Happy Messy Scary Love

by Leah Konen

[Julie @ Struck by Stories]

Olivia is a self-proclaimed horror-flick addict. When she's not at school or doing homework, she's either sitting in front of her TV or chatting with "Elm", her online friend who shares her same passion for scary movies.

When he asks to take things to the next level by sharing a selfie of himself, she freaks out and instead shares one of Katie, her "gorgeous" BFF.

But it's a small world, and when she gets sent to the Catskills by her parents, the last person she's expecting to see is Elm.

Now she's faced with a tough choice - should she share her true identity and out herself as a pathetic liar, or play along and miss out on (quite possibly) her one chance at love with her guy BFF?

I'm actually a little mixed on this one. For one, I really didn't like Olivia. I mean, I get WHY she sent the photo of her friend. But, and maybe this is just me, but I don't feel like this really happens in real life??? Like, if I didn't want to share a photo, I would probably just say so, and wait until my confidence levels increased enough so that I could do so comfortably.

And also, let me just point out that he is an *online* friend, and while I know she felt like she could trust him, there are dangerous people on the web. Meeting up at a safe location, such as a police station, might have been another path I would have considered taking.

However, besides that, for the most part I really enjoyed this! Aspects that I particularly loved include:

* The chapter titles, which were unique and related back to Olivia's love of horror movies.
Katie, who proved herself to not only be a super-supportive best friend, but also a very entertaining side character.

* The cover, which, with its warm pink pastel clouds mixed with a periwinkle background and pretty calligraphy, just begs to be read!

* And, last but not least, Jake, aka Elm, the super-hot horror-nerd that Olivia has been communicating with and ends up meeting in real life. I really feel like he was the one that truly made the story much more with his playful humor and charm. I WANT MY OWN JAKE IN REAL LIFE!!!

So, overall, this ended up being an average read for me. While I wasn't crazy about the premise, the positives did help to outweigh the negatives. 3.5 stars!


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