Julie's Review: She's Faking It

Author: Kristin Rockaway
Series: None
Publication Date: June 30, 2020
Publisher: Graydon House
Pages: 352
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4.5/5
Bottom Line: Fun, delightful read for a summer day

Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Bree Bozeman isn’t exactly pursuing the life of her dreams. Then again, she isn’t too sure what those dreams are. After dropping out of college, she’s living a pretty chill life in the surf community of Pacific Beach, San Diego…if “chill” means delivering food as a GrubGetter, and if it means “uneventful”. But when Bree starts a new Instagram account — @breebythesea — one of her posts gets a signal boost from none other than wildly popular self-help guru Demi DiPalma, owner of a lifestyle brand empire. Suddenly, Bree just might be a rising star in the world of Instagram influencing. Is this the direction her life has been lacking? It’s not a career choice she’d ever seriously considered, but maybe it’s a sign from the universe. After all, Demi’s the real deal… right? Everything is lining up for Bree: life goals, career, and even a blossoming romance with the chiseled guy next door, surf star Trey Cantu. But things are about to go sideways fast, and even the perfect filter’s not gonna fix it. Instagram might be free, but when your life looks flawless on camera, what’s the cost? ~amazon.com



Review: I flew through this book on a few days and I knew I would based on how much I enjoyed How to Hack a Heartbreak. Bree can’t catch a break lately. Her boyfriend moved to the Amazon, her car broke down and her student loan bills just keep piling. No car means no Grubgetter gig, which means no income.

After reading a self-help book, that her highly organized sister recommended,  she decided to try her hand at becoming an influencer via Instagram. She creates a digital vision board and starts to make  little headway in how she wants her life to look. She gets jobs as a Jill of All Trades through a website to start earning money. Plus based on a picture she posted, she's got her first freebie to collaborate with to start her journey. She also wants to conquer her fear of the water, especially since she lives on the beach and this leads her to hot surfer, Trey Cantu. He's agreed to help her get over her fear of the water and to enjoy it. Well she does enjoy it and him. Until things start to go askew.

I really enjoyed Bree and her best friend Marisol. What I wished we would have had more closure on was the two sisters discussing their mom and her death. It was glossed over in a few sentences and then they were all good after years of not talking about it.

Not everyone has a clear path in life and this is Bree. She does figure it out in the end and I was happy with the path she chose.

This is the perfect sit down and read in a sitting or two novel for the summer.

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Julie's Review: How to Hack a Heartbreak

Author: Kristin Rockaway
Series: None
Publication Date: July 30, 2019
Publisher: Graydon House
Pages: 352
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Romance
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: More than a Romance novel 
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster. By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed helpdesk tech at a startup incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers--"Hatchlings"--who can't even fix their own laptops, but are apparently the next wave of startup geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she's matched with on the ubiquitous dating app, Fluttr. But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It's called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight. Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez--the only non-douchey guy at Hatch--has no idea she's the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever. ~amazon.com

Review: Let the Girl Programmers reign begin and last long! So, so many great things about this novel but mostly it’s about empowerment and taking control of the things you can and letting go of the things that aren't within your control.  Melanie works at a company that is all bros and it’s wearing her down.  She is verbally harassed daily with no backing of her boss or the CEO. Well that and the fact that the dating app Fluttr keeps disappointing her with the men that seem to respond to with pictures of their junk or standing her up.

So, when she gets tired of it and creates #JerkAlert she feels that things are turning around for her. Will #JerkAlert be the answer to her dating and work problems? Or will it just create more issues for her.  Not to mention her love life is starting to look up when the guy she's mooned over at the office seems to be interested in her as well.

But just as things are turning around things fall apart just as easy but it is how Melanie responds to it is what makes her resilient and innovative.

I kept cheering Melanie and her awesome friends on throughout the course of the book. This is all about women supporting women, female empowerment and finding your place in the world. I highly recommend this one! This is one that you will want all your friends reading the rest of the summer.