#scandal by Sarah Ockler, Book Review

By: Sarah Ockler
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: June 17, 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Purchase: IndieBound | amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - It was just okay

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…

Ah, the dangerous of social media. It makes me thankful that I navigated the social codes of high school without the aid of Facebook and twitter. #scandal is a story of how quickly inappropriate moments can go viral and the resulting relationship fallout of those moments.

Lucy is a refreshing character -- a gamer girl who has a secret crush on her best friend's boyfriend, Cole. When her sick best friend insists that Lucy go to prom with Cole, the set-up had me hooked. Who doesn't love an unrequited love story that finally gets its chance? But, there was something lacking in her characterization. I should have liked her, but I really never cared what happened to her. Or Cole for that matter. I wanted both of them to be somehow deeper with more of a back-story or just, well, more of something I just can't quite put into focus. The bottom line is that I wanted to care for them, and yet I just couldn't.

I also found the mystery of who uploaded the photos and the identity of the gossip, Miss Demeanor, rather predictable. But most of all, I found the romance just didn't work for me. I wanted to feel all the hearts-a-flutter moments and sadly, I didn't.

Sarah's a wonderful writer. She's written books that we loved (Twenty Boy Summer, The Book of Broken Hearts and Bittersweet), yet this one fell short in both characters and the mystery. If you enjoy the mystery of Pretty Little Liars and the on-going drama of Gossip Girl, you may just love #scandal.