Click: An Online Love Story
By Lisa Becker
ISBN#: 9781460922637
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Vanessa
*Beware of possible Spoilers*
Synopsis:
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:
Initially, I wasn’t sure that I was going to enjoy this book. The synopsis and the title were a bit at odds. The title implied a romantic story built around online dating but the actual story itself was more of a humorous tale of Renee’s adventures in online dating as re-told through emails between herself and her three friends: Shelley, Ashley and Mark.
From the beginning, I was not a fan of the email format. It made the story hard to follow at times and kept a wall up between myself and the characters. I had expected the story would be a combination of events (either told first or third person) and emails. However, that was not the case and I found the email format to be more of a hindrance than a help. Right from the beginning there was plenty of humor but by page ninety-five I found myself asking, where is the romance? It wouldn’t have been an issue if there was no romance, but why did the title imply a “love story” if there wasn’t one?
My largest complaint about Click, is that I continuously felt left out of the action. I was never able to experience Renee’s dates right along with her. Instead, I was told about them after the fact. Rather than hearing how much fun they all had at Mark’s party, I would have much rather experienced it with the characters.
Since everything was told to me secondhand, I felt like I had missed out on all the big moments. When Renee finally starts to really feel something for someone, I am told about it, instead of “seeing” it for myself. This was a big let down for me.
Although the characters were well written, Renee wasn’t my favorite person. She was endearing at times but she seemed to be too whiny and in constant need of the reassurance of others. I can relate to a need for some reassurance but I felt every other email was her friends reminding her of how amazing she is. Also, her constant need to seek advice bothered me. It was as if she couldn’t make any choices herself.
What Click does have going for it is the well written dialogue between the four main characters. Their relationships are the most dynamic and entertaining. It’s clear from her writing that Lisa Becker has had her fair share of bad online dates. Everything about her online escapades felt real and authentic and there were several times I found myself laughing out loud.
Overall, this book felt more like chick-lit or dating humor than a romance and although I was entertained, I was never emotionally invested. Yes, I wanted Renee to end up happy but if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been that bothered. There is a follow-up book to Click, called Double Click, but I’m not sure I could go through the continuous stream of email only interactions again.
