I was thrilled to get this ARC as I am a big fan of the author on twitter. For some reason I thought it would be mainly comedy but I got that wrong.

I think that this book will sadly be very useful in todays age of boys and scams and I hope that this book finds people at risk of romance fraud.

I loved this book! I was drawn to it after recent experiences with online dating, and because I watched the Tinder Swindler on Netflix and was amazed at what some of these con men get away with.

It was definitely an education. I do wish I'd read it before online dating. It would have saved me so much time! Thankfully I never parted with any money but some of the guys I spoke to definitely followed some of the scripts mentioned in this book. I think it's a must read for anyone looking to connect with others online.

Despite the subject matter (it's sad reading about women who were conned out of tens of thousands of pounds) Becky managed to keep the book very light hearted and funny. Her replies to the scammers who contacted her are hilarious! I need to follow her Twitter account for sure.

I saw Becky Holmes on Twitter speaking about scammers and this book and what initially seemed to be a quick, funny read was actually a thoughtful and devastating read about how smart internet scams are and the way they can ruin lives.

Funny, informed and heartfelt this was a real eye opener.

Thanks to #Netgalley for this one

I am not sure what type of audience it is aimed for..
Anyone who's been to the dating scene has experienced all this before, if not more..
I didn't find it funny, amusing or entertaining at all. The sense of humour of the author wasn't my cup of tea.
Endless screenshots of messages were just boring, I don't see who would enjoy reading them. Also the fact that someone has pictures of themselves on the boat, at the airport, in the helicopter etc. at the ready is highly unlikely.
Overall I found it very uninteresting and lacking purpose. 
If online romance scam/fraud is something you want to watch/read about, the Tinder Swindler story is much more interesting than this.

I follow Becky on Twitter and remember some of the "celebrities pilots and soldiers ' that declared their on dying love for her, All these men were attempting to fraudulently take money from Becky, Becky also meets with some women who have had money stolen from them online., Their stories are so sad, and show how people can fall in love so easily be coerced into sending money to someone they never met, It is so awful to read these stories. I really enjoyed this book encourage everyone to read it,

I am so sorry but this just was not for me :( But a massive thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy

This book had me laughing out loud so much. Keanu Reeves is Not in Love With You is an exploration into online romance scams. It’s hilarious and informative, while also pulling on your heart-strings as you read accounts of real-life victims.

I loved Becky Holmes’ humor. She writes in a way that is entertaining so that the information sticks with you. I would recommend this book to anyone who goes online, whether you’ve encountered a romance scam yourself or have ever gotten an unsolicited friend request or message from someone that was too good to be true.

There is much to be done to combat these cyber crimes and I hope that Holmes’ book is a first step in compelling a greater response.

Thank you to NetGalley, Unbound, and the author Becky Holmes for the ARC of this book!

This was really funny and made me laugh out loud. It's talking about real experiences, the type of things we've all read about in the newspapers, but also looking at how people get sucked into it all. Eye opening in areas. But a funny read, if a little scary and emotional in places.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the author became exposed to the world of online romance fraud, and after becoming intrigued by it she set out to investigate .
The case studies were interesting, although they were often tragic, but they did show how these cases snowball from the first contact through to the victims then sending large sums of money to these scammers.
Given the darker content of some of these cases the humour does get to be a bit grating. Overall it is an interesting read.

2.75
despite it having the cover and title of the year, I was not in love with "Keanu Reeves is Not in Love With You."
This is a nonfiction book about romance fraud. Except, it's less nonfiction and more the vibe of your friend summarizing a John Oliver video for you over brunch.
I thought the conversational, funny style of Becky Holmes' writing was incredibly accessible (and is probably true to the Twitter comedy that apparently rose her to prominence). But this stayed incredibly surface level and fluffy, and it just wasn't what I was looking for. I don't think anyone with even a passing knowledge of this subject will learn anything new from this book. Some of the most interesting parts of this book literally(!!!) begin with "I read this interesting article that said..." and end with "Someone smart should do more research on that!"
I also thought the tone of this was just a little off. A substantial part of the book is dedicating to reprinting some of Becky's viral Twitter interactions, in which she trolls romance scammers. She calls out their questionable grammar, spelling, and odd questions. There is truly an entire chapter solely dedicated to her cleverness.
This call-out section, while mildly funny, seems to be really at odds with the rest of the book, which purports to have sympathy for the real-life victims and stories of those who are victims of romance fraud.
I don't know. If I was one of Becky's interviewees, I would feel weird about my real experience with romance fraud being showcased right after Becky spends fifty pages laughing about how stupid and obvious these scammers are.
If you're already a fan of Becky's online premise and humor, I would imagine you'd like this book. But if you're just drawn in by the cover, or looking for a deep dive into this topic, I don't think this is where you should turn.

