Book Review ~ Fake by Beck Nicholas

Title: Fake
Author: Beck Nicholas
Release Date: October, 2014
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Source: Won a copy

Seventeen-year-old Kath McKenny has a date to the end-of-term party with her since-forever crush. He publicly messaged her to confirm, but there’s been a recent status update: he’s taking the new girl — giggly, pretty, well-developed Lana Elliot — instead.

After being thoroughly humiliated in front of half the school, best friend Chay talks Kath into revenge: a scheme to create the perfect — and very fake — online guy for Lana. Once she falls for him, they’ll show her what it’s like to get brutally dumped.

Everything is going to plan until Kath starts spending more-than-just-friends time with the other new kid in town — Lana’s dreamy older brother, Sebastian. Kath finds herself getting in deep — in love and drowning in guilt, she tries to put an end to her prank, but it’s taken on an unstoppable momentum of its own, with very real consequences.

As her plotting begins to unravel, so do the people Kath thought she knew:
Her mother has a secret online life.
Her father has a whole new family.
Her best friend is barely recognisable.
Her boyfriend has a disturbing hidden past.
And her enemy is more familiar than she knew.

 
I have to say I was extremely surprised by Fake.
I was expecting another typically immaturely voiced, overly dramatic teenage angst filled read; and while that can be true if only in subject matter, Fake is so much more than that.

It has been written in a way that made me feel for the characters. I connected with them and their story resonated with me. My teenage years may be far behind me but I have teen aged kids in my house a lot and so the drama in Fake definitely felt real and relatable to things I’ve seen and heard happening.

A refreshingly realistic representation of teenagers and the social media monster that is so seemingly innocent and fun – turns bad.
4 ½ stars

Random Ramblings

You know, this social media world we live in is a funny old thing.
I'm of an age that I can vividly remember a time when home computers were a new thing (yes, I'm that old!), and look at us now, we all carry one around in our pockets in the form of our smartphones!

I used to send letters to my grandparents in the UK from New Zealand, and literally wait more than a month for a reply, and using a coin operated phone box (if it hadn't been vandalized) if I needed to call someone whilst out of the house was the norm, and I do get it - progress, technological change.

But this latest wave of vlogging has me stumped. My eight year old daughter has a tablet which she uses for homework watching makeup tutorials, playing games and music etc. But there are these completely redundant vlogs she is enamored with... people opening toy packaging, people playing with their babies and/or dogs, talking about their day, the food they ate, generally just going about an average day whilst holding a camera in front of their faces to catch every boringly vital moment. (SMDH) But today I saw on the news a couple of kids aged four and six made US$1.5 million last year just by being toy testers on Youtube - TOY TESTERS FFS!!

How the hell does this happen, and where do I sign up?!!
I've got three kids I can make do something bizarre or ordinary, pimp out into the world wide web of strange and unusual happenings (not!)
I mean I get that the money can be good but WTF are some people thinking? What makes this interesting? I must just be too old to understand (at least that's what my kids tell me!)

No thanks, I'll just stick to my little book blog, talk about my favourite authors, show off their gorgeous covers, and try to run my small on-line business.

But I'm keen to know... do you watch vlogs, and if so leave me a link in the comments section. Maybe I just need to find something or someone that fascinates me enough to join the vlog watching band wagon!