Just One Bite
- Judith D Collins
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
By: Miranda Rijks
ISBN: 9781837567591
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Publication Date: 06/28/2026
Format: e-book
My Rating: 5 Stars (ARC)
Brittany has gone viral.
And not in a good way.
Celebrity chef Brittany Cole has it all. Fame, success, and the perfect family. From her restored Vermont farmhouse, she's built a wholesome brand that is trusted by millions.
But when her four-year-old has a meltdown, a video of Brittany shouting at the little girl goes viral. It’s a PR nightmare that threatens to destroy Brittany’s squeaky-clean image—and her career.
And it’s about to get so much worse.
More videos of Brittany abusing her daughter are released and #bitchmom trends within hours. But Brittany knows something truly terrifying: none of these new videos are real. Someone out there is trying to destroy her with deepfakes. Someone who has been watching her home, her studio, her marriage.
As more damning videos surface, Brittany's perfect life unravels. Her sponsors flee. Her husband files for divorce. And then, when someone close to her is murdered, the police start asking questions Brittany can't answer.
Her only hope is to find out who is behind this campaign to destroy her. Because it’s clear that they don’t just want to ruin her life—they want to end it.
Just One Bite – the gripping psychological thriller from the million-selling author of Don’t Answer the Phone and The Visitors.
My Review
What would you do if a video went viral that completely ruined your life—and you weren't even the person in it? 💻🛑
JUST ONE BITE by the fabulous Miranda Rijks (a favorite) is a gripping, highly addictive psychological thriller about a celebrity chef whose wholesome brand is instantly targeted by malicious deepfakes. It is fast, tense, tackling a modern tech nightmare that feels entirely too close to reality.
🎦THE CAMERA MADE HER A STAR. DEEPFAKES MADE HER A CRIMINAL. "A celebrity chef’s picture-perfect life completely unspools when a terrifying tech nightmare weaponizes AI to destroy her career."
In Just One Bite, author Miranda Rijks delivers a sharp, addictive, and terrifyingly claustrophobic Vermont-to-digital domestic psychological suspense. The tantalizing story hinges on a vulnerable celebrity mother facing immense social and physical hurdles to reclaim her identity from a masterfully manipulative online predator.
Curated influencer perfection vs. a devastating cyber takedown.
The Hook
Celebrity chef Brittany Cole has a wholesome brand trusted by millions. Her multi-million-dollar culinary brand turns into a terrifying waking nightmare when a series of flawless deepfake videos systematically destroys a woman's career and family life. A string of fabricated videos show her abusing her daughter; her life unravels. The public wants blood, but the videos are entirely fake.
Who is behind the screen?
🛗Elevator Pitch
Celebrity chef Brittany Cole has spent years building a wholesome, multi-million-dollar culinary empire from her beautifully restored Vermont farmhouse. But when a brief video of her snapping at her four-year-old daughter during a public meltdown goes viral, her squeaky-clean reputation instantly implodes.
As #BitchMom trends globally and major sponsors pull out, a series of increasingly abusive video clips are leaked online—leaving a terrified Brittany to face the ultimate tech nightmare: the videos are flawless deepfakes, and an unknown stalker is systematically rewriting her life to destroy her.
🧁Setting
The deceptive comfort of a hyper-curated, rustic Vermont farmhouse and professional cooking studio, violently colliding with the toxic, unmoderated hostility of viral internet cancel culture.
Vibe
Highly paranoid, fast-paced, and incredibly invasive. It pairs the public takedown energy of Yellowface with the relentless, technological cyber-stalking terror of Black Mirror.
Genre
Psychological Thriller / Domestic Suspense.
Themes
~The Weaponization of Deepfakes
~The Illusion of Influencer Perfection
~The Dangerous Velocity of Cancel Culture
~The Fragility of Public Reputation
👥Standout Characters
~Brittany Cole: A highly successful celebrity chef forced to defend her motherhood, career, and sanity against a crime she didn't commit.
~The Stalker: An invisible, tech-savvy antagonist who has quietly observed Brittany's home, studio, and marriage to craft the perfect digital execution.
✍🏻Author Writing Standout
Miranda Rijks excels at delivering rapid-fire, addictive "popcorn thriller" plotting. She expertly leverages very real, modern anxieties about AI manipulation, keeping the suspense extraordinarily tight and highly bingeable.
Takeaway
In the digital age, a lifetime of hard work can be completely erased by a single malicious algorithm.
Title Significance
Just One Bite serves as a double entendre—playing on Brittany's professional culinary background while highlighting how it only takes a single taste of public scandal for the internet mob to destroy a person's life.
Metaphor
The deepfakes act as a digital funhouse mirror. They distort Brittany's real life into a horrific caricature that the public is entirely too eager to believe.
📖Why You Should Read
This irresistible and addictive weekend read tackles the terrifying realities of AI identity theft and digital stalkers in a way that feels uncomfortably plausible. Rijks is a pro at handling devious plots and trendy, relatable topics
💭My Thoughts
WOWzer! "This is a thriller dropping June 28 that will make you want to delete all your social media accounts immediately."
One viral video. A million fleeing sponsors. A digital stalker who wants to end her life. 🤫💀I flew through Just One Bite! If you love fast-paced domestic suspense centered around modern tech terrors, add this to your summer TBR list immediately.
"If you love quick, highly addictive psychological thrillers that tap into modern internet culture, you need to check it out. It follows a celebrity chef whose life completely implodes when videos leak online of her behaving horribly. She gets instantly canceled, loses her sponsors, and receives death threats—but here's the catch: she didn't do any of it. Someone has been spying on her family to create flawless AI deepfakes to destroy her. It's a non-stop, paranoid ride that you can easily finish in a single weekend."
The pacing is absolutely relentless. Watching Brittany try to prove her innocence while the internet relentlessly tears her down creates a phenomenal, claustrophobic level of tension. Rijks writes the spiral of a PR nightmare beautifully, making the tech element easy to understand but completely terrifying.
I am officially terrified of artificial intelligence.
Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5/5).
"A highly entertaining, pulse-pounding cyber-domestic thriller that will make you want to put a piece of tape over your webcam immediately.
Recs
If you enjoyed the fast-paced digital paranoia and the unraveling perfect life in Miranda Rijks’ Just One Bite, you will love these psychological thrillers. These recommendations focus on toxic online lives, dangerous deepfakes, reputation destruction, and the dark side of modern domestic perfection
~Don't Answer the Phone, The Influencer, One Little Mistake by Miranda Rijks
~None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
~The Couple’s Revenge by Daniel Hurst
~The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
~People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd,
Special thanks to Inkubator Books and NetGalley for sharing an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. #CoverLove
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: June 28, 2026
June 2026 Must-Read Books
About the Author
Miranda Rijks is the bestselling author of 29 fast-paced psychological thrillers, with over one MILLION copies sold. You can download her FREE novella The Cheat, on her website mirandarijks . com. She also offers readers the chance to name characters in her books.
Miranda lives in Sussex, England, and when she’s not writing, she’s planning her next trip to The Alps, knitting obsessively, or getting distracted by her black Labrador.
Before turning to fiction, Miranda helped newbie entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful businesses. In 2015, she was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. This completely changed her life and when she recovered, she started writing full-time. WEBSITE
