kymmiejournals
Written on Mar 14, 2019
Mommy blogs are great . . . unless the blog happens to belong to your mom. Twin sisters Claire & Poppy are accidental social media stars thanks to Mom going viral when they were babies. Now, as teens, they're expected to contribute by building their own brand. Attending a NY fashion week and receiving fan mail is a blast. Fending off internet trolls and would-be kidnappers? Not so much. Poppy embraces it. Claire hates it. Will anybody accept her as "just Claire"? And what should Claire do about Mom's old journals? The handwritten entries definitely don't sound like Mom's perfect blog persona. Worse, one of them divulges a secret that leaves Claire wondering what else in her life might be nothing but a sham . . .
- ISBN10 1948705192
- ISBN13 9781948705196
- Publish Date 19 February 2019
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Amberjack Publishing Company
- Format Paperback
- Pages 250
- Language English
Reviews
Sam@WLABB
Written on Jan 22, 2019
In this day and age, when social media plays such a big role in our lives, Claire wanted to escape it all and be "just Claire", but after playing her role for so long, she first needed to figure out who "just Claire" really was.
• Pro: I have a love/hate relationship with social media, and I really appreciated all the different sides of internet fame McDowell presented. She showed the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all, as well as the perceptions of both fans and the internet stars. Lots of interesting commentary in there without being judgmental.
• Pro: This book was a LOT deeper than I expected. There were some pretty major issues touched upon with respect to family, loyalty, grief, and self fulfillment, among others, and it was done in a thoughtful way without making the book too heavy.
• Pro: The friendship and romance between Claire and Raphael was really fun and cute. She was living her life online, while he insisted on in person meetings and eye contact. They were seemingly different yet so good together. These two definitely supplied me with some of my favorite scenes.
• Pro: The inclusion of the different media - emails, texts, posts, was a lot of fun and nice touch for a book centered around the use of electronic media.
• Pro: Claire was the star of this story, and I adored her. From her awkward attempts at romance to her fantastically nerdy coding t-shirts, she was a girl after my own heart. She was grappling with so many different things in this book - feeling like the odd man out, worrying about her safety, her sense of being less than, and her waning desire to partake in the family business. Her struggle with what she wanted and what her family wanted came across well, and I felt for her as she tried to come to terms with her emotions regarding her online life PLUS all the other things, which precipitated over the course of this story.
• Pro: The family dynamic was a big driving force in this story, and it was interesting to observe. I know I formed a lot of instant opinions, which I then had to nullify as I learned more of the details, and also as other characters gave their two cents on the situations.
Overall: An compelling look at life online, which was thoughtful, fun, sweet, and adorable.
*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
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A Darker Shade of Rosie
Written on Jan 2, 2019
Thank you NetGalley for lending me a copy of this book in exchange for a review!
→ LIKED: Claire feels there is some unspoken competition between her and her twin sister... and she's constantly losing. While she doesn't want to reveal every little aspect of her life to fans and trolls alike, she also is torn to keep her mother and sister happy. But she would much rather stay behind the scenes because Claire really enjoys coding and web design. • Enter Rafael! I found him intriguing from the get-go! Rafael's got interesting hair, he basically never has a cell phone, and he is a beast at maintaining eye contact. Plus, he's super disturbingly friendly and has the uncanny ability to fit into a school in a single day. • Rafael is non-existent on social media, and gives Claire a "blank slate," so to speak. They start to become really good friends, and they had really good chemistry. But Claire starts to really like him, but can't even begin to guess what he's thinking when they're together. • The fame and popularity drives a wedge between Claire and her sister, and when Claire uncovers some devastating news, it makes the chasm even greater.
→ RECOMMENDED FOR: If you’re looking for a book that drips with internet culture, about a girl who is dying to get her face off the grid, meanwhile falling for a guy who is perpetually offline, then you will love this book, just as I did.