Wednesday, June 11, 2014

#scandal by Sarah Ockler Review and Giveaway




#scandal
by Sarah Ockler
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: June 17th 2014

Synopsis:

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...


Let me start this review off by saying that I love Sarah Ockler.  Her writing is so good, I always get invested in her characters and storylines, and I feel like all her books are about such completely different things (which is awesome and kinda rare).  When I got the chance to review this book for the tour I was SO excited... and this is where you're expecting a but right???  Well there is NO but.  I loved this book just as hard as all her others.

First off, the topic of this book made me really happy.  Mainly social media sucks.  Sure it has it's upside (Keeping in touch with friends, Blogging!!), but the downsides are freaking HUGE.  How many marriages and friendships have been blown-up because of stupid Facebook?  How many people kill themselves over online bullying?  I like using Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and all that, but sometimes social media gives a voice to people who just don't need one.  Okay, rant over.  This book really explores how an online #scandal can alter someone's life.  Especially in high school when problems seem so big and people are so judge-y.

Lucy is the girl in the center of the #scandal (yes I'm hashtagging all #scandals... it's fun!!).  She wakes up the morning after prom to find some not nice pics of her and her best friend's boyfriend posted to her page.  Apparently someone stole her phone, took a bunch of #scandalous pictures of everyone, and posted them to her page.  So everyone thinks Lucy is the one that made the post.  And now everyone hates her.  Except dreamy Cole.... he's still on her side.  From there they decide they must track down the phone stealer and out him or her in order to quell the drama.

The cool thing about this book is that it's part mystery, part heart-hurter, and part social media cautionary tale... oh and bullying, there's bullying issues in there too.  The narrator of this book (Lucy) is what really brings the whole thing to life.  Her inner commentary is just hilarious and cute.  And I also loved that she's a normal girl who has a nerd side (she plays online zombie/apocalypse games).  This is definitely one of Sarah Ockler's funniest books.

This big thing in this book that could possibly be a turn-off to people is the cheating.  While I don't think it was TECHNICALLY cheating, it's still shitty for your best friend to make out with a guy you dated.  So yes, it's wrong I get that, but sometimes the heart just wants what it wants.  Reading this book, I could FEEL the connection between Lucy and Cole.... and it was heart-wrenching.  I know those moments of having my heart hurt for a guy I can't be with.  I know what it's like to finally make a connection with someone who I didn't think would ever be possible for me to have.  And I just love reading about characters that are living moments and having feelings like I've had when I was growing up too.

OVERALL:  Please read this book!!  And every other Sarah Ockler book out there!!  It's about bullying, love, life, friendship, and of course #scandal.  There's a Gossip Girl-like social media-whore who outs people's #scandals, and drama ensues. It's one of my favorites for this year because of how kick-ass cool the main character is and how well it was written.  It's one of those books that I just didn't ever want to finish.

My Rating: 4/4














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Follow the FFBC #scandal blog tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.




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.




Win a prize pack with 4 Signed hardbacks of Sarah Ockler's books: 

  • Twenty Boy Summer
  • Fixing Delilah
  • Bittersweet
  • The Book of Broken Hearts
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Giveaway is open to US/CAN Only | Must be 13 or older to enter 
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3 comments:

  1. I'm happy to see you enjoyed it. This book was my Waiting on Wednesday selection for this week!!

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  2. Even though I didn't like #scandal as much as Sarah's other books that I've read (I still need to read Fixing Delilah (I'm saving it!)) I still thought it was super fun. I agree that Lucy made the book, she was great and Sarah did a good job of making Lucy likable even though she did things like kiss her best friend's boyfriend. Great review!

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    Replies
    1. I haven't read Fixing Delilah either!!! It's the only one left!!! I do the same thing w/ John Green books. I still haven't read Paper Towns bc I want to save at least 1 book hahaha!

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