I really wanted to love this book more. The concept was so interesting with her being an influencer, but the entire book felt like a kitchen sink book; there was a little bit of every kind of trope that clouded the story too much. It's definitely a cozy read, which are also not my cup of tea, so that may also be a huge part of why I didn't love it so much. It's not a bad book, I just don't think I was the appropriate target audience.

“The currency here was fun and our town did it right.”

This is a fun and modern cozy mystery with interesting and varied characters. The main character is Emily, who is a social media influencer in the small town of Eliot Hill. Her best buds include Fritz, owner of the Longbourn Café, and Murray, Emily’s dog.

“Small town? Big gossip.”

Eliot Hill may be small, but the rotating cast of celebrities in town for films and the production studio keep the town lively (and full of drunk driving accidents). When the local (and semi famous) bully is found dead from an assumed drunk driving incident, Emily decides to help an old friend find out what really happened.

“Crowdsourcing for clues? I hadn’t seen this coming.”

Emily asks her followed for tips about what happened and gets way more than she bargained for - a budding romance with a cop, threats, and a grudge with a biker just to name a few.

Like her last novel, Instagoner brings a fresh feeling to the cozy mystery genre. I’d recommend this to anyone looking to get into cozy mysteries, people sick of thinking social media and cell phones are just ignored in the genre, and anyone who likes a good mystery.

Cute story. Felt a little silly. Loved the relationship between the FMC & her bestie. But other parts just felt...ingenious. and the FMC felt a but wishy-washy.

I found this to be a thoroughly engaging book with plenty of twists that kept me guessing. The opening chapter hooked me. I liked the light romance without being overly graphic. The descriptions of every single food or drink item got a bit tedious, but this being my only complaint, it seems very trivial. I look forward to more from this author.

Lifestyle blogger and Instagrammer, Emily Dalle finds her nemesis killed. Soon she uses her media space to help her find the murderer. My people at @thrillerbookloversthepulse really enjoyed this one!

I loved her sidekick, a dog named Murray! So adorable! Sydney Leigh did a great job creating a cozy mystery! This is not my normal read, but I definitely enjoyed it!

Thank you to Sydney Leigh, Level Best Books and NetGalley for the opportunity!

I'm always up for a cozy murder mystery, so when the author offered me an #arc of her latest work, of course I accepted it!

"When lifestyle blogger Emily Dalle comes face-to-face with controversial talk show host, Jackie Hunter, she’s in for the shock of her life. But this time it’s not Jackie’s words that cause a stir—it’s her dead body."

#InstaGoner delivers all the best tropes of a small town murder mystery: an amateur sleuth who is constantly getting herself in trouble, a local coffee shop where everyone knows everyone, a sexy detective who is way too forgiving, and a canine bff who saves the day... all against the backdrop of all of ours weekness: social media!

This was a fun cozy mystery. This is the first book I’ve read from this author and I would like to read more. I love the concept of the main character being a blogger and influencer, I found it very intriguing.

Posted on goodreads as well:

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to read this!

The blurb really caught my attention- it seemed like a fun concept!

Emily as a character was a difficult one for me to decide if I liked or not. She was so stubborn but also so driven. A very curious person by nature, which is something I can relate to- I can see why she so easily got fixated on the case. As a true crime fanatic and someone who just enjoys learning about law enforcement and corrections practices, some parts of this had me screaming. Posting to her blog for tips could have caused so many issues, especially as it hadn’t been cleared with investigators. I can say I for sure did not like her non-swear words that she used, it pulled me out of the story a tad.

As an AuDHD reader, mystery books don’t tend to go well for me. I pick up on patterns quickly, and I usually have the ending figured out very early on. This book did take me longer, I’d say 85% of the way to figure out the likely culprit.

Overall, I’d say 4/5 stars for a fun quick mystery read!

Emily is a lifestyle blogger, she stumbles upon the dead body of a controversial show host Jackie. The cause of death is maybe hit and run though it has not revealed yet. The investigation is going on but Emily also tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. As soon as the truth and secrets come out, it becomes dangerous for Emily. I like the author’s writing, the characters were interesting and mysterious and love the setting of a small town. I loved the character of Murray. The book will keep you guessing till the end and expect the unexpected.

Thanks to the Author and Publisher.

Super fun and easy to read. I definitely would read more stories involving Emily and her loveable dog Murray.

What a fun and entertaining cozy mystery. It’s such an engaging story full of suspense and mystery! The action takes off from the very first chapter which gets the momentum going right away! I loved following along with Emily as she unexpectedly gets caught up in a murder investigation. It’s quite complicated and there are a lot of suspects as secrets come to light. Such an enjoyable story from start to finish!

Thank you to NetGalley and Level Best Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What do you do when you stumble across the body of your frenemy/local Mean Girl turned TV star? You ask your followers for tips, of course. Everyone is a suspect as Jackie seemingly has issues with entire town, but who wanted her dead? Just when you think you learn the extent of Jackie’s behaviour, you find out more tea.

Despite her efforts to recover from her people-pleasing habits, local blogger and dog-mom, Emily, can’t help but get involved in a murder investigation even though her bestie, Fitz and his hot cop brother, Noah, tell her that her involvement is a terrible idea.

Insta-Goner is a fast-paced, cozy-esque small town murder mystery with a lot suspects, twists and even more drama.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Sydney Leigh and NetGalley for my complimentary eARC of InstaGoner. All thoughts and opinions are my own

InstaGoner is the first book in the A Bark and Blog Mystery Series. At least I am hoping it’s a series (fingers crossed). I love cozy mysteries.
They are not very scary
There is usually a pet sidekick
Always a meddling wannabe detective
A hot police detective

I am always surprised when the killer is revealed. I am sure it’s a me issue. I did try really hard to figure out the killer in this one and once again I was surprised.

