this was an eye opener of a read for me and I think it's a must read - especially for influencers and online personalities. I really enjoyed the plot line and thought the writing was smooth and easy reading.

This book dragged and dragged. It was a difficult book to finish since it did not keep me interested.
When I read the preview of this book I thought it was a good topic for our time and was looking forward to the read.
Unfortunately, it was not a book for me.

Description
A timely and shocking thriller about a young woman who is the target of a social-media smear campaign.

Her perfect job becomes the perfect nightmare when a stalker hacks her phone. Candace Walker is thrilled when she lands a new job at a hip Manhattan tech company and gets a brand-new iPhone. She’s more than ready to move on from creating clickbait ads for weight-loss pills and herbal erection boosters, and is determined to dazzle the startup team she joins. A week later, though, everything is at risk: Candace is the target of a mysterious harasser and an online smear campaign. She tosses her new phone into the Hudson River, begins hiding out in her sister’s storage locker in New Jersey, and can’t think of a single person she can trust. But Candace hasn’t come this far—and gone to such lengths—to submit to what is happening without a fight.

My Review

This is the first book I have read from this author and boy is it a whopper. It definitely has you thinking how easy it actually can be to be enthralled in a smear campaign. Most of all I think it's a lesson in Karma. The main character is displayed as a very judgmental and critical person and then ends up in a real mess. It is as described a timely and shocking thriller. In this day and age of social media and everything revolving around giving out our usernames and providing passwords to supposedly protect our information is still something you have to think twice about. The book just reinforced what I already knew, use VPN or all of your personal searches/logins. Never ever let anyone know your passwords and overall control to the best of your ability what you post on the web. Once it's out there it is not yours anymore and available to anyone.

That being said this was a very good book that had me nodding my head many times and thoroughly enjoying it from start to end.

I was provided this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion. I give this book a 4 Star

"A timely and shocking thriller about a young woman who is the target of a social media smear campaign."
Hipster dream girl Candace Walker makes click bait ads until she's offered an incredible new position. Within a week her new iPhone is in the river and she's on the run.
This book was absolutely ridiculous and over the top. I can see this being a movie eventually. Probably sooner than later because it is incredibly relevant to society today. It had a quick pace and short chapters so I read it quicker than I realized.
Candace was a disgustingly judgmental and hypocritical person. I really didn't care for her, especially her feelings toward "fat people," which she was constantly grousing about and then talking about her superiority to them, yet she is also a "woke" hipster dream babe who will tell everyone why veganism is the way and correct you on gendered pronouns.
Despite my feelings toward her personality I still found the book to be a nice quick suspense story that I found myself speeding through.

*I received a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for my review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a nice little thriller. Not a new favorite but quite decent. I'd pick up more work from this author

This was a creepy thriller. I started reading it before bed, and I was getting so creeped out that I had to put it down. The way that Candace’s phone was hacked and she was harassed was so disturbing, yet it seemed realistic. There are so many ways to hack into technology and really affect people’s lives.

This story gave an inside look at the way social media can be used to promote companies. The ads that we see online are not always random, but are often targeted for the user. It was creepy to see how we can be manipulated through social media to purchase goods and services.

I can’t say much about this story without giving away the ending. It didn’t end the way I had predicted. I thought I had figured it out, but I was wrong. It was actually the solution that made the most sense, but I had ruled it out because of that.

The only problem is that I still had so many questions at the end. I would have loved to know more about Candace’s past, because there were hints to things that had happened to her, but it wasn’t explored in detail. I would also love to see what happens next.

This chilling thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Social Misconduct was a difficult read for me. The premise is strong - a stalker hacks a young woman's phone and wreaks havoc. I found the situations outlined more than disturbing. I was hoping for more suspense. The novel is quite graphic and some might find it triggering. I cant say I enjoyed the read, but it did bring up a lot of opportunities for discussion and debate, and the story stuck with me. I appreciated S.J. Maher's ability to take very unlikeable characters and make me interested in their journey.

