A little slow but the mystery and the characters really pull you in! I liked the modern addition of an Instagram influencer but found myself getting confused, especially trying to piece the ending together.

Kimberly Belle knocks it out of the park again!

Alex is a social media influencer whose whole life blows up when a boozy post goes viral. But who is responsible for all of the fallout? Her? Her missing assistant, AC? Her secretive husband? Or someone else?

Why is someone hellbent on destroying Alex's family? I COULD NOT put this down until I knew and the ending was all I hoped for, as usual.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy. It was my pleasure to write an honest review.

Riveting but Too Similar to My Darling Husband

3.45 stars

The Personal Assistant is a psychological thriller about an influencer and her personal assistant who has gone rogue.

When Alex, an influencer, finally hits 1 million followers, she hosts a drunken celebration with her husband and personal assistant, A.C. However, she awakens to find she made incendiary remarks about a 16-year-old female celebrity. All of the sudden, she is under fire. To make matters worse, her personal assistant, A.C., has gone missing, resutling in Alex’s picture-perfect life spiraling into craziness.

The narrative alternates between Alex, Alex’s husband Partick, and A.C. The characters are one-dimensional and not wholly likable--good thing this is not a character-driven story.

The timeline alternates between the present and 1994. Who is connected to whom and how they are connected might be surprising to some readers.

I found the first 70% compulsively readable. This was a solid 4-star read, but when all of the pieces began to click into place and events played out, it was all too familiar -- a combination of My Darling Husband with shades of Mother May I. My reading experience and rating spiraled from this point on.

The ending is over-the-top, and there are two major plot holes that I can’t move past.

The good news is that I enjoyed this more than My Darling Husband . This is a fast-paced, action-packed read with event after event exposing the cracks in Alex’s life.

The Personal Assistant scores high on the entertainment factor but low on plot development and execution.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Harlequin/Park Row in exchange for an honest review.

“Find her—before she finds you.”

Alex, the online personality of the mommy blog, “Unapologetically Alex,” is out celebrating reaching her goal of one million followers. However, when she wakes up the next morning with a horrible hangover, last night’s forgotten damning post going viral, and her personal assistant, AC missing, her whole life is turned upside down.

Did AC create the post that has turned all of her followers against her? Who is Mr. Fluffles? Does her husband, Patrick know more than what he is telling her?

Alex and Patrick must find AC before she ruins their family’s lives and protect their 12-year-old twin daughters at all costs.

Who is AC and what does she want?

Kimberly Belle always writes fast-paced thrillers that keeps the reader engaged from cover to cover. The Personal Assistant stays true to this formula and exposes the dark side of social media and the dangers it can cause in one key stroke. She also demonstrates how fickle the world is and how easily people can turn on a social media influencer. Written in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, she reflects in her acknowledgments, “When your world turns into a dumpster fire, it forces you to stop and adjust. To reassess your priorities and drill down to the very essence of what’s essential in life. People. Family. As Alex learned in her story—as we learned in ours—the rest is just noise and fluff.”

While this book is similar to her previous book, My Darling Husband (AC even calls Patrick Alex’s “darling husband”), I still enjoyed this plot. While much of it is definitely OTT, I still had fun with it.

My only critique is that characters intermittently break out in a southern drawl and then magically lose their accents.

However, I can’t wait to read what Belle comes up with next!

3.5/5 stars rounded up

Expected publication date: 11/29/22

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing - Park Row for the ARC of The Personal Assistant in exchange for an honest review.

Another tense chilling thriller by Kimberly Belle.Started reading in the afternoon and stayed up late to finish so many twists and turns could not put it down.#netgalley #harlequinbooks

This was a good read. I liked the characters and the plot was well drawn and highly relevant to current life. Plenty of twists and turns, although not that hard to figure out. I was somewhat disappointed by Alex, the main character's, reactions to some of the situations and events. Alex struck me as a strong and smart woman and her reactions to some of the incidents and to her husband particularly seemed to me out of character. Other than that I would recommend this book to many and will keep an eye out for future books by this author.
Many thanks to Netgalley, Edelweiss, Park Row and Kimberly Belle for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thick with menace and foreboding, this creepy and stylish thriller is a modern-day techno-horror parable - a warning that any individual’s life, in the virtual arena, is as malleable as the imagination (and motivation) of its digital author (be it benevolent or dastardly).

