This is a nonfiction book about the author who during lockdown signed up to Twitter and found herself receiving direct messages from men trying to lure her into a relationship but she would instead expose the messages on Twitter by posting screenshots of them and people began telling her stories of they had been catfished and scammed out of their money.
This wasn’t a bad read but if anyone had seen Netflix’s Tinder Swindler, you’ll find a lot of the anecdotes and women’s stories quite similar.
I think an issue I had with this book is that the tone was uneven - in the first half we have messages of the author on Twitter and how she would respond to these private messages in a comedic fashion until she was blocked. It just wasn’t funny and I found the author’s narrative voice and comedic asides jarring and felt it undermined the seriousness of the situation and the trauma the women have gone through. I think the fact that the author isn’t a journalist or a researcher comes through. Some of the stories are quite repetitive: vulnerable women going through a difficult period get pursued on social media by attractive men who drip feed them lies about how they’ve been mugged and need money. I found the chapters in the second half more insightful especially about the crime organisation in China and Nigeria, and wished there was more insight behind the people who do such scams. Additionally it would’ve been more interesting to hear men’s stories who also get scammed by criminals pretending to be attractive women.
Bear in mind that a lot of the victims in this book are of a particular demographic - middle-aged, English women usually going through a divorce. I’m sure a lot more people fall target to such scam and again had the research been better, there would’ve been a lot more to learn.

I am a follower of the author on Twitter so was prepared for her unique humour but what I wasn't expecting was the insightful information regarding the depth of romance fraud and the major repercussions that can occur. This was an enjoyable and informative read.

What a fascinating book, shining light on a misunderstood heart break. Romance scams are perceived as partly the victims fault.
Taking an in-depth look at the scams, fraudulent actions and the survivors of their schemes.
A very interesting and intriguing book. It should definitely be higher profile.

As soon as I opened this book and saw the line about thinking about Greg Davies I knew this was the book for me. The amount of research that has gone into this made me more interested in reading it.

During lockdown the author, Becky Holmes joined twitter and at first she advises that she did the block and delete thing when scammers slid into her DM’s. Then she met Raymond who sent her such an eloquent message she was sending messages back and forth. She soon got bored and sent him emojis of fruit and veg 😂 She then decides that she is going to have interactions with said scammers as well as featuring the first-hand accounts of victims,, a look into the psychology of fraud and also examples of scripts used by said fraudsters.

This had me genuinely laughing out loud. The interactions with the scammers were hilarious. I might try the fruit and veg trick myself next time I get asked to be a sugar baby. I mean come on my picture is of my cat Marley. Back to the book, there are some really poignant accounts by victims who have been taken in by the scammers believing their stories and losing thousands of pounds. We have all probably experienced the messages on instagram where the account is saying hello beautiful I’m so and so and I’m a doctor, I’m in the military etc I just block and delete (I’ve watched every episode of catfish) but I can understand that people could be easily be made to believe it’s a real account and genuine. I loved this book and I look forward to seeing further books from Becky.

Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud by Becky Holmes is in turn both hilarious and serious as it covers romance scams online. In this book Holmes focuses on those who target women in the UK. It is highly recommended. This is a great choice, especially for those in the UK, for the humor in the trolling Holmes does to the scammers, the basic information she provides about the fraudsters, and the stories of some of their victims.

Holmes has had fun trolling scammers and the first part of the book highlights some of her encounters and her responses to these men who are trying to lead her into a relationship which will result in them needing money from her/their victim for some reason. She has had an online presence where she shares many of her memorable encounters. Her trolling is irreverent and cheeky as she replies to the imposters with a made-up profile or to those claiming to be a well known figure, like Keanu Reeves or Liam Neeson.

Then she shares some more serious, heartbreaking stories of women who have been scammed and taken for all they have by these con artists. There is a pattern and a scripted approach taken by the scammers, many who are from Nigeria, although Ghana and Malaysia are also strongly represented, and they have been trained in cybercrime and romance fraud to entice victims into trusting them. This is a profitable billion dollar business.

Additionally, Holmes delves into the psychology of fraud and shares information from experts. The final section is how victims can get help and support. Support is available, but real help over fraud is not very forthcoming in the UK. Real help is education, teaching people about a reverse image search and how to spot fake accounts. (The title of the book is based on Keanu Reeves being the most popular celebrity name used by scammers.) Thanks to Unbound for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, X, and Amazon.

Very funny, and often also tragic- I’ve read some of her Twitter content and this is more of the same so if you like that you will appreciate this.

Keanu Reeves is Not in Love with You was heartbreaking, hilarious, and wholly readable. We will be buying for our library.

I absolutely loved this book! In addition to being laugh out loud funny, I learned quite a bit about romance fraud. I use dating apps and have been hit up by scammers many times (especially ones pretending to be in the military), so I related to the material in a personal way. Highly recommended to all women!

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley.

I feel this is a really important book and one most people should read. It’s about the murky online world of romance fraud. I knew thought I knew a reasonable amount about this but some of what the author delves into is absolutely terrifying and far more organised than I’d realised.

This book is quite lighthearted in tone and I actually laughed out loud at one point at one of her comical responses to a scammer. She often sends scammers absolutely ridiculous responses to their attempts to get money out of her and she’s very imaginative and funny. However for all there is some comedy particularly at the start, this is a really serious and scary subject.

The book talks through different types of romance scams and the approaches scammers will take whilst also telling the stories of some people who’ve been through harrowing experiences at the hands of scammers, losing thousands of pounds and having their trust betrayed and experiencing vast amounts of stress and suffering. The author also explores the motivations and lifestyles of some scammers and this is where the book gets really scary. I had no idea at the scale of what goes on to facilitate these scams.

