Title/Author: #scandal by Sarah Ockler
Publisher/Date published: Simon Pulse, June 17th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher for the blog tour
Buy this book at: The Book Depository
Goodreads summary: Lucy’s learned some important lessons from tabloid darling Jayla Heart’s all-too-public blunders: Avoid the spotlight, don’t feed the Internet trolls, and keep your secrets secret. The policy has served Lucy well all through high school, so when her best friend Ellie gets sick before prom and begs her to step in as Cole’s date, she accepts with a smile, silencing about ten different reservations. Like the one where she’d rather stay home shredding online zombies. And the one where she hates playing dress-up. And especially the one where she’s been secretly in love with Cole since the dawn of time.
When Cole surprises her at the after party with a kiss under the stars, it’s everything Lucy has ever dreamed of... and the biggest BFF deal-breaker ever. Despite Cole’s lingering sweetness, Lucy knows they’ll have to ’fess up to Ellie. But before they get the chance, Lucy’s own Facebook profile mysteriously explodes with compromising pics of her and Cole, along with tons of other students’ party indiscretions. Tagged. Liked. And furiously viral.
By Monday morning, Lucy’s been branded a slut, a backstabber, and a narc, mired in a tabloid-worthy scandal just weeks before graduation.
Lucy’s been battling undead masses online long enough to know there’s only one way to survive a disaster of this magnitude: Stand up and fight. Game plan? Uncover and expose the Facebook hacker, win back her best friend’s trust, and graduate with a clean slate.
There’s just one snag—Cole. Turns out Lucy’s not the only one who’s been harboring unrequited love...
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I was really excited to be part of the #scandal blog tour because I'm always interested in reading a social media thing gone bad and while I'm not a fan of cheaters, I figured there was more to this story than the cheating. And while this wasn't my favourite Sarah Ockler book, I did really enjoy it!
Lucy isn't the popular girl and she's a little bit alternative and I liked it. She reminds me slightly of myself as a teen, the whole not speaking up for what you want included. Though I never did pine for my best friend's boyfriend. But I get how hard it is to stand up for yourself, even though I would have just liked for her to try and explain what happened to the school, even if she didn't have all the evidence. It was such a Lucy hatefest, I felt really bad for her. And I loved her sense of humor. And that she has a dog name Night of the Living Dog. Best name ever.
I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about Cole. I mean, on one hand he's kinda perfect for Lucy, but I don't really feel like I KNOW him and I wasn't all that invested in the romance part of the novel, which is a rare thing for me. He doesn't pop up nearly enough, though the banter between him and Lucy was awesome. I just wish there'd been more of it.
I wasn't really a fan of Lucy's so-called friends, these two girls are really not great friend material, and even though I get that Ellie would be hurt by what happened, she didn't even want to listen to what Lucy had to say. After so many years of friendship, that's the least I would expect. And don't even get me started on Griffin, that girl was just weird.
I liked the new friends Lucy makes a whole lot more. Sure they're the school geeks, but they're more real than the others and besides, geeks are my people.
So I pretty much figured two big things out pretty quickly, but the twists were really well done and I actually liked that I'd guessed it before the big reveal. I could see how things could get really ugly as a result of posting things on social media and how everyone always has an opinion about it without knowing the whole story. Also, teenagers are mean. Well, most of them. I was I think.
So I did really like #scandal, though I think The Book of Broken Hearts had a way bigger impact on me reading-wise. This was nice, but didn't get under my skin as much. And I would have liked to see more of the romance, as that's the whole reason why this happened, I would have liked to believe in it a bit more.
My rating: 3,5 stars
Sarah Ockler is the bestselling author of novels for teens, including The Book of Broken Hearts, Bittersweet, Fixing Delilah, and the critically acclaimed Twenty Boy Summer, a YALSA Teens' Top Ten nominee and IndieNext List pick. Her latest, #scandal, hits the shelves in June 2014.
Sarah is a champion cupcake eater, coffee drinker, night person, and bookworm. When she's not writing or reading at home in Colorado, she enjoys taking pictures, hugging trees, and road-tripping through the country with her husband, Alex.
AUTHOR LINKS:
Website: http://sarahockler.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2188726.Sarah_Ockler
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahockler
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahockler
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Aww, the book seems to be kind of So so, though the premise does sound really interesting. :D
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