Alex Hutchinson is living the dream. A fortyish blogger and influencer at @UnApologeticallyAlex, Alex is thrilled and celebratory when the number of her followers reaches one million. Be they real or fake, Alex’s “straight-shooting” posts seem to have found their mark - her “you’re good enough” messaging about living authentically finding an audience that just can’t seem to get enough of her. Ditto for her sponsors and the family luxuries now funded by her increasingly-padded bank account.

On the home-front however, Alex’s handsome and successful financial-wizard-of-a-husband Patrick, and her twin and precocious twelve-year old daughters, (not fans of the privacy-scarce world Alex’s career entails for the entire family) are less than enthralled.

Seeking better balance, as Alex provides more and more access to her life and her world to enable the contributions of her new Personal Assistant, Anna Claire, (or AC), it doesn’t take long for things to begin to unravel, inexplicably and horrifically, taking Alex and her family along for a ride as terrifying as it is mysterious.

The mounting terror escalates beyond the digital when real bodies (in the form of murder victims, past and present) begin to pile up, leaving the reader to wonder, as her life veers off into the catastrophic - is Alex (and her cyber-constructed alter ego) apologetic now?

A great big thank you to @hccinfluencers, @Netgalley and the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

Thank you, first and foremost, to @netgalley and @parkrowbooks for this early review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kimberly Belle never disappoints, and her forthcoming thriller, The Personal Assistant, is no exception. This book has it all: murder, social media drama, rags-to-riches, an insider’s look into the lifestyles of the rich and (insta)famous, and a heart-pounding thriller.

Our story follows Alex, social media maven who is made famous as an influencer under the name Unapologetically Alex, and her husband, financial wizard and media personality, Patrick. These two are living the high-roller life with Alex’s 12-year-old twin girls until all hell breaks loose. Alex is exposed as a fraud (or is she?) and someone is clearly trying to ruin this family’s life. But why? And who?

So begins this excellent ride - which is entertaining for every single page. I had surgery this week, and I read half the book in pre-op - that’s how entertaining it was! The characters are a range of unlikable or less-than-sympathetic to moderately tolerable, but that’s not a complaint. It just makes deciding who to root for here more fun.

I loved this book and found it wildly entertaining. Heads up to the sensitive readers, as there are mentions of guns, rape, torture, murder, and more - but most of you know I’m a highly sensitive reader and all of it was fine for me (not terribly detailed or was easy to pass through quickly).

Check this one out when it drops on November 29! If nothing else, it will have you second-guessing what you share on social media! 😂

The Personal Assistant by Kimberly Belle
@KimberlySBelle
Pub date: November 29, 2022

First things first, my thanks to @HTPBooks and @ParkRowBooks for this gifted copy!
Alex falls into an Instagram influencer career by chance, Unapologetically Alex is a brand and she’s inspirational and motivational to her almost 1 million followers. Hiring an assistant is the next logical thing so when A.C. comes into her life and seems to manage everything beautifully, Alex doesn’t mind that there’s a little tension between A.C. and Alex’s husband, Patrick.

After one tequila fueled night with A.C. and Patrick, a foul post goes up, slut-shaming another big creator and Alex’s hard work comes crumbling down. On top of this, A.C. is missing. This leads Alex to one conclusion, A.C. must be responsible for this damning post but is she?
Delving deep into the past, Belle gives the reader a dual timeline that is played out in alternating perspectives by the main characters. There are multiple red herrings and twists, making this a page turner for me.

I think any person on social media can appreciate cancel culture, I especially see this on TikTok so watching everything Alex has worked for go down in flames why the public joyfully lights the match is especially painful and I think that Belle did a good job of showing the ‘other side of the story’. It felt very realistic to me and I could imagine the inflammatory comment and doxxing that occurred as something very viable.

On top of this, the quickly paced, tightly plotted thriller is a detailed look into a very twisted story that shines a bright light on the not so glamorous side of social media while incorporating one hell of a great story.

Highly recommending this one!

