My name is Maddy, and I am Batman. Just kidding. In truth, I'm a computer hacker who tracks down criminals at night and turns them over to the police. The only thing missing is a cape. I work alone, and I like it that way. That is, until my internet sleuthing gets interrupted by a group of hackers that call themselves the Fab Four. Turns out, I'm not the only one hunting down the baddies online, and when we meet... Let's just say, my days of flying solo are over.
This is a contemporary reverse harem suspense series
I had several problems with this book, unfortunately. It needed some editing. The characters weren't very memorable or distinct. Most (if not all) characters were one-dimensional with no secondary motivations. The ending was anticlimactic. I'm going to rant more and talk about possible spoilers below, so be warned.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!
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There was too much being told to us rather than shown via dialogue or actions, so I never really felt connected to the characters. I felt like in order to know and remember each character, especially the brothers, I had to go through a checklist of facts in my head: job- programmer, farmer, bartender, news reporter? Personality type- Dominant, laid back, aggressive, sensitive? I couldn't identify them otherwise, not by what they said nor by their actions.
Each character is basically reduced to a one-dimensional being based off their primary descriptive term. Maddy is a loner and hacker, thus even mention of two siblings is casually brushed off with no emotion from the MC, while more time is spent describing her paying computer projects. The villain is an illegal immigrant who came to the US from Libya via Saudi Arabia and Mexico apparently for the sole purpose of gunning down random innocent affluent Americans hanging out in their suburban front yards. Also mentioned is how another illegal immigrant raped and murded one of the brothers' high school girlfriends. It was uncomfortably one-dimensional.
The men in this reverse harem are identical quadruplets, which is fine, but the MC keeps pointing out how identical they are and how the MC doesn't know who she is talking to for about 80% of the book, which was mildly uncomfortable. It was made more uncomfortable when the brothers talk about how they shared a girlfriend before, but she didn't know they were sharing her (each quadruplet pretended to be one person and they'd take turns going on dates with her.) That's kind of squicky to me.
The police were remarkably welcoming of the vigilante help the hackers gave them and basically accepted anything given to them by the brothers or Maddy as truth. No questions were asked as to where or how this information was obtained. This was waved away by the explanation that the cops knew the brothers and had asked for help from them before. Still too hard for me to suspend my disbelief.
Many times the characters did something really unsafe while saying it was safe. "We're going to go join the police in looking through buildings for the villain's lair, where he may possibly be since we have no idea where he is at any given time, and where he may keep an unknown supply of automatic weapons. But don't worry! We're going in pairs just to look, because that's safe." Maddy even mentions at one point how she didn't do these things before meeting the brothers because she liked to be safe. She and the brother she was with then laugh it off as they go into another building. The addition of one man, who, while he may or may not be armed, has presumably zero experience in any sort of martial arts or combat training, does not make a girl safer. I was actually angry that the characters kept saying how safe it was for them to look for the lair, even after the villain followed them to the MC's house and fired a gun through the window while she was inside.
I honestly don't know why I finished this. I wanted to give up on the book around the halfway point but I kept telling myself I wasn't giving it enough of a chance. I told myself to keep reading until the end, and now I'm somewhat regretful of the time I spent reading this book. I liked the idea behind the story and the fact that it was available for Kindle Unlimited, but honestly? I can't recommend this at all.
This is basically my feelings for the whole story -“Sounds kinda junior high to me,” Joe said.”. If the characters' actual age wasn't mentioned, I would have thought them teenagers, based on their behavior. The Js (that's how I call them. It was actually really confusing to me that all of their names start with a J, I kept mixing them up) are "fighting" criminals, right? So they're supposed to be intelligent, right? Plus it was mentioned that there was once a girl that fooled the Js before, so they ought to be cautious now. Yet, when they meet a new girl, a stranger basically, they immediately trust her and share with her every piece of information they have. And Maddy. She's also supposed to be super smart, and yet she invites four guys she just met and knows next to nothing about to her home, where she lives alone. I'm not buying it. Aside from that unrealistic behavior, the investigation itself seemed too easy. Most of the information seemed to just fall into their hands, so to speak. And the relationship formed practically out of nowhere. “When you’re around me, I feel… I dunno, whole?”. Even though you met, I dunno, yesterday?
Some people might like the book, but the whole thing just did not work for me.
If I could go lower with stars it would be in the negative
I didn't like it at all. The writing was juvenile and the characters were all very two dimensioned. Not to mention that the male characters were all alike, 4 quads and one girl who seemed discriminatory against immigrants. Out of all of the things to use your hacking skills for you go after immigrants? Cue, roll eye emoji. There are so many problems in the world, world hunger, debt, homeless children, struggling veterans, etc... and you want to use your hacking power to go after immigrants. It would be better to go after Christian pedophiles. The author sounds like she pooped her personal frustration into the book, which might not have necessarily been the bad thing, had it not been so blatantly prejudice. I have no doubt in my mind that this author likely voted for Trump. Lol
I think this has the potential to be a great series. It held my attention and kept me wanting to know what was going on. The relationship between them all was good as well. There were some errors but again, great potential.