I wasn’t familiar with the author before I read the book, but I thought the concept was really interesting. There’s definitely been a lot of noise around romance scamming recently and I was intrigued to find out more.

On the plus side, I enjoyed the witty exchanges with the fraudsters. They did become a little predictable after a while - and I don’t think we needed quite so many examples of ‘look how clever I am’. Maybe 1 or 2 per chapter would have been better.

The case studies of people who had been scammed were sympathetically written, and also quietly devastating. I felt so incredibly sorry for the victims.

Something that I thought the book was missing was a more detailed account from a scammer. We get the odd detail about where they’re coming from (which always seemed to be Nigeria) but I think I would have liked to know more about them and why they do it.

I also thought the advice section at the end was a bit limited. It does seem she’s writing off Action Fraud as a port of call, yet also admitting that they’ve made some changes recently to become more effective. We really needed more on this.

All in all, an informative and entertaining read.

'Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You' will make you laugh, it will make you sad, and it will make you angry. It is testament to the considerable skill of its author, Becky Holmes, that it can do all of these things and stand out as a valuable, worthwhile commentary and insight into the world of online romance fraud and the people whose lives it devastates.

Becky Holmes joined Twitter - as it was known - in 2020 and soon started to get attention for her humorous approaches to dealing with fake accounts trying to scam her. They are genuinely laugh out loud funny. However, her interest in these individuals and the people they target was piqued and this book shares her thought-provoking research, as well as some fascinating interviews with both those who lost money and those behind the accounts.

From the title and cover, I was expecting a largely humorous take, but 'Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You' is an engaging read that strikes the right balance between the humour and the author's wealth of research. The writing is down to earth yet respectful where needed, and sidesteps any jargon. Well worth a read.

With thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for the advance copy on which this review is based.

This was an absolute hoot to read AND it was incredibly informative on romance scams and the effects both emotionally and financially that they can have on the people who sadly get entangled in them.

The first bit of the book I could not stop laughing at her inclusion of her conversations with these romancers. The celebrity ones were particularly hilarious. Some of the replies and conversation topics made me laugh out loud.

I love books that are both entertaining and informative and this was both. Becky was completely honest about her experiences and her empathy towards the people affected by scammers felt very genuine. One story in particular was gut wrenching. It would be good reading for anyone on social media as a guide to stay as safe as you can. The information she provides is brilliant and I noticed resemblances to messages I myself have gotten on my social media and have some good insight now into how to tackle the scammers and stay safe.

I can’t recommend this book enough! It should be standard reading for everyone! I loved the authors writing style and wit and her honesty and empathy. Would love to read more from her.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I love reading about scams!! This book was a great deep dive into online romance scams and the unfortunate victims of them. well-researched but well-written as well.

Keanu Reeves is Not in Love With You by Becky Holmes is a non-fictional account of the author's dealings with online romance fraud.

We've all had them - silver-haired lotharios in our DMs calling us "honey", asking us how we are (I had one a few weeks ago claiming to be Pedro Pascal's agent). But what about the women who fall for them?

During lockdown especially, people depended on the internet for social interaction. Romance fraud flourished - and people were seriously hurt as a result.

As well as light-hearted accounts of some of her own exchanges with these fellas, the author also includes some really devastating accounts from people who upturned their whole lives for a shot at happiness. Some lost huge amounts of money, dignity, and fell out with family members as a result of being scammed online. Their good nature was taken advantage of, and many will never trust a soul again. It's really, really sad.

This book, I think, will help people a lot. It'll help people who aren't very internet savvy to recognise a scam, and may even remind the rest of us to keep on our toes - dear friends, I have been online since the year dot and just before Christmas, I paid €65 for a product that doesn't exist. I was up with an illness flare at 3am, I saw an ad, I thought "oh wow!", I paid the money, I got a generic e-mail with a Hong Kong address at the end of it and my heart sank. To this day I have exchanged 46 emails with whoever is running the site and I know I'll never see that money again - but it just goes to show, if you hit someone vulnerable at just the right time (as people are trained to do), you can reel one in. I'll never live it down, but there we go. As the author says,

"I believe that we all underestimate our susceptibility to fraud."

She talks about the people behind some of the scams (eye-opening and shocking in equal measures) and speaks about the similarities between their techniques and coercive control.

Since I read this book, I've replied to every new spammy DM with a pic of the EFCC logo, the organisation in Nigeria who catch them. Works WONDERS.