4-5 stars! While not my usual type of thriller, more a drama filled suspense story, I really enjoyed this read from page one! Thought that it was very captivating and real in the society in which we live today, which is completely addicted to social media, but forgets the pain and damage it often inflicts. I really recommend to most of my fellow social media addicts, slower at times, but worth reading.
Will be using in a challenge and recommending to the members of Chapter Chatter Pub!!

I had high expectations for Social Misconduct by S. J. Maher but from the opening, it was slow paced. I felt like there was a big amount of unnecessary details being given to the reader that made me loose interest. The premise of the book was about the dangers of social media and how it can destroy a person's life. Instead, the book is more about hacking and what happens when the hacker gains access to a person's social media accounts.

Told through two timelines (past and future), the story follows Candace as she deals with her social media accounts being hacked and the aftermaths of the actions she took to deal with her hacker. I personally felt like this was not really the best presentation for the book as the reader is faced with two different characters that doesn't really meet in the middle to justify this huge change in personality. The book was also highly sexual, which I didn't particularly like. There were some graphic scenes that had no purpose in my opinion.

Overall, I found the book somewhat disappointing. It's not because the book is bad but it simply didn't fall in my preferred interests.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for my copy in exchange for an honest review

My rating: 3.5 stars

I just couldn't finish this book. I didn't even like the main character because I found her annoying.

This was the first book I have read by this author and I enjoyed it. I look forward to more books by this author.

Social Misconduct starts off with the main character Candace as she drops her phone into a river. She then takes a ferry to her destination, and is on the run from someone she believes is watching her and following her. This alone intrigued me and kept me wanting to read more. Is someone following her? Who would it be and why? And why would she drop her phone into the river?

This book is told in alternating timelines, and each chapter flips back and forth between past and present. I really enjoyed this style of the book as it allowed us little bits of information at a time and kept us wanting to read more to get all the pieces together. Slowly you get the full picture of what happened, and I find it adds to the suspense and leaves you wanting to know more, as you flip through the pages to see what happens next.

We learn that after Candace gets a new promotion at her job, she suddenly gets threatening text messages on her phone, saying that she owe this person and that if she doesn’t do as they say then she will pay! She thinks she knows who is sending her these messages and is confused why he is doing this to her and she thought they were friends. She soon doubts herself and wonders if she is wrong about the identity of the person sending her these messages. Is it truly who she thinks it is or is it someone else?

When you think about it social media can be a scary place, especially if someone gets your personal information and hacks into your phone or computer. I can’t imagine what that would be like.

Without giving too much away this was a great read. I was hooked and wanting to read more. Thanks for reading my review and hope you like this book as well.

Social Misconduct stood out as interesting to me when I read the synopsis, but unfortunately the story itself didn't live up to that initial excitement.

The main character was unreliable, and unlikable; she was judgemental and annoying. When Candace initially gets hacked and harassed, it's awful, but as the story moves forward I began to have a hard time continuing to empathize with her. I think part of the problem was the way the book was written. The alternating timeline chapters made it difficult to really grasp the complete change in her character. I never really saw that change or breakdown; it was like two different people. Candace's past wasn't deeply explored so her motivations weren't always clear.

I also struggled with how many topics were touched on in the story. The book covers prostitution, rape, murder, human trafficking, swatting, suicidal thoughts, drugging, Incel, paternal abuse, internet voyeurism, hacking, harrassment. It almost felt like "you name it, it's mentioned." Certain topics and plot points were well developed, others felt like filler and unnecessary. It was too much.

The ending wasn't clean cut, and it seemed incomplete. The culprit wasn't one I had guessed, but sadly by this point it didn't matter who it was going to be.

Unfortunately, this social media cautionary tale missed the mark for me.






