Last Seen Online by Lauren James

Last Seen Online (Gottie Writes, #1) by Lauren James follows Delilah, who is going through a lot with a divorce between her parents, difficulties with her friendships and embarrassing moments during an audition with a celebrity's son, Sawyer Saffitz. This doesn't stop Delilah and Sawyer from becoming friends and starting to use the internet to solve a celebrity mystery involving murder, lies, money laundering and an exciting blog from Gottie. Delilah and Sawyer's lives are in danger as they enter this territory while navigating and understanding their romantic feelings for each other. Will they ever discover the truth? Read to find out...

Wow! This was an amazing book to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entirety of it. I especially loved all the twists and turns featured throughout, and although I could guess that some of these twists and turns would happen, this wasn't true for every occurrence, and they were no less shocking. The book is incredibly well written and makes the reader want to continuously read on. I also loved the different formats used throughout, including text messages and blog posts, which make up the prequel to this current book. I have always loved books that combine multiple genres, and this book is no exception with the murder mystery thriller elements combined with the romance between Sawyer and Delilah. However, it would have been nice to see this further developed. It was also interesting to see that there is evidence that Delilah may be neurodiverse, which only the eagle-eyed reader with attention to detail would probably notice, but I think it is a very good addition, even if it may have been unintentional. The cliffhangers were also amazing, with some of the scenes making me fear for the safety of the characters! Safe to say, this was somewhat an emotional rollercoaster of a book.

There is nothing I can really say that I disliked about this book. Some of the chapters were very long, but although they could have been reduced into smaller chapters, this would not be necessary unless the author wanted to increase the book's pace, which would have worked very well with some of the scenes. It would, as already mentioned, have also been nice to see Sawyer and Delilah's relationship develop further and even discover more about the secrets of Gottie and who see actually is; however, from the Goodreads title of this book, I am extremely hopeful that this book may be the first in a series and hopefully these lines of the plot will be further developed in further books. If there are more books coming, I truly cannot wait to read them! This just seemed like such a different book which was very relevant to the increasingly digital world in which we are living.

Altogether, I rate this book 4 stars, making it a very good book as it was incredibly gripping with some amazing use of language and cliffhangers, which just made the reader want to continue reading. I also loved the many different formats used to deliver the story which really adds much value to this great book. I would definitely recommend this book, I am sure it will have you hooked! I must extend my deepest appreciation to NetGalley and Walker Books for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book in return for an honest book review.