DNF REVIEW: Click to Subscribe by L.M. Augustine

Title/Series: Click to Subscribe
Author: L.M. Augustine
Published: May 9th 2013
Format: eBook | Pages: 252
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Amazon
★ (1/5) Stars

L.M. Augustine | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

1,135,789. That’s how many subscribers sixteen-year-old West Ryder has on his web vlog series. But he only has eyes for one of them.

As one of the internet’s most prestigious video bloggers, West talks about high school relationships under the name “Sam Green.” As far as he knows, no one from school, not even his best friend, Cat, has seen his videos. But the highlight of the whole thing is Harper Knight, who comments every day at exactly 2:02 in the afternoon. He doesn’t know anything about her aside from the occasional deep philosophical messaging on why pizza tastes so delicious, but as stupid as it sounds, he might be falling for her. So when they finally agree to meet in real life, West’s hope for romance seems more and more in reach. But that all changes as soon as he arrives at their meeting spot and sees Cat walking toward him, wearing the same “I ♥ Sam Green” T-shirt Harper promised she'd have on.

To his alarm, West realizes he is falling in love with the best friend who has always been a sister to him.

It is...*checks*...43% and I feel it's time to go ahead and call defeat on this one. Which is disappointing because I really wanted to like this book. The summary sounded cute and promising. Especially since after books, watching vlogs on YouTube is one of my other addictions. My teenager and I have a sort of mother/son bonding time I guess you could call it nearly every day over them so I was pretty excited by this whole concept. Sadly though, the execution fell flat for me.

I had one major issue with this book. West Ryder. Okay, I want to stress that if any of this comes off mean it was the furthest thing from my intentions. I'm just calling it like I, personally, see it. So...in my honest opinion, as the mother of a 17 year old boy, who has plenty of 16, 17, 18 year old male friends (so obviously I've been in the war zone plenty), West Ryder comes off as being written by someone who's never been around a teenage boy. Ever. Harsh probably, but that's the vibe I feel from him. His mannerisms, his dialogue (both verbal and internal) sound more like an angst filled teenage girl. I mean honestly if it never came out and said that we were in West's POV for this book and just had to guess...I'd have said the POV was female. And it wasn't just me. I gave my Kindle to my kiddo to read over some of the first few chapters without knowing why and his reaction was basically "it's just weird...." With some confused looks mixed in.

I toss my hair. "Bitch, I'm fabulous."

Something he said a lot. How fabulous and amazing he is. Yes, I get that it was all in a joking way because West was far from confident. But it was all the time and just got to be too much, when you hear the same joke over and over again it becomes less funny...especially when to begin with, it wasn't even that funny.

At one point early on, when meeting "Harper" for the first time in person, West is going through typical nerves as he goes through possible scenarios in his head about her possible reactions to him, how they'll greet each other, what he should say etc and one of the first things he thinks about when telling her how he feels about her is about loving, marrying and having kids with her. HE'S A FREAKING SIXTEEN/SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD BOY!! I'm so not joking...

I'm sorry but the LAST thing to pop into a boys mind at  that age are marriage and babies. Come on... 

I think I'm just going to leave off here. I've not set out to trash anything and I feel like if I keep going I'll just start sounding worse and who knows maybe it got better? I just had an extremely difficult time getting past the MC and taking him seriously because he just didn't feel believable to me. I'd like to give this author another go in the future in hopes that Click to Subscribe and myself just didn't have the right chemistry. I'm hopeful. The concept of this book was great, like I said it was all in the execution.

ARC REVIEW: The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher

Title/Series: The S-Word
Author: Chelsea Pitcher
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: May 7th 2013
Format: eBook | 304 pages
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Source: NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
★ (1/5) Stars

Chelsea Pitcher | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

First it was SLUT scribbled all over Lizzie Hart’s locker.

But one week after Lizzie kills herself, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it—in Lizzie's looping scrawl.

Lizzie’s reputation is destroyed when she's caught in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend on prom night. With the whole school turned against her, and Angie not speaking to her, Lizzie takes her own life. But someone isn’t letting her go quietly. As graffiti and photocopies of Lizzie’s diary plaster the school, Angie begins a relentless investigation into who, exactly, made Lizzie feel she didn’t deserve to keep living. And while she claims she simply wants to punish Lizzie’s tormentors, Angie's own anguish over abandoning her best friend will drive her deep into the dark, twisted side of Verity High—and she might not be able to pull herself back out.

Debut author Chelsea Pitcher daringly depicts the harsh reality of modern high schools, where one bad decision can ruin a reputation, and one cruel word can ruin a life. Angie’s quest for the truth behind Lizzie’s suicide is addictive and thrilling, and her razor-sharp wit and fierce sleuthing skills makes her impossible not to root for—even when it becomes clear that both avenging Lizzie and avoiding self-destruction might not be possible.

With paragraphs that were forgotten soon after reading them and awkward dialogue and phrases such as:

Plus, she's got that ass people rap about.

OR

Like you care about your blow-up doll?

The S-Word has made it's way, with lightening speed, to the top of my "Can I just get the last few hours of my life back? Please?" list. 

It's sad because for the most part the blurb sounded pretty interesting. I figured it had a bit of potential, I did have my doubts due to the whole sleeping with the best friends boyfriend and all the slut shaming that was sure to ensue but I wanted to give it a try anyway. I wish I hadn't.

There was just too many things that made me excessively roll my eyes while reading this book. The fact that the teenagers all hang out at a dirty underground sort of coffee shop that doesn't seem to care if they bring in flasks full of booze in with them. Classy! Or how Angie, whom if I'm going to be perfectly honest I had forgotten her name until it was mentioned again at about 12% in, fancies herself to be quite the detective and most of the time she acted like she was in a 1950s Film Noir piece. Her detective work just seemed too over the top. Her reactions and the reactions of those she "questioned" or were her "suspects" just became completely ridiculous. And because of the excruciating dialogue, like the examples above. It was hard to pick up and easy to put down. 

But now I want to go back to the subject that had me scratching my head once I really thought about it. Why would people even be responding to Angie when she questioned them about Lizzie and the slut shaming? She'd ask, they'd eventually spill along with some secret or something. Why? She's just a classmate. I think had not everything else bothered me I probably wouldn't of cared and may have even found it fun. But...

When I actually did pick it up I found myself skimming quite a bit and parts that I didn't skim wound up leaving me just as fast as I turned to the next page. The only thing I didn't get irritated with and made any sort of sense to me was the random and rambling diary entries of Lizzie's. I wish I had something more positive to say but for me, there just wasn't any.