Scott and Rachel's marriage is on the brink of disaster. Scott, a businessman with a high-pressure job, just wants Rachel to understand him and accept his flaws. Rachel is a lonely housewife, desperate for attention and friendship. So she decides to create a virtual friend online, unaware that Scott is doing the exact same thing. As Rachel desperately tries to re-create a friendship with a friend who has passed, Scott becomes unfaithful and is torn between the love for his wife and the perfection of his cyber-girlfriend. But neither realizes that there's a much larger problem looming . . .
Behind both of their online creations is Melissa, a woman who is brilliant---and totally insane. Masquerading as both friend and lover, Melissa programmed a search parameter into the virtual friend software to find her perfect man, but along the way she forgot to specify his marriage status. And Scott is her ideal match. Now Melissa is determined to have it all---Scott, his family, and Rachel's life.
As Melissa grows bolder and her online manipulations transition into the real world, Scott and Rachel figure out they are being played. Now it's a race against time as Scott and Rachel fight to save their marriage, and their lives, before it's too late.
In today's digital age, the Internet presents all kinds of opportunities to test our personal boundaries, and this exciting and suspenseful story raises important questions about the ethics of virtual relationships. Friend Me will open your eyes to a new---and terrifying---moral dimensions and how they play out in the real world.
My review:
This book was offered for review from a source that has limited copies available, and signing up doesn't guarantee a review copy. I thought the book sounded really good, and was happy to see I signed up in time. Also, it deals with an important issue that affects me and most people who have computers: internet safety.
There is an extensive description of the book, so I won't recap what it is about. I loved the book. This is the author's first novel, and he did an excellent job of writing it. It has a great plot, characters that had a lot of development, and enough suspense to hold my attention, but shouldn't be too much for the faint of heart.
The author spends some time showing how a marriage can go downhill until one or both parties are more susceptible to inappropriate contacts on line or offline. One thing I appreciated, was the author gives the reader that Scott has done some really inappropriate actions on line without going into detail about what they are and by doing so, being too graphic.
The book is more than a fictional story. It is a warning that whether we are married or not, we need to be careful on line. There is so much good out there, but there is also so much danger. In the book, the emphasis was mostly on the physical danger, along with danger to a marriage, but it should also be a warning about the spiritual dangers.
The book definitely came up to my expectations, and I am looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.
About the author:
John Faubion has spent many years in Asia as a missionary with his family. Since returning to the United States, John has worked as a senior software developer for a large appliance chain. He teaches an adult Sunday school class and enjoys writing and driving his 1949 Packard automobile. John lives near Indianapolis with his wife, Beth, and their daughter.
More about John in his own words:
I am a former thirty-year foreign missionary, now working as Senior Software Engineer for a large electronics and appliance retailer.
In 1966, as a new Christian and an American soldier in Vietnam, I was deeply moved at my first exposure to idolatry.
In 1974, after completing Bible college and missionary deputation, our family of four moved to South Vietnam to begin formal missionary work, where we remained until the war was lost and Americans had to leave.
In 1976, with another missionary, we started Harvest Baptist Church and Christian School on Guam.
We returned to the field in 1977 going to Taiwan, where we began our Chinese ministry. The Lord allowed us to start the Ping Lin Baptist Church in Taichung at that time.
From 1981 until 1988 I did the software development for Baptist International Missions in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We then returned to the mission field of mainland China. In 1989 my first wife went to be with the Lord, and the Lord gave me my wife Beth in 1990.
We remained in Beijing and Hong Kong until 1999.
I'm still a Mandarin Chinese speaker. I have five children, the youngest sixteen years old
Friend Me is available from Howard Books.
Thanks to Litfuse for the review copy.
John Faubion is celebrating his debut novel, Friend Me, with a Kindle HDX giveaway!
One winner will receive:
- A brand new Kindle Fire HDX
- Friend Me by John Faubion
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