**Complimentary copy for review provided by Simon and Schuster Canada and Netgalley. All opinions expressed here are honest and entirely my own.**

Social Misconduct begins with an incredibly slow paced opening. The reader is given an extreme amount of useless detail that bogs down the story and does not give readers incentive to continue the story. If it weren’t for the fact that I received an advanced copy, I would have DNF’ed the novel. The story finally picks up after about 80 pages and continues with an unrelenting pace until the final page of the novel.

Social Misconduct is billed as a story about the dangers of social media and how a social media smear campaign can wreck havoc on a person’s life. Instead, Social Misconduct is more about hacking and what happens when a hacker gains access to a person’s various social media accounts.

The novel is told through two timelines, the past and future. Readers follow Candace as she deals with the effects of being hacked in real time and the effects of the actions she took to deal with the hacker after-the-fact. This narrative choice may not have been the best since it does not serve the story as well as the author might have intended. The reader is presented with two vastly different characters that never really meet in the middle to justify such a drastic change in personality.

The biggest issue I had with Social Misconduct was my inability to connect or even tangentially enjoy Candace as a character. From her introduction, I found her to be annoying and unlikeable. Some of the decisions she made at the beginning of the novel made me scratching my head and lose almost all sympathy for her situation.

And, finally, Social Misconduct is overly sexual for no apparent reason. There are some sexually graphic scenes that serve no purpose than to be gratuitous. I’m not prude. I read a lot of romance novels that border on erotica with no problem. However, the scenes in Social Misconduct serve no purpose other than to be risqué for risqué sake.

Overall, Social Misconduct is a disappointing read that tries to get at the horrors of a social media smear campaign, but instead only highlights hackers and the stupidity of those who fall for them.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.

First off, I couldn't connect with Candace, thus I didn't really care to read the rest of the novel. This book was just not for me.

Social Misconduct had me hooked from the start. It's fast paced and feels like a very plausible scenario. There are lots of creeps out there; some with bad intentions. Most people (myself included) can't go a day or an hour without our phones. Phone hacking is the ultimate invasion of privacy in 2019. And that's exactly what happens in this book. Who hacked Candace's phone? Why did they do it? You'll have to read it to find out!

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced ebook in exchange for an honest review.

In this day abd age, social media has kind of taken over everyone’s lives. I found thus book tinbe quite bizarre. It definitely was.not for me, but it was well,written, just wasn’t wgat I expected,

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one was not for me. I didn't enjoy any of the characters and the events that took place were really creepy and not very intriguing to me. I love thrillers and this one sounded very cool, but it didn't really work out for me.

I loved most of this and found it to be completely terrifying in this day and age - but I felt like the ending was rushed and I wanted to get to know some of the other characters that were in the book . I still think of this fairly often and will definitely be recommending it to people who like thrillers!

Social Misconduct is a compellingly chilly read. Although fiction, what the author recounts could very well occur in reality. It demonstrates how technology can dictate and ruin lives. Candace has her phone hacked and horrible things keep happening. The narrative flashes back between before and after. The ending was flat and unsatisfactory. I really did not care for Candace. I found her character to be condescending and judgmental. More than anything this novel illustrates what slaves we are to our phones, social media, and the consequences.

Social Misconduct was not good. The writing and grammar could use some work. I didn't know that S.J. Maher was a male author when I initially requested the book from NetGalley, but you can still tell that Candace's voice isn't realistic or authentically female. No one actually says "FML" or "AF" or "hawt". None of the characters are likeable and Candace is the worst, which makes it hard to empathize with her in her situation. Candace judges people based on stereotypes, she is an annoying vegan, and she thinks she's hot shit and is entitled to everyone and everything.

Aside from the horrible characters, the whole story felt really gross and the author tended to throw around rape quite loosely. It felt like the book was trying to go for shock value instead of being an interesting or thought-provoking crime thriller about social media. I'm not sure what the author's intention for the novel was, but it definitely does not promote female empowerment (as suggested by the summary) and it's overall really creepy and unsettling (and not in a good way).