Monday, April 29, 2013

Click to Subscribe by L. M. Augustine ~ Review

Available May 9th 


Source:  Received ARC eBook from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Book Description:

135,789. That’s how many subscribers sixteen-year-old West Ryder has on his web vlog series. But he only has eyes for one of them.

As one of the internet’s most prestigious video bloggers, West talks about high school relationships under the name “Sam Green.” As far as he knows, no one from school, not even his best friend, Cat, has seen his videos. But the highlight of the whole thing is Harper Knight, who comments every day at exactly 2:02 in the afternoon. He doesn’t know anything about her aside from the occasional deep philosophical messaging on why pizza tastes so delicious, but as stupid as it sounds, he might be falling for her. So when they finally agree to meet in real life, West’s hope for romance seems more and more in reach. But that all changes as soon as he arrives at their meeting spot and sees Cat walking toward him, wearing the same “I <3 Sam Green” T-shirt Harper promised she'd have on.

To his alarm, West realizes he is falling in love with the best friend who has always been a sister to him.



 My Thoughts:

 

3 stars - Banter keeps the pages flipping in this cute read

When the author approached me to review this  book, I was interested.  Vlogs? Meeting peeps online?  Loving your best friend? Although, my reading schedule is laughable at best, I agreed.  I'm still glad I did.

I love West.  I totally LOVED reading from his POV.  He's so funny.  His believe that his vlogs are secret just crack me up.  Yeah, right.  I really wish we had had more dialogue from his vlogs.  We got a couple of the serious ones but I would have loved to hear more of the fun ones.  I had hoped that the online aspect of this book would be more.  

It was obvious to me how West felt, even if the boy struggled to figure it out himself.  I so love how he figured it out his feelings.  It was so male! He couldn't lose her.  I loved that.

Cat is so fun and brave.  I loved her.  She's in love with her best friend but is scared to tell him.  They have the best relationship.  Who would want to risk that?  She finally does and I love her for it.  It really looks like she's lost the friendship in her reveal too.  I love how she doesn't turn away from her feelings but stands strong, fighting for what she wants.  But she isn't needy or whiny.  She's strong.  Loved that about her.

I do have mixed feeling about this book.  On one side, there is this super fun banter between West and Cat or Sam and Harper.  They are so totally fun to hang out with, cracking me up all the time.  The smiles and laughs were West's way of dealing with the sucky things in his life.  He has more than his fair share of those.  Which brings me to the other side of this book.  West is dealing with the death of his mother.  His father has checked out, which be understandable considering how she died.  But West's dad checked out 6 months before she died.  We never find out why.  Just that he quite his job, started drinking and became a useless lump.  I don't get that.  It's never resolved.  Nor is the relationship between father and son.  I don't like loose ends.  They make me uncomfortable as a reader.  

I read an ARC copy and there were a lot of little things that I hope were fixed in the final copy.  Cars that changed types and jobs that were or weren't there...but I'm assuming those issues are fixed for the May 9th release.

Despite the loose ends (and there are lots of them), the pages flipped quickly and I read this in about a day.  The fun moments were just so addictive.  I wish I had beta read this one, though.  I really think some good feedback before this one hit the world would have made it so much better.  






9 comments:

  1. This sounds like a pretty interesting book. I might eventually get around to it, but I am drowning under my review pile, even after my semi blogging break.

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  2. I agree with you on the loose ends. I got niggled by Wes' indecision. How could he not know he was in love!

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  3. This sounds super cute!!!! I do so hate loose ends though... :(

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  4. Sounds cute! I agree that a good beta reader can make all the difference.

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  5. Great review! The book sounds cute; I'll have to give it a try. :)

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  6. I'm glad this is a funny book. it sounds very cute. I can't wait to read it!

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  7. Sounds like a great imaginative fun read!

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  8. This does sound like a fun book to read. I enjoy humor and friends to lover stories. And seeing how I love blogs, the Vlog aspect is cool to me :)

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  9. I took this despite a hectic schedule, too. I hope I enjoy it!

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