The Personal Assistant is an addictive and original thriller about the dark side of social media. It follows Instagram influencer Alex, who just after reaching 1 million followers, has a post go viral for all the wrong reasons. At the same time, her assistant, AC, goes missing, the internet trolls begin to target her family, and following that, her loving and loyal husband, Patrick, starts to act like he’s hiding some truths. Alternating between Alex and Patricks perspectives in the present, and AC’s perspective in the past, what uncovers is a twisty narrative full of secrets and surprises.

What I loved:
-The social media aspect to the story and having the POV of an influencer
-Alex and Patrick were both very likable characters and it was clear to see how much they loved each other
-How the past and present timelines eventually connected and of course, it was not at all what I initially thought

What I did not love:
-A part of the ending…. but it’s totally a me thing

Thank you so much HTP! Pub date: 11/29

This was great! I personally find influencer culture to be fascinating so reading about Alex and her instagram following was fun. This was so twisty but enjoyable. I couldn't put it down!

Highly recommend for anyone that loves a good thriller.

The Personal Assistant is the second book by Kimberly Belle that I have read. I had a hard time putting this book down. Alex, a mom and popular influencer finds her reputation destroyed by a late night drunk post. That is only the beginning though. More sinister events start to take place, and Alex's life and family are at the center. Alex's assistant goes missing. A dead body is found. A bomb threat is called in. Both Alex and her husband are suspects. The story moves between different characters and timelines until all the pieces fall into place at the end of the story. It is a thriller and a page turner! I would highly recommend reading this book! Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row for the ARC!

I really wanted to like this because I love Kimberly Belle but this book just didn’t click for me. I found the characters to be annoying and boring, the plot was slow and hard to get through at times and it just didn’t capture my attention. I appreciate the opportunity to read this advance copy but am unfortunately not recommending it highly.

Officially kicking off spooky szn with this psychological thriller. I’ve loved everything Kimberly Belle has written before, so I was super excited when I received this e-arc. This one started off strong and kept on going throughout.

Ok, here’s my thing: usually I stay away from social media influencer MCs because I can’t help but roll my eyes most of the time. Even though it was the main focus of the story, there were so many other layers that kept me interested. I enjoyed the multiple POVs; getting an inside look at each characters thoughts on what was happening and all of their secrets. The pacing was on point; I never felt like the burn was too slow or it was taking too long to get to the twists. I had an idea of what the big twist would be & I was proved WRONG. With that being said, the ending kind of fizzled for me. I expected a little more from it and was waiting for more of a gasp moment. All in all, it was a good one to start off with!

A HUGE thank you to Netgalley, HTP, & Kimberly Belle for this e-arc. Check out The Personal Assistant on its pub date 11/29!

Thank you so much to @NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have previously read all of this author’s books, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. This one was no exception! “The Personal Assistant” was a story about a social media influencer who becomes tangled up in a twisty mess of lies, betrayal, and mystery and now has to navigate life with these things being out for the whole world to see. I gave it 4/5 ⭐️S as I couldn’t put it down and was eager to see how the story would end.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel.

3.5 stars
This was a perfectly fine thriller. It was very fast paced. I was able to read it over 2 days. I kind of enjoyed the story line and all of the twists and turns that the story took. I think maybe I'm a little burnt out on thrillers because I haven't really read one in a while that I have loved. That being said, this was very entertaining and a nice quick read.

This book opens immediately with AC missing, which was an interesting choice, I think. I honestly had no idea where this book was heading, even with alternating narrative viewpoints. The end caught me off guard, which doesn't always happen. I'm really getting into Kimberly Belle's books, and find her extremely talented. Can't wait to see what she comes uo with next.

Oh my, what a twisty thriller this one is!!! I had not read anything my Kimberley Belle before, but she will now be one of my go to authors.
This a fast paced read that will keep you sitting on the edge of your seat. I LOVED IT!!!

Kimberly Belle does it again! Exploring the life of an influencer, cancel culture and a few more nefarious plot points that I'll keep quiet to avoid spoilers, The Personal Assistant is Belle at the top of her game. Multiple POVs and timelines kept me turning the pages to a very satisfying conclusion!

4.5 Stars

Thank you to Park Row for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Kimberly Belle has produced another great read! She always writes great characters with a fast paced storyline! This book is so relevant in today's society and would highly recommend! Five stars for me!