Adult Fiction
Ziyad Saadi‘s THREE PARTIES, a tragicomedy pitched as inspired by Virginia Woolf’s MRS. DALLOWAY, in which a gay Palestinian refugee in modern Detroit prepares to throw himself a birthday party that, unbeknownst to the guests, will also double as his coming out party, amid an escalating torrent of romantic, professional, and familial surprises, to David Ross at Hamish Hamilton…
But it could be worse, she could have outed her best friend, accidentally chatted up a 12 year old boy and revealed to the world why Leon Naylor is worth no girl’s time or virginity… oh no wait, that’s exactly what happened…
Title: Editing Emma
Author: Chloe Seager
Published by: Harlequin
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 331
Format: Paperback
Rating: 3/5
Synopsis:
When sixteen-year-old Emma Nash is ‘ghosted’ by the love of her life Leon Naylor, she does what any normal teenage girl would do…
Emma spends the summer lurking in her bedroom, avoiding all human contact (and the shower), surrounded by the collection of chewit wrappers she saved from packs Leon gave her, back when he actually acknowledged her existence…
But seeing Leon suddenly ‘In a relationship’ on Facebook with the perfect Anna, spurs Emma into action and she embarks on a mission to make positive changes to her life (or ‘edits,’ if you will) and vows to use the internet for more than obsessively stalking Leon’s activities! Instead, she will use it for good and noble causes like finding someone who will actually be nice to her, and recording her findings for the rest of the world to see (i.e. BFF Steph and her mum) on her new Editing Emma blog.
But Emma soon discovers her ‘habit’ is harder to break than she first thought – turns out she’s not the only one ‘editing’ herself online (thank you Tinder for finding her mum’s profile, age 35, really?) and that life through an Instagram filter isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. But it could be worse, she could have outed her best friend, accidentally chatted up a 12 year old boy and revealed to the world why Leon Naylor is worth no girl’s time or virginity… oh no wait, that’s exactly what happened…
Review:
Editing Emma is a laugh out loud, light hearted read that kept me entertained from beginning to end. The story is told in blog post format, which I found to be a fun reading experience. I liked the way this was fully centred on 16 year old Emma’s point of view of her friends, family and the world.
Emma was one of those characters that I went through all the emotions with. Sometimes I really struggled to like her and other times I was laughing alongside her. I loved all the pop culture references to Gilmore Girls, Game of Thrones and more. I enjoyed hearing about Emma’s friends, especially Faith. I liked the way she would call Emma out if she was in the wrong. The ending was when Emma really shined. I think the ending was my favourite part, it really showed how much Emma had grown through her experiences.
Overall, Editing Emma was a fun contemporary read, and if you are feeling like a book that will give you a laugh, definitely pick this one up!
Thank you to Harlequin Australia for sending me an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Adult Fiction
TikTok creator, CEO of Beegrizwrites, and romance book ghostwriter Becca Grischow‘s HOMETOWN ADVANTAGE, a queer twist on the traditional small-town holiday rom-com, where two former classmates reunite for a drunken, banter-filled night and a long weekend of hijinks, falling hard along the way; and a second novel, pitched loosely as Bridesmaids meets Ashley Herring Blake, to Nidhi…
I’m excited to welcome my new friend and debut author of Editing Emma: The Secret Blog of a Nearly Proper Person, Chloe Seager, to Pretty Books. As part of her blog tour, Chloe’s on Pretty Books to talk about something that many of us will 100% relate to… social media and anxiety.
