High school senior and internet sensation Madison Nakama seems to have it all: a happy family, good grades, and a massive online following for her pop-culture blog. But when her mother suddenly abandons the family, Madi finds herself struggling to keep up with all of her commitments.
Fandom to the rescue! As her online fans band together to help, an online/offline flirtation sparks with Laurent, a French exchange student. Their internet romance—played out in the comments section of her MadLibs blog—attracts the attention of an internet troll who threatens the separation of Madi’s real and online personas. With her carefully constructed life unraveling, Madi must uncover the hacker’s identity before he can do any more damage, or risk losing the people she loves the most… Laurent included.
Flo's Review
I was super excited for this. As you recall, I simply adored Danika Stone's first release All the Feels. So I was definitely on board with reading her sophomore release. In the beginning, I was enjoying it immensely. Laurent is super hot, and I really enjoyed reading about Madi's relationship with Sarah. (As a aunt of a child with special needs, I love that Danika included the character of Sarah in the story. And I love even more the Author's Note she included at the end of the book about Sarah. Thank you, Danika!)
So, there was family drama, online drama, school drama and a cute boy. All that was great. I think the story could have just been about those and been complete and fun. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling the troll story line. Maybe because I've never (thankfully!) had an experience with a troll. But the troll just seemed too extreme. To the point of being ridiculous. And there were a few characters in the story, 2 in particular that I can think of, who seemed underdeveloped to me. One was only shown for his personality trait and that was all we got. (It was extreme, of course.) The other seemed to be in the story -- her actions and all -- only so Maddie could wonder, "Is this person the troll?" Once she was eliminated from contention, that was it. We never got any explanation for her behavior. Mrs. Preet also seemed to me too extreme. She ended up reading to me as a character, a plot piece, and not a fully developed human being. Maybe if we got to understand her a little bit more, and maybe if we got to see her act differently at some point, she would have seemed more real to me.
The way this story was written, including texts, pictures, Tumblr posts, etc. complimented the story nicely and also made this a quick, effortless read. I enjoyed Madi and Sarah's, as well as Madi and Laurent's relationships.
Thank you to Swoon Reads for providing me with an advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.
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