I feel it would benefit a lot of people to read this book and understand how prolific these scams can be and how sophisticated they often are.

Well, keanu reeves is not in love with you , is a brilliant Insightful read absolutely loved it .
I have been following becky on twitter for a while and i really enjoyed her tweets always cheered me up .
I was so looking forward too this book and it did not disappoint .
To hear the stories of people be scammed was so heart breaking , but you can see how these people fall for it because the scammers are so good at what they do . I just hope this gives an insight to people and they will think twice about any famous or not so famous people sliding in their dm's .

Intensely relevant, relatable, riveting stories and background to life-changing scams.

The author navigates breezily between chatty background, personal history and observations, to her own hilarious interactions with scammers, and then the upsetting and soul-baring stories of people conned by promises of love and commitment into handing over their money.

A hard path to navigate, but I found myself crossing my legs in merriment at screenshotted conversations of silly place names and murders one minute, then in tears at the heartbreak and loss of victims the next.

Holmes started a deep dive into Twitter with pandemic lockdowns in full swing (well we all had to do something), and it wasn't long before "a sudden DM deluge and I had military men falling out of every orifice. Well, sadly that's not true, but you know what I mean."

With a lot of research in this, all cited, this feels like a thorough examination of the recent history of online romance scams, the psychology used in them, some social commentary on where and why, and the (often rubbish) reactions and assistance available.

My eyes feel opened after reading this. I've many times deleted friend requests from international strangers, deleted Nigerian prince-type emails, and feel fortunate not to have been at a vulnerable place in my life when I've used dating sites and been more open to suggestion and convincing stories.

Holmes' interactions with scammers are just perfection, and the perfect antidote to the real stories interspersed between them, which show a range of long and short cons carefully designed to ruin lives.

A timely reminder to everyone out there to keep your personal details safe, to have your wits about you when chatting to strangers, and to not take Keanu Reeves' (or in my case Taron Egerton's) deep admiration for you at face value. Shame that.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

This book is compulsively readable and extremely quick. I got through it in about 4 hours over a couple of very stressful work days, and it was a nice little respite from the horrors happening on my computer.

This is much more a comedy book than one where you’re likely to learn anything. The author isn’t a journalist (as she’s quick to point out), and it’s made up of about equal parts research and interviews with experts, stories from victims, and screencaps of humorous exchanges with scammers. The latter started getting a bit old by the end (the humour was very LolRandom), and the research was sometimes patchy (she perpetuates some myths about human trafficking, and misuses some terms like ‘deepfake’). But the testimony from victims was powerful and really helped to illuminate the mindsets of the victims. I confess that I’ve often struggled to empathise with victims of romance fraud, but this book definitely helped.

This book was a unique, unorthodox look at a serious and underserved topic, and I would recommend it to people who are curious about romance fraud and scams in general, or who are curious about how a scammer will react when his mark says that she’s got on a boat and she’s going to sail to his oil rig.

(I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review!)

Sensationally great. Truly revelatory. This is a book about sweetheart scams, in this case, from the UK. This book is both hilarious, touching, scary, frightening, insightful, and depressing due to the topic. It is the best book I've read on this topic. I know something about sweetheart scams since, as a CPA, prior the 2017 Tax Act, these scams led to deductions for the amount of money lost to the scammer. I taught this topic nationwide for years and had clients who were scammed. I know the stories and the people and the tax law and was able, though the law, to provide them relief accorded to them under Internal Revenue Code Section 165. When I taught this I explained that no one has the right to steal money from anyone for any reasons. Yes, I ran into some people who thought sweetheart scams were "deserved" and only impacted "sad and lonely people" but this author makes clear that this is not the case, and I know that from personal experience. This is an astonishingly good and informative book. There are laughs, but there is also much serious discussion and this author, who is new to me, is a fantastic writer. I would recommend, honestly, that everyone read this book, and take it to heart. It is easy for someone to take advantage of you. Education, knowledge, skepticism, and more knowledge could help. Highly and absolutely recommended. A revelation.

I read this book in a couple of days. I couldn't put it down, some of the stories were so uncomfortable to read but I needed to know how they turned out. I enjoyed how the author managed to offset the upsetting subject matter with the right abound of humour, highlighting the ineptitude and downright ridiculousness of the scammers at times. Some of the interactions had me in stitches.
She is knowledgeable and clearly empathetic but with a hilarious way of wording things. Romance scams are a serious, life destroying problem that needs highlighting and the author managed to do this in a really human and entertaining way.

This book reads like Take a Break or Chat magazine - stories of women who have been duped for money by cruel men on dating sites. The advice given may have been good for these women, but it is too late for them as they have often lost everything financially and can be too embarrassed to tell friends and family of their plight. The humour comes when the author engages with online scammers, with many of them blocking her. A light-hearted fun read, although sad for the women who fall for these awful scoundrels.

This is funny, informative and terribly sad in equal measure . a well written and brilliantly researched look at the world of online scammers, her wonderful and witty responses to these losers, and hopes that one day something will be done about it. Thought provoking and well worth reading.

Made me laugh out loud quite a few times. Perceptive and informative and a sad indictment of the times we live in. Some of the stories were so sad. Look forward to more from this author

Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. It has completely changed my perspective of people who have been victims of scams. I read this book in two sittings, completely addictive, I just couldn't put it down. Such an important and informative read.

This is a timely book. I know several several people who have been victims of romance scams, and this book really rang true. There are pages so funny they had me laughing out loud -- the author includes screen shots of how she has "played" the scammers, and they are clever and hilarious. Yet the loneliness and heartbreak of those who are scammed is eye-opening. Recommended reading for anyone interested in this subject. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.