#Hacker 1.0 is the first of The fab Five series. The series has a lot of potential. The book was entertaining enough, but a little predictable and in need of more detailing. Maddy is a work from home computer expert that plays Miss Marvel, a cyber investigator on the side. She uses her hacking skills to investigate illegal immigrants and other bad guys she sees on the news. When she has enough info to make the case, she turns it over to the police. Right now she's focused on a murderer; a drive by shooter. While investigating she crosses computer paths with another hacker. They chat and set up a meet to compare notes. The other hacker is J-1, one of the Magruder Crew, crime solving identical quadruplets, Josh, Joe, Jake, and Johnny. The meet and greet goes well, the brothers are all introduced, and a friendship/partnership. This soon leads into an attraction with more than one of the brothers.
I enjoyed Maddy. I would have loved to get to embrace her quirkiness a bit more. Her conversations with the Chinese restaurant cat, her fear of falling, her love of chocolate milk. Let her full character shine through. Also, at first I wasn't sure about 4 identical brothers, but it grew on me. The potential for mix-ups, naughtiness, and even conflicts could add to the storyline. There's going to need to be more character development though. Right now we only know the basics. What makes each boy special? How were the "first two" different when playing? Moe detailing on al of the main characters, please! And exploit the hacking. Dark chat rooms and cyber-sleuthing is fascinating. So much to work with.
The plot was somewhat predictable/questionable, but that was okay since it was setting up the relationships and characters. Example: How was Maddie spotted, but not the brothers? I don't think it was realistic to think that the police would be so welcoming to Maddie and the Crew. They generally don't encourage civilian involvement beyond a tip or two, but I can let that slide for the sake of the story. Finally, I didn't like the emphasis on illegals, but that's personal. I feel that most illegals are probably in the country to try to make some money for family back home and not to commit horrible crimes. I would have felt more comfortable if the hackers just followed the crime news. Again this is my own personal thought and isn't reflected in my rating.
Still, I think if the author flushes out the characters to make them each more personable that she is on to something with this series. The world of hacking and cyber-sleuthing is full of possibility. I will definitely read 2.0 as soon as it's released.
Lot of editing errors. Story was too predictable and not enough to really keep my attention. I rushed through the book by skipping several passages at a time just to see if it got any more interesting, was very disappointed.
It's a bit uneven. You can tell it is written by a new author. The story promises the heroine hooking up with five brothers. In this story, she only hooks up with two or three in very rushed scenes. They are solving crimes. Good first effort.
This is a promising start to a new series. First, as with any RH, it's really make or break on the guys and I'm intrigued by this crew. Second comes the MC and I have no real complaints about Maddy - she seems pretty tough and I found her reactions fairly realistic - there were no scenes where I found myself screaming at her for being an idiot, which is always good.
We got a moderate amount of emotional relationship development in this story - the physical side may have moved a bit fast for the level of emotional intimacy we've witnessed, but that's really a different balancing act for every person I think. And as a major plus I think Maddy's been perfectly forthright with each guy as their relationship moves forward so there should be no hard feelings about being lied to or mislead.
I only have three real complaints: First is that the plot sort of fizzled. I was expecting something much more dramatic and it was just sort of over. Second I find it really difficult to believe that all these highrise buildings in downtown phoenix have no security and just let random strangers walk through the floors in the middle of the day. Every office I've ever worked in has required badge access to get into the building and to enter most floors. One or two buildings with minimal security okay, but all of them? Third the addition of the illegal immigrant common thread to the perps they normally go after felt very unnecessary and xenophobic. Dude's a bad guy because he's MURDERING people. The fact that he probably jumped the border from Mexico really has nothing to do with it.
Last but not least it really could have used another run through with an editor. The editing didn't affect my rating, but it was enough to trip me up a few times.
I thought the story was interesting at first. I was a little skeptical of a reverse harem with identical quadruplets because that is basically like dating the same guy in terms of appearance but I thought maybe their personalities would really make them stand out apart. They didn't really strike me as unique because although the reader was told how different they were we weren't really shown. I'm used to my reverse harem stories including diverse males so it was a little disappointing. What I didn't really like about the story is that it had a strong anti-immigrant tone. At least I got the feeling that all illegal immigrants were considered to be criminals & terrorists and that's why they were targeting them in particular. I don't find that to be true in my own experience and found it a little offensive but maybe that was just my interpretation. The events didn't seem realistic either because I don't understand how they gained access to all of those buildings that they were searching. Do they not have any security in that city? Where I come from you have to show badges or id to gain access to buildings and certain floors. Finally, I didn't really see the connection between them develop & it seemed like she just jumped into bed with a couple of them because she was having a dry spell. I think I'm going to pass on the rest of this series. I hate to leave reviews that have anything negative in them but this is my honest opinion. Sorry.
