Saturday, May 18, 2013

Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway: Click to Subscribe by L.M. Augustine

Click banner for the tour schedule.

Title: Click to Subscribe
Author: L.M. Augustine
Pages: 252 pages
Format acquired: eBook (ePub)
Published on: May 9th 2013
Source: Received for blog tour (Thanks, Bookcase to Heaven and L.M.!)
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble


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 <3 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.
(Image and summary taken from Goodreads)

Review:

I was seriously shocked while I was reading this book. I honestly thought that it would be one of those feel good, happy-go-lucky types of books but it's actually a pretty serious book. It wasn't all just about West and Cat's relationship but it also involved family matters that really saddened me. I wouldn't say that I completely enjoyed this book because it's still too random for me (I'll be talking about this more later.) But I will concede that it does have a pretty good story, so yay!

When West was talking about his vlog channel and how he uses a pseudonym, "Sam Green", and that only his mom knew about his vlog. I felt that this was faulty logic seeing as even his best friend knew about it. I mean, changing your name will not make you unrecognizable especially since you have to actually put your face in front of a camera to make vlogs. But that's besides that point... The biggest thing that bugged me about West is that he is so confused. Like, seriously. He didn't know what he wanted even though he was already getting a firm grasp on it and then he suddenly lets go. You can mostly see this happening when he's talking to Cat (post-meet-up.) He knows that he needs her so he's willing to pretend that she isn't in love with him, which I felt was very unfair to Cat. It's unrequited love at its worst. When Cat was West when she started to fall in love with him, I couldn't help but going "aww" and then wanting to smack West upside the head for what he did afterwards. Though I will cut West some slack because his mother passed away and his father is useless and deadbeat. And I could see that the only other place to could vent at (other than Cat) is his vlog channel, where he can talk about the most random things and people wouldn't just him. I could also understand why he didn't reciprocate Cat's feelings because her being his best friend was all he's ever known, they're practically siblings and if it doesn't work out between them then... there's no more Cat and West.

I have to say that Cat is my favorite character in this novel. Don't get me wrong, it's not that she can do no wrong, it's that she's such a passionate and bright person. You can see that she might actually be the one wearing the pants in the relationship. Haha! But kidding aside, Cat IS a great girl and her personality suits West's perfectly. Not too compatible but not too different either, just enough to keep this interesting. My biggest problem with Cat is that she's a bit of a pushover because when it comes to West, it's like she's starved for his attention or something. And she can't seem to ever say "no" to him, when he calls her, she's there five minutes later or something (this also post-meet-up.) How can a guy not like a girl who goes out her way to help you out and comfort you even though she has a big test the next day. I felt that if West couldn't see how special she was then he obviously didn't deserve her.

"Sam" and "Harper" have a lot of pretty random conversations with each other. Like seriously random. It's both cute and annoying (coying?) I just couldn't understand how West could have been attracted to someone so vague... but to each his own, I guess.

Like I said, Click to Subscribe is a pretty good book. It had its moments and it also had moments that weren't as special as the other. Though I will say that this is a pretty realistic book, like I can imagine it happening in real or something. There were parts that touched me and made me want to cheer for West but as I said, there are parts where I want to beat him. I felt like the story and the plot went along well enough, I just hope to see a bit more soon.

Rating:
.5



About the author:

L.M. Augustine is a YA romance author who is obsessed with writing about dorky teenagers, love, and happy endings. He currently lives in New England, where he spends far too much time reading books and screaming at his computer, and he believes that the solution to the world’s problems can be found in chocolate cake. Click To Subscribe is his first novel, but it won’t be his last.

You can find him here:


1 comment:

  1. I guess some books really just surprise us and it's up to us to see that in a positive light or the other way around. On reading your review, I was also surprised that it has a sad story despite the pretty fun cover.

    Arra
    Style | Reader
    http://arraabella.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete