Sixteen-year-old Renley needs three thousand dollars for the math club’s trip to New York City, and she knows exactly how to get it: she’s going to start a how-to blog where people pay for answers to all of life’s questions from a “certified expert.” The only problems: 1) She doesn’t know how to do anything but long division and calculus. 2) She’s totally invisible to people at school. And not in a cool Gossip Girl kind of way.
So, she decides to learn to do . . . well . . . everything. When her anonymous blog shifts in a more scandalous direction and the questions (and money) start rolling in, she has to learn not just how to do waterfall braids and cat-eye makeup, but a few other things, like how to cure a hangover, how to flirt, and how to make out (something her very experienced, and very in-love-with-her neighbor, Drew, is more than willing to help with).
As her blog’s reputation skyrockets, so does “new and improved” Renley’s popularity. She’s not only nabbed the attention of the entire school, but also the eye of Seth Levine, the hot culinary wizard she’s admired from across the home-ec classroom all year.
Soon, caught up in the thrill of popularity both in and out of cyberspace, her secrets start to spiral, and she finds that she’s forgotten the most important how-to: how to be herself. When her online and real lives converge, Renley will have to make a choice: lose everything she loves in her new life, or everyone she loves in the life she left behind.
Ohhhh Ms Shrum, you have burrowed your brain straight into my soul and written the book that I have been wanting for so long. It may not have been exactly the most well executed or well thought out book, but it was still a joy to read.
True escapism, that's what this book is - a girl with a blog answering questions. Yes, google does the same thing for free, but YA has never been known for it's application to real life. Vampires and werewolves don't exist, but there are loads of books about them. A girl can create a blog which is pretty redundant if she wants, this is teen fiction after all.
Renley, whilst lacking in common sense for 70% of this book, was a charming character to read about. Okay, she was indecisive and silly and extremely naive, but I sort of loved her for it. I also loved Drew as well, he was the character I came to care about the most and I felt so sorry for him a lot of this book. The dreaded love triangle was pretty well done in this book though, and I really apprecated that.
Overall, How to Make Out was a cute book which whilst being pretty inconceivable was pretty fun to read. Such a good book for relaxing!
Book released September 6th 2016 by Sky Pony Press
Book received from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review
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