Hacker Mom

By: Austen Rachlis

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Is it possible to be one of the world's most dangerous whistleblowers and still make a killer meatloaf? Becky Taylor is about to find out.

As a stay-at-home mom with an adorable four-year-old son, Becky Taylor knows she has her hands full. Even though she's juggling her husband's important career ambitions, competitive playgroup moms, and a sister who won't stop reminding her of the dreams she once had to fight for social justice, Becky still feels something is missing. When she discovers a disc with damaging information about a megabank, Becky begins covertly moonlighting for one of the world's most controversial websites, exposing state and corporate secrets. But with the Feds hot on her trail, increasing doubts about the motivation of the mysterious head of the website, and the growing difficulty of leading a double life, Becky may be embroiled in a world more dangerous than she ever imagined.

©2012 Austen Rachlis (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Pretty entertaining, but I want more!

The story of Becky Taylor and her adventures with the highly controversial Open Whistle whistle blowing internet site is absolute genius! I love the idea of a stay at home mom getting involved in something so big and spectacular, all without disrupting her motherly duties.

Becky attends a hackers conference in Las Vegas to provide support to her sister Molly who will be a guest speaker. Molly used to be a notorious hacker and has now gone legit in the business world. During Becky's time there, she bumps into the wrong person, or right person, it depends how you look at it, and this encounter changes her life way beyond her wildest dreams. Becky has just been slipped a disk that has proof of a huge bank committing fraud! Not so much a shocker to me, but gasp! After Molly decrypts the disk and opens the files, she tells her sister that there is only one thing she can do, turn it into Open Whistle, this is just up their alley.

Once Becky is able to see what a glorious feeling turning this corrupt bank in gives her, she doesn't want the feeling to end. So Becky goes onto Open Whistle and signs up as a volunteer. All the while keeping this new job from her husband Hank and her friends. I don't think Becky had any idea she just jumped down the rabbit hole. The company she thinks is doing good is actually corrupt itself. By the time Becky finds this out, all hell has broken loose in her life, and she is about to go down as a traitor to her country!

I appreciate how Becky's character was depicted in this story. Although she is a stay at home mother, that doesn't mean she is dumb, uneducated, or lazy. She just wants the best for her son Jacob, and not sticking him in full time daycare while she works a stressful job is what is best for him. But on the other hand, if all she has to do is make a few phone calls, and have a few discrete drop off meetings to help rid her country of evil doers, then why not?! I also love how the deeper Becky gets into Open Whistle the more she starts figuring out on her own the who, what, and where of it all. I did feel the ending left me feeling not quite satisfied, but overall the book was good.

Narrator Review

Tanya Eby was a very good narrator. I enjoyed her voice, and her depiction of all the characters. Tanya's narration wasn't outstanding but it wasn't awful either, it was ok/good. I have no complaints, so I give her a 3 star rating as well.

save your money.

struggled to finish. too many characters, often thrown in without purpose. difficult to follow.

Not so good

Disappointed in the way the story played out. Not a total waste of time but wouldn't recommend it to a friend.

Misleading title

It seems the mom is just an introvert who doesn't have much going on for herself besides motherhood. Her sister is the hacker and this association draws her into an espionage-type situation.

Difficult to follow

The story seemed to jump around and was difficult to follow. The characters weren't clearly drawn.

Light easy read

It was a fun fluff book without a lot of depth. Not the type of book I read often , but i enjoyed it. It was especially nice to get it as the deal of the day!

enjoyable but many holes in plot

easy listening , interesting twists and turns but to many facts or motivations don't add up

Terrible reader

The reader was terrible. The only thing worse than her dialects was her poor attempt at male voices.

Not too horrible

The story was interesting, but severely jumpy. Way too many holes in the plot and unresolved tangents.

Hacker Mom,fun

This is a light read and while cute I felt the plot was evasive and off somehow.reader was great.