Review: Click: An Online Love Story by Lisa Becker

Publication year: 5th April, 2011
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Links: Amazon | Goodreads | The Book Depository
Source: Review copy obtained from author in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 3.5/ 5 stars

Fast approaching her 30th birthday and finding herself not married, not dating, and without even a prospect or a house full of cats, Renee Greene, the heroine of Click: An Online Love Story, reluctantly joins her best guy pal on a journey to find love online in Los Angeles. The story unfolds through a series of emails between Renee and her best friends (anal-compulsive Mark, the overly-judgmental Ashley and the over-sexed Shelley) as well as the gentlemen suitors she meets online. From the guy who starts every story with "My buddies and I were out drinking one night," to the egotistical “B” celebrity looking for someone to stroke his ego, Renee endures her share of hilarious and heinous cyber dates. Fraught with BCC's, FWD's and inadvertent Reply to All's, readers will root for Renee to "click" with the right man.

REVIEW

Renee is about to turn thirty, making her even more aware of the absence of a ring on her finger. Since she's certainly not getting any younger, she agrees to join her friend Mark in a quest to find love in the WWW. Whether it gets her any closer to finding The One or not, she's certainly in for a high-larious ride; with hits and misses, encounters with the serial texter, the B grade celeb, the sporty guy and every other guy you are likely to meet on a cyber date in LA!

Click is exactly what it promises to be: a quick, fun and witty read. To be fair, it's the kind of story that even if I've read a dozen times in a dozen different perspectives, I'd never get bored of. You will love:

• the dates. It's all of those hilarious first cyber dates with the most can-you-believe-them-hilarious guys packed in one book
• the friends. Judgmental Ashley, "over-sexed" Shelley and anal-compulsive Mark (as described in the blurb) make the best company. They are constantly looking over Renee's shoulder and their banter was always entertaining! I wish there was more of Mark, though. He gets into the online dating scene with Renee but... poof, his story kind of goes nowhere. 
• the friend dynamics were realistic and I liked that. As happy-go-lucky as the plot is, I liked that it is not without conflict and whether it's too-judgmental Ashley or the-one-with-too-many-sexcapades Shelley or even girl-next door Renee, their interactions and flaws make them anything but caricature-like and their issues with each other were very realistic and relatable
• the format. Click is told as a series of emails and I've always loved the format! It's a great, breezy way of story telling. I loved how Meg Cabot made it work in the Boy series and I loved it here too.
• the running gags. One of which really came back to bite them!

But I also wished:

• the ending was less abrupt. Even with the drama-filled climax and the sort-of conclusion, I kept swiping my finger against my e-reader, thinking... no, that can't be it! Was that really it? I mean, Mark did not really have an ending! And that bothered me because I really liked Mark. 

Rushed ending aside, Click is exactly the kind of book you can read between other books or even during a super-busy week... it's as light as it gets but so worth your while!

Rating: 3.5/5 stars