‘I wish I could! Why did he call it the Hotel California?’
‘No idea. Hopefully it’s nothing sinister. Speaking of sinister. Have there been any lurkers? Any dodgy hoverers in the vicinity?’
‘Not one. And trust me, Mai has been on the lookout. Got bloodlust in her veins that one, wants to Krav Maga a man, any man, it doesn’t matter if they’re innocent or guilty.’
‘Better the incels than me, that’s for sure.’ At least she’s keeping an eye out though. It does reassure me they’d notice anything untoward. ‘I still haven’t heard a peep from Tia’s lawyers.’
‘Maybe they’ve advised her it’s not worth fighting? And suing a well-known Bookstagrammer wouldn’t exactly make the rest of the book community rush out to review her books now, would it? Everyone would be giving her a wide berth, worried if they said the wrong thing that they’d be next.’
‘That’s a good point. But if she did sue me, I mean, there’s not much to take.’ And when I say not much, I mean I’d have to give her an IOU.
‘Another silver lining.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, I heard since the… kerfuffle?—’
‘That’s a nice way of saying it.’ I can’t help but laugh.
‘Right? It’s being reported that her sales have only increased, so maybe she’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.’
‘Urgh, I guess the old adage is true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I’m tempted to look up posts on Reddit that my friend Bethany’s Books mentioned. Maybe I could?—’
‘No, Harper. No. Just let this go. If you have escaped being sued, then count that as a win. I don’t want you digging yourself in any deeper.’
Lily is always the voice of reason, and I should listen to her sensible advice. Unfortunately, that’s just not going to happen but I don’t tell her that. ‘You’re right. I’m an idiot.’ I make a mental note to check out Reddit later purely to salve my own curiosity.
‘Good. What’s on the cards for the rest of the day now you’re a resident in a five-star luxury resort? Why don’t you pop on your bikini and go play volleyball with those hotties you mentioned?’
Shrieks from outside filter in. I get up from the bed to peek out the window and see the flutter of eye-catching kites soaring high and what appears to be real humans dangling from said kites. Kite surfers? I fervently hope no one asks me to join in such an activity, I get my thrills strictly from the conflict in romance novels. The kites, like colourful half-moons, float across the sky while guests standing on the shore shade their faces to stare.
‘Urgh. Play sport in this heat? I’ll keel over with sunstroke. And get scammed out of what little money I have left when they force me to gamble on a game they’ve rigged. No. I’ll unpack and get myself settled. I’m meeting Xavier later. Inexplicably, Gus, the guy who hired me, is no longer here and I still haven’t seen the bookshop. The bookshop I’m now supposed to be the manager of. At this point, I’m worried it’s a front and there is no bookshop.’
She guffaws. ‘A front? For what?’
‘Drug mules. Organ harvesting. People cloning. Who knows. I’m going to keep my wits about me on this island, that’s all I know for sure. White Lotus vibes, remember? There’s gotta be a plot twist coming eventually. Or a dead body will wash up when the tide comes in. That’s how these things always play out.’
‘You and your brain that’s been rotted by reading too much romantic suspense! It’s not like you to be dramatic or anything is it?’
‘Dramatic or street smart? You, a dedicated thriller reader, should be well aware of this, Lily.’
She lets out a snort. ‘Dramatic with a capital D!’
17
I’m not all that familiar with the forum Reddit, but I know it’s popular for its communities, where you can find people who share an interest in the same topic. I’ve dipped in and out before when there were scandals in romancelandia but it’s not visual like Instagram and so I’ve never really spent much time on it.
I open the app and type Tia Amboro’s name and find a few comments here and there, nothing inflammatory like I figured Books with Bethany meant. Could those more damaging posts have been deleted? Maybe Tia’s lawyers are getting ahead of anything libellous because there is a distinct lack of talk on this site about Tia and her bookBang, Bang!considering it’s storming the eBook charts and people on the internet generally have a lot of opinions. Just thinking about the threat that I’ll be hearing from her legal team is enough to make me sweat but so far I haven’t heard a peep. Somehow that’s more concerning as if they’re taking their time to put an irrefutable case together against me. I try a few other searches which come up with nothing. I finally type my own name and am startled when an entire community dedicated to it pops up.
The thing with these forums is, you never know quite what the tone will be. Whether they’ll be filled with people for or against and if the moderators manage to keep talk civil.
I give myself a silent pep talk for courage, worried I’m going to be faced with a whole forum of people denigrating me. I click into it.
r/Harpersbookhaven
This moderated sub is to discuss claims made by Bookstagrammer Harper Morgan from Harper’s Book Haven about author Tia Amboro and her debut release Bang, Bang!
BlahblahblahBoise: Honestly, I think Harper is right about Tia Amboro. The book is AI or satire. One or the other. It can’t be real.