This is a solid mystery with plenty of relatable characters. The instagram influencer backdrop was fun and I am hoping we get to hang out more with Emily, Fitz and Noah and of course, Murray. Eliot Hill seems like a great place to hang out. Unless you end up dead.

This was an enjoyable read.
Will recommend to others.
Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it.

Cozy and comedic murder-mystery novel that I needed as we step into Fall. Just perfect for the upcoming season.

I contemplated on how should I rate it cause... won't lie I loved it. Loved the plot twist at the end. Didn't see that coming. But I just thought the plot itself wasn't that unique. Not saying it's bad or anything but this is just how I rate my books.

Thank you so much Netgalley.

2.5

this is almost 3 stars for me.

i think this is one of the most unique books i’ve ever read.

i don’t think i’ve ever read a book where i really didn’t like the writing style, but i didn’t want to stop reading. i genuinely couldn’t get into the writing, the way characters were described sometimes didn’t match how they acted, what they said, or how they were introduced to the story. there’s also so much repetition. i understand reinstating something so the reader remembers but the amount of times i heard about emily & rob being on jackie’s show & rob revealing he doesn’t want to be with emily anymore & eventually dating jackie was a bit much.

emily saying she was a recovering people pleaser later on in the book didn’t really make sense to me because of emily’s need to help becka (someone who’s not even her friend) solve her sister’s murder (someone who was awful to her & others).

i do have to say that the writing style gets better 2/3 of the way into the book. there’s less repetition, the story flows better, & at that point i really wanted to find out who killed jackie & why. i do have to say that everything worked out pretty well. everything fell together when more clues were revealed. i just wish it happened earlier on in the book.

i loved the fact that murray & emily were a duo & murray basically saved her. i just wish there was more to the characters than what was there. i feel like fitz, emily, noah & everyone else could’ve had more to them instead of just fitz always worrying about his bestie emily & being sent to walk murray & noah always being serious.

i think my biggest issue with this book is the lack of consistency in the writing, characters & flow. the last 1/3 of it was a lot better though.

thank you to level best books & netgalley
- arc provided via netgalley in exchange for an honest review

💻 This is the second book I read by miss Sidney here. Even though, Peril in Pink got 5 stars too, I liked this book sooo much more

I felt like Instagoner had so much more plot and fun and twists and turns. I couldn’t guess who it was. I had my doubts but nothing firm. Miss Leigh here knew exactly what she was doing!

I really enjoyed the fact that Emily and Fitz were the closest of friends. A ride or die duo. I also really liked how close she is with her mom and how she always features her on her blog. Love some mom and daughter time

I kinda hoped there would be some tension or more spark or just something between Noah and Emily. They’d make such a cute couple. Especially, knowing that she finds him so attractive and he really cares about her. Despite everything it shows that they trust each other and that they’re so important to each other

You still don’t have all the answers until the very last chapter. Which is nice, because you’re kept on your toes way past the point you think you know everything

Emily is such a sweetheart and I really liked that she didn’t jump to conclusions and assumptions based on trauma. She stuck to facts and to reality and gave her all and tried her best to believe the people who have hurt her the most. You don’t see that these days!

I really enjoyed this read. Everything about this book was perfect. The chapters are super short too. I read more than half in just a few hours. Highly recommended🧡

Blogging. Murder. Bikers. Caffeine. And a very sweet Murray the dog.
That’s what you get in this Murder, She Wrote-light story. Emily lives in an apartment above her best friend Fitz’s cafe. His brother Noah just happens to be the town sheriff (and the object of Emily’s affection). Both boys try to keep Emily out of trouble, whether it be after a particularly nasty break up or just getting her out into fresh air on a bike ride or for a hike. That is, until she stumbles across the dead body of her friend/enemy Jackie. After asking her followers for any help in the murder investigation Emily is now on the killers radar. Her determination to find the truth could lead her to the same fate as Jackie.
This was a great murder-lite, small town mystery with a teeny side of romance. It was a great palate cleaners for me and a break from my more dark reading choices. Overall I give it a solid 3.75/5 for story like (I didn’t see the killer coming until the very end) and a 0.5/5 on spice level.
Thank you NetGalley and publishers for allowing me to read this ARC.

Instagoner by Sydney Leigh was such a cute murder mystery. This is the second book by Sydney that I've read and loved. This book was such a quick, cozy mystery. The main characters were likable. This book follows lifestyle blogger Emily Dalle. After stumbling upon the body of her frenemy/colleague she starts investigating how Jackie's body came to be dead on the side of the wlriaf much to the dismay of her bestie, Fitz and his sheriff brother, Noah. Jackie has a lot of enemies & being known as the Queen of Mean makes for a difficult investigation. Sydney Leigh is quickly becoming an insta read author for me.

🔹️Cozy Murder Mystery
🔹️The Banter
🔹️ Juicy Secrets
🔹️Whodunit
🔹️Blogger FMC
🔹️Small Town
🔹️Amateur Sleuthing
🔹️ Fun Easy Read

I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

Instagoner is a fast-paced, murder mystery. This was such an enjoyable book. I could not put it down. Emily is an influencer and during a morning bike ride she finds her frenemy Jackie dead.
Overall, this book was a quite enjoyable.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Sydney Leigh for the Advanced Review Copy.