When It's Real

by Erin Watt

[tellemonstar]

This review was originally posted on book reviews with the blogmonstarI received an eARC of When It's Real from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.



I saw this on Netgalley and though to myself that's an interesting cover. Upon reading the summary on Netgalley I decided to request it because it sounded like a fun book, and everyone needs a fun book.

When It's Real turned out to be just the sort of contemporary (YA/older teen) romance I like. The romance built nicely, even though it was supposed to be contrived (the main premise of the story) it wound up being very realistic. The rich & famous boy/girl needs a normal girlfriend/boyfriend to fix their image trope has been used a lot, but the writing duo behind Erin Watt have done it really well in this novel.

Oakley seems like kind of a jerk to start with, but as you get to know him, he does grow on you.He actually reminds me a little bit of my brother (although my brother doesn't really have any musical talent) in the way that as he gets to know you he opens up more and shows more of his actual self. At the end of the day there is an insecure little boy, due to his crazy childhood, that lurks beneath the (almost) grown man he actually is.

Vaughn is a sweetheart without it being grating. She has just enough sass and stubbornness to make her realistic. You enjoy her little quirks and her ever-changing feelings, and I think a lot of us can empathise with her not-knowing what she wants to do at the end of high school and should she do what her parents did and be a teacher, should she do something else altogether.

The plot moves quite quickly and changes from Oakley's perspective to Vaughn's and back again, which whilst can be annoying sometimes, I found worked quite well with When It's Real. I quite liked the twitter exchanges at the beginning of each chapter, even though they sometimes weren't quite so nice. It tied in a key element of the boy-meets-girl meet-cute that is thought up by Oakley's publicist.

I would have liked to see the meeting Oakley had with his manager and publicist after the almost cliff-hanger ending simply because it would have been very interesting. But I was glad When It's Real ended and not left on a cliffhanger.

In all, When It's Real is a fun, beach-worthy read. There's nothing smarmy or weird about the relationship between Vaughn and Oakley, and the rest of the characters (even W the big fat jerk) help to make an enjoyable story.