Thank you to Unbound for the eARC.
#keanureevesisnotinlovewithyou

Becky Holmes investigates romance fraud with humour and understanding, showing the hearbreaking consequences of vulnerable people being taken in by plausible fraudsters. I hope we can be armed with this knowledge and better able to identify fraudulent accounts and not be duped and manipulated by online criminals. It's also a really funny read - I would recommend.

Becky Holmes, the cardiganed crusader, invites us all on her quest to get to bottom of the most internet barrel where the romance scammers live and work, impersonating celebrities to extort money and time out of people looking for love or just feeling a little alone.

Thankfully I’ve never fallen prey to a romance scam or a catfish, but damn if I don’t see them everywhere - admittedly I do love to wind them up sometimes which is something I share with Becky. She addresses the seriousness and heartbreak of fraud and catfishing but also has a little mischief along the way as she tries to rile the scammers and get to bottom of their techniques, and their reasons. From the terribly obvious to the terrifying realistic, we see a whole range of scams and frauds from celebrity impersonators , guilt tactics, real life fraudsters and just bad ones that really, really make me happy I’ve never tried finding love online.

Her narration was utterly fabulous - it felt so much like a conversation and was brimming with personality but even amongst all the thoughts and little asides it always stayed on track and felt so easy to follow. She spoke openly, candidly and in such a refreshingly normal way that didn’t try and be artful - it just let itself be amazing on its own merit. It starts as a series of anecdotes then jumps into the in depth research about organised crime and scam culture. From accounts of her own strange experiences to the stories of victims of romance fraud, each one shows a different side to the world of scams that keeps growing by the day.

Just remember, although Keanu Reeves loves everyone, he’s probably not in love with you.

This book was an incredibly interesting read. I always love when I'm reading something by a person who has clearly invested some time into their research yet they live a totally "normal" life. It's really heartbreaking and eye-opening to see how many people have become victim to a similar fate. It was nice that the author put their own humor into the book as well despite the topic, at the baseline, being quite sad and disturbing. It is ultimately really heartbreaking to hear of the maniupulation that so many people have gone through to benefit these scammers but I really appreciated Holmes presentation of the information., It made it a really enjoyable read. 3.5 stars

This is a lightly comic exploration of romance fraud, which - via the magic of the internet - it appears can be made a subject of humour. Author Becky Holmes is quite strict in not making the subjects of the fraud, a number of case studies which are delivered here, the subject of humour. She is extremely sympathetic and in a layman's way quite insightful as to how romance fraud manages to ensnare people, and some of the psychological hooks that make it work. She has experienced coercive control and mental health issues that came out of that so she is acutely aware how the brain operates when it is more vulnerable (there is a lot of talk about terminology, and vulnerable is a word she uses with huge caveats). That doesn't mean there isn't occasionally tonal whiplash between when she is trying to be funny stringing along an online scammer pretending to be Liam Neeson, and a heartbreaking story of a woman taken for £100,000 by a fake pilot. But its a clear-eyed and detailed exploration of the issue.

The problem with the subject is that from a coldly dispassionate point of view, some of the scammers are ridiculous. In excerpts of conversations she has, its clear that their English is bad, their reading comprehension is to naught and it initially looks like surely no-one would be taken in. This is a slight flaw here, obviously, she excerpts some of the funniest conversations where her potential beau seems to ignore her claims of murder and increasingly unhinged photos (it has to be said her humour in these conversations is very one note, it usually involves her having killed someone or going off to kill someone and looking for understanding and help online with someone who stays onboard because they are after the cash). Nevertheless the case studies is the real evidence here, and they are presented in their full objective detail, plus interviews with other experts who can pick up some of the psychological rationales around the psychology of fraud. She even gets to the other side at one point, talking to someone who is a Yahoo Boy in Nigeria, and getting hold of the scripts.

My biggest issue with Keanue Reeves Is Not In Love With You was her own lack of confidence about her own competence. She said she doesn't do stats, which is a pity because even the simplest of breakdowns shows that it is basically a numbers game, thousands of people on dating sites, plus thousands of scammers, something is likely to hit when the intersection of cover story and person who needs a conversation happens. She has clearly become an expert over the last three years in this subject and is well-placed to draw between journalism, psychology, criminology and economics. Her criticisms at the end of the various groups that exist to help are clear, and her sympathy for the subjects is too. The humour and title will probably get it read more, but its the central dive into romance fraud that makes this useful. That and seeing when even her fake Liam Neeson suddenly felt he should call the police on this weird British murderer.

A real mixed bag. At times simply hilarious then really sad. Overall a very informative book.
Although not my usual thing it was interesting and sadly a sign of the times we live in.
Many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy..