By Brianna R. Shrum, Sky Pony Press, August 2016.
* An e-ARC was provided by Sky Pony Press and Edelweiss for an honest review.
How to Make Out by Brianna Shrum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
HOW TO MAKE OUT, by Brianna R. Shrum, is an enjoyable book about 16-year-old Renley Eisner and her quest to fund her math club trip to New York City. Along the way, she discovers she can be whomever she wants, but she may not like what she becomes.
Fairly invisible in school and home, Renley spends much of her time with April, her fellow math geek, and Drew, her next door neighbor. She doesn't have a boyfriend, and Drew goes through girls fairly quickly. He really cares a lot for Renley, but she only sees him as a really good friend.
Renley wants to go on the trip with April but doesn't have the $3000 needed to get there. She hates to ask her father for the money, so she decides to create an anonymous How-To blog and charge for answering readers' questions. She's unskilled in a lot of areas, so when she has a question to answer, she researches the best processes online and tries them out on herself before posting the best one on her blog. As Renley improves herself and her blog brings in cash, she becomes noticed at school and attracts the attention of a really cute boy she's crushed on in her Home Ec class.
As she and her blog become popular, she practically abandons her two best friends. Questions arise about who created the blog at the same time as Renley's life starts failing apart. Ultimately she has to decide what is really important in her life.
The story's main characters are well written and experience evolving maturity throughout the book. Each chapter is headed with a How-To (the first being "How to Do Long Division"), and follows Renley's progress with her blog and herself. Though the topics of friendship, personal growth, and truthfulness are addressed, trust is the overall issue, both in how a person can become trustworthy and how a person's actions can affect the trust of friends and family.
HOW TO MAKE OUT is a lighthearted, fun book that tackles important life issues, especially for teenagers. It may be a better fit with more mature teens, as some of the How-To topics are a tad bit scandalous, but Renley's discovery of herself and what's important in her life will resonate with most readers. It's a quick, enjoyable read that even adults can appreciate.
If You Like This, You May Like: SAINT ANYTHING by Sarah Dessen, DIRTY LITTLE SECRET and GOING TOO FAR by Jennifer Echols, PAPER TOWNS by John Green, THE PROBLEM WITH FOREVER by Jennifer L. Armentrout, GAME ON by Michelle Smith, GOING GEEK by Charlotte Huang
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