely still irritating. The chemistry between him and Seneca and him is non-existent. I could not have cared less whether they got together or not. In fact, I could not have cared less about any of the romantic subplots if I tried.

Like I said though, there was something about the cat and mouse storyline that kept me engaged. I still found the coincidences and dumb luck of the characters overwhelmingly frustrating but I was interested to see how everything would unfold. The ending was exactly what I expected but I liked it. I’m a little uncertain whether it was meant to be a shock or not. We knew it was building up to that moment since a certain scene in The Amateurs so I hope not. It certainly paved the way for a promising sequel.

Overall? It still suffered a lot of the downfalls of the previous book. The characters were underwhelming and shallow, and too much emphasis was placed on the romantic subplots. However, I have to admit that there was something captivating about the cat-and-mouse game plotline. I really hope that will be continued in the sequel.

I just finished this in public and I AM SCREAMING WHEN DOES THE NEXT BOOK COME OUT WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?