Just For Clicks by Kara McDowell
Grade: C
Release date: February 19, 2019
An ARC was provided by Amberjack Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Mommy blogs are great . . . unless the blog happens to belong to your mom.
Twin sisters Claire & Poppy are accidental social media stars thanks to Mom going viral when they were babies. Now, as teens, they're expected to contribute by building their own brand. Attending a NY fashion week and receiving fan mail is a blast. Fending off internet trolls and would-be kidnappers? Not so much. Poppy embraces it. Claire hates it. Will anybody accept her as "just Claire"? And what should Claire do about Mom's old journals? The handwritten entries definitely don't sound like Mom's perfect blog persona. Worse, one of them divulges a secret that leaves Claire wondering what else in her life might be nothing but a sham . . .
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: In a lot of ways, I can see how people will enjoy Just For Clicks, but I had trouble liking it.
Claire, the main character, was hard to relate to. Not just because of the fame thing but more because of her personality. Poppy and their mother were sometimes too caricaturishly obsessed with social media, although I did appreciate that their mom wasn't as out there as other social media-obsessed mothers. The romance blossoming for Claire was sweet but didn't have that extra oomph. Jackson honestly felt unnecessary, like he was mainly there to cause tension in the new relationship. And then the prose was just a little too neutral and uninteresting. It didn't draw me into the story well enough, although it was easy to read.
Content warnings: flashbacks to an attempted kidnapping.
The Verdict: Pretty good, but not my favorite. Definitely a good book for younger teens.
Will I be adding this book to my library?: I don't think so.
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