With the official launch of A Virtual Love still a couple of weeks away, it was nice to go on Amazon the other day and see the first ‘surprise’ review, by which I mean one written by someone who just bought the book and decided to write about it, rather than being sent a review copy.

The ebook was released a month early, with the idea of garnering a few advance reviews like this one before the paperback comes out on 1st April and I start doing publicity events, etc. Reading reviews is always a terrifying process, but one which I can’t seem to avoid. I’m sure there’ll be worse ones along the road — you can’t please everyone — but it’s good to start off with 5 stars.

Having read and enjoyed Andrew Blackman’s first novel, On the Holloway Road, I was very much looking forward to reading this, and was not disappointed. The story is told through multiple points of view, with a clever use of the first/second person as each chapter is told by one of the characters addressing one of the others – and also Marcus’ Twitter feed. Social media and the use of technology – Facebook, blogs, hacking – form the spine of the novel and the one, big lie Jeff succumbs from which the very compelling plot hangs. I was a particular fan of Jeff’s grandad.

Click here to read this review, and any others that may have appeared since!