Release Date: June 17, 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rated: YA 14+
Format: eGalley
Source: Edelweiss
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository ● Kindle ● B&N ● iTunes ● Kobo
Goodreads ● Website
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...
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...
I’ve always wanted to read one of Sarah Ockler’s books– all of them sound so enticing! Twenty Boy Summer, Fixing Delilah... and then came this amazing opportunity to be a part of the #scandal blog tour, and so of course, I was signing up faster then you could say “hashtag”. You guys... this book was amazing. I fell in love with the writing style, the characters, the storyline, EVERYTHING. I didn’t care that it was 400+ pages long. If it was any other book, I might have balked at the idea of reading such a long contemporary, but nu-uh, I enjoyed every single part of the plot because nothing was filler. If it wasn’t adding to the plot, it was developing the characters or background story. It was so rich in detail and that’s mainly the reason why I adored this book.
I loved the characters. Lucy’s character was so great, I could really relate to her, and I like that she broke the mould. At the start, she seems set up to be this generic character, the somewhat anti-social chick who enjoys online gaming, the younger and much ignored sister of someone famous. However, I like that she didn’t have a tough exterior all the time, and that she did enjoy being “girly” and doing things that many characters fit into the stereotype wouldn’t even DREAM of doing.
Cole was super cute, but I feel we didn’t see him for a lot of the novel. Which I mean was pretty great, since there were some fabulous other characters, such as Franklin and Asher, which leads to a more developed plot. I also really enjoyed Jayla’s role in the story. She definitely added a lot of the hilarious moments in the book as the plot to uncover who posted the photos gets deeper and deeper.
Speaking of, holy moly, I totally did not see several things coming. I love how the book had a Gossip Girl-vibe to it and that there wasn’t just one big twist, but several things were revealed along the way. The conspiracy group (e)VIL (who are not really, well, evil) was such a fabulous addition as well because everything adds up in the end, and it’s a well-constructed storyline that everyone has a role in.
Ockler’s novel really explores the many problems we have with social media today. Privacy, cyberbullying, and the misinterpretation of events. This happens all the time, and during high school, it can be hurtful and could end up ruining many people’s lives. Thankfully, I’ve had no such experience in the past four years of high school, but it’s definitely happened to people that I know and I could only imagine the repercussions of the damage done.
#scandal was everything you could possibly want in a contemporary novel. Filled with humor, drama, and an adorable romance, Sarah Ockler’s latest had my jaw dropping several times, and sent my into multiple fits of giggles. This was a fantastic portrayal of the digital age we live in, and truly captures the ups and downs of being a teenager. Do not pass this one up!
If you like this, try...
- The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott ● Goodreads
- Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison ● Goodreads
- Sometimes It Happens by Lauren Barnholdt ● Goodreads
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SARAH OCKLER
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.
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TEASER
#NotEvenClose
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a picture tagged on Miss Demeanor’s Scandal of the Month page is worth about a million. Especially when the story all those words tell is an absolute lie.
Well, mostly a lie.
The part about falling asleep in his arms is sort of true. I don’t remember the details about the horse, or how it got into the living room exactly, but judging from the smell that morning, that part’s true too. And yes, the Harvard-bound debate team captain definitely cannonballed into the pond wearing only tuxedo socks and silver fairy wings. Everyone got shots of that.
But there’s no way the other stuff happened.
Not like the pictures are saying it did.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
TEASER
#NotEvenClose
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a picture tagged on Miss Demeanor’s Scandal of the Month page is worth about a million. Especially when the story all those words tell is an absolute lie.
Well, mostly a lie.
The part about falling asleep in his arms is sort of true. I don’t remember the details about the horse, or how it got into the living room exactly, but judging from the smell that morning, that part’s true too. And yes, the Harvard-bound debate team captain definitely cannonballed into the pond wearing only tuxedo socks and silver fairy wings. Everyone got shots of that.
But there’s no way the other stuff happened.
Not like the pictures are saying it did.
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Giveaway time!
Enter to win...
Win a prize pack with 4 Signed HB of Sarah Ockler's books: Twenty Boy Summer, Fixing Delilah, Bittersweet, and The Book of Broken Hearts
US ONLY
Specifics:
- Must be 13 or older to enter
- Giveaway ends
- A false entry will be consider as cheating, so this person will be disqualified.
- Winner will be notified via email and needs to answer in 48 hours letting us know if he/she accepts the prize and send us his/her full name and address.
- Your personal information won't be used or be seen unless you're the winner of the giveaway. We won't sell it nor use it in a bad way.
Enter via the rafflecopter below!
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Follow the rest of the tour by clicking on the tour banner at the top of the post or on the button below!
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Thank you so much to FFBC Blog Tours for having me along!