I really enjoyed #Hacker 1.0, I think that even though this is the authors first book, and there were a few errors, that the Fab Five series will be a great series. Having talked with Ms. Stone, I get a feel of what it is like to be a new author and have things go alittle off course, but I truely feel she has a great series starter on her hands. I don't know which version you have read, the one with errors, or the new version. But I highly recommend to look past that to the story itself and how fun Maddy is, I mean come on, a kick ass Hacker girl, who can hang with 4 hot as hell quadruplets. It all starts with Maddy, she likes to help the cops catch criminals through means in which they cannot use, Hacking. While she is trying to dig up damning evidence an a criminal, she encounters someone doing the same thing. This in turn changes her life. She is introduced to the Fab Four, identical brothers who help the law on the side with their particular skills. I really enjoyed getting to know the quads, aka the Magruder crew. Josh, Joe, Johnny and Jake. They each have their own personalities and their own sets of skills. I found it fun that Maddy had to learn the small differences to tell them apart. With just the right amount of fun one liners, comebacks, beginnings of romance and a little danger, #Hacker 1.0 was a great first release from an author to watch for.
I was very interested to read a book about a female hacker and the group of vigilante hacker guys she meets and teams up with the defeat the bad guy. Unfortunately, there were so many things about this book that I just did not like. I made it about halfway and then skimmed to the end because it was such a struggle to read through. First, but not a huge issue, was the writing itself. I found many errors, though they weren't always glaring or that bad for a self-published book. A much larger issue was that the characters were flat and lacking in development. The main character herself struggled to differentiate the guys because they were pretty much the same with one or two tweaks that hardly made them stand apart. The antagonist of this story was a patchwork character of stereotypes, and I found the language the author used (ie. "illegals") offensive. The plot was also super rushed, with the romance and action taking place much too quickly. The characters acted in ways that were unrealistic and/or unbelievable (though they had strange justifications for most things) and it felt like they acted that way just to make the plot move along more quickly. I will not be reading more of this series and I wouldn't recommend it. I think the author needs to take a serious look at the story and make some major edits. While the premise was intriguing, the product fell flat.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I liked the fact she was a hacker and was independent. I had suspension on detective stone, like he was a bad guy in hiding, but maybe I was wrong. I gave 4 stars because I feel like the ending could have been bettee. There was nonclesr indication that it was either done completely or left open for a book 2. Im guessing there will be another book for the simple fact she hasn't really connected with all 4, only 2 of them.
I do have questions though, like what is she going to do with her house? Is detective stone a bad guy? Will she connect with all 4? What's the chances she is prego bc it isn't mentioned that there is any usage of contraceptives?
Wow, I got this book because basically I was bored. But you know what, I have never been so glad to be bored in my life. This book is great, I loved that the MC wasn't perfect. I loved that she has little quirks that just make you want too hug her. When she finally met the guys I was so happy as she seem incredibly lonely, yes she had her family but that is about it no friends no work colleagues because she worked from home. There are parts you in which when she cries you either want to or actually do cry with her, she seems confident in herself on a lot of things but you see the moments of insecurity that make you like her even more. I can't wait for more books from this author, for those that like reverse harem this book is a must read
This book had a lot of potential. First of all, kudos for having a female hacker. A little trusting, but it was nice to see a less traditional (background) career choice for the female lead. Quadruplets was a fun touch, too. I'm not sure that their info to the police would have been as well received as it was. Having worked in dispatch I've seen how info is processed through detectives and it is not so readily accepted. But, for the sake of novelisation, acceptable in the story line. There are some grammatical errors but nothing so hideous as to make you close and delete the book file.
I did enjoy the story as a whole, though, and with the character growth shown I have a lot of hopes for the next in the series.
Terrible writing. As I've said in the past, the first rule of writing is "show, don't tell." This was all telling and now showing. A cliché cluster-fuck, to boot. Also, there was no tension at all, and there is so much opportunity to build tension among these characters. But no, she has Maddy jumping into bed with these guys right off the bat. Give me a break! Give me something to look forward to! To root for! Lame lame lame. Furthermore, these characters were as vapid as they come. I don't know anything about them; nothing real. Nothing that makes me love them or connect with them. As far as RH goes, there are far better series.
I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily decided to review it
I am hoping that there will be another book with Maddy and get 4 boys. I loved the investigative storyline on this book. Maddy meets the boys when hacking into the same thing as one of the boys
They end up teaming up to investigate the murders taking place in their area. It is a reverse harem romance, but different to any other out at the moment
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by Remi M Stone, I highly recommend this book
Reads like a YA with adult erotic, feeling confused, give it a 2.5
Character narration sounds young. Plot was okay. Can't recommend but looking forward to Remi's future works. To make a suggestion, don't use names that are so alike. If they all were Qs it might have worked, but J's didn't sound right for me and made it hard to imagine.
I did not connect with the characters and I didn't think they connected well with each other. The whole book seemed rushed and the romance seemed forced. I didn't enjoy the story surrounding them track this killer either. It just didn't seem very plausible.
The writing was all over the place, the perspective changed from second to third repeatedly, the language was stilted and the reactions weren't believable. Everything was told rather than shown and the characters were flat.
I like that this story is true to life. Well maybe not many girls get quadruplets! But glad that it's not a slow burn. They take chances! I'll keep reading these.