[ARC REVIEW] “Just For Clicks” By: Kara McDowell + Giveaway (US Only)

*I received an e-ARC of “Just for Clicks” as part of the “Fantastic Flying Book Club” blog tour!*

Official Synopsis:

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 . . .

Rating: 5/5 Stars

*I read the book in ebook form, so I just put the cover over the picture digitally!

Review:

Kara McDowell has created a lovely coming-of-age story about what truly makes a family.

The plot of this book intrigued me from the moment that I first read about it. I love any and everything having to do with social media (specifically Twitter and YouTube, etc.!), especially when books are involved. It’s a combination of two of my worlds. Not to mention, the cover is absolutely gorgeous. I really want to order a physical copy just to display it on my shelves! This is Kara’s debut novel, and she hit it out of the park. I can’t wait to read more from her! It’s so cool that the inspiration for this book comes from her real-life as a former mommy-blogger.

I do have to say that this book is a slow burn romance–very slow burn, but that doesn’t make me love Rafael any less. (Note: This is a cute contempoary teen book with clean romance!) He’s funny and sweet, and a really great and supportive friend to Claire. I love him as a character, and would love to go on and on about how well him and Claire mesh together, but that’s a whole different rant. Long story short, they have a ton of cute moments together throughout the book, from a sort of Halloween horror night, to actual Halloween, to letting off frustration via the use of raw eggs–I don’t want to add in any spoilers, but I want you all to know that there are SO MANY adorable moments in the book. (If, and (hopefully!) when, any of you read the book, feel free to chat with me about it in the comments or by tweeting me at @cityofglamour17!)

While Rafael may be a big part of Claire’s story, it is equally important to mention her family as well, comprised of her sister Poppy and her mom, Ashley. As most teenagers do, she butts heads with them frequently. Granted, most of us aren’t the children of “mommy bloggers” who blog about almost every aspect of our lives either, so our specific experiences are not the same. One thing that Claire struggles with throughout the book is putting her desires aside so that Poppy can live her dream, which is to continue to build up her influence and continue to get more famous. Since the two of them are a package deal, Claire keeps putting off telling her family that she wants out of their online lives. She feels that it would be wrong and selfish of her to sabotage Poppy’s career, and the career that they have essentially been working their whole lives for, just because she doesn’t enjoy being a part of it anymore.

Claire is a great character to follow along with throughout the story. She’s authentic and interesting, and the book really shows how, as much as we’d like to think it is, what we see on screen is often not an accurate representation of people and their lives. We may feel like we know them, as the book addresses, but we actually don’t.

Claire is really into web design, which we see pop up multiple times throughout the book. The first time she meets Rafael, she’s reading a book about coding; she also introduces him to “Scratch,” an online program that teaches beginners easy ways to code, which is really cute. In addition to this, she also does the technological side of her mom’s blog, and created “BITES,” a forum/website for her and her friends who are also involved in the lives of their social media inclined families, where they can let off steam by talking and trying to “one up” each other over who is having the worst or most ridiculous experience because of their parents at any given time.

Poppy and Claire may butt heads a lot, but it’s clear that they really love each other. I have a twin sister, and I can attest that their relationship seems to be portrayed pretty accurately!

There is another aspect of the book that I don’t want to say much about, because that’ll easily spiral into spoiler territory, but there is an aspect of mystery in the book. There is an event in Poppy and Claire’s past the changes the way they interact with their fans, as well as a hidden secret that Claire finds out when reading through her mother’s old journals. This mystery is well flushed out, and while I know my mention of it is very vague, you’ll just have to read the book to know what I’m talking about!

I think that this book would make a fantastic movie. (Just sayin’.)

HUGE thanks to “The Fantastic Flying Book Club” and Kara McDowell for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour! Below you will find the links to the other blogs who are also participating, and the days that they will be posting on, so make sure to check that out!

“Just for Clicks” will be released on February 19th.