Book Review: Right Click, (Click Series) by Lisa Becker

This is an entertaining and satisfactory conclusion to this cute series.
Right Click, (Click Series)
by Lisa Becker

• File Size: 574 KB
• Print Length: 381 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1494899159
• ASIN: B00KE6H90O

Genre: Contemporary Romance
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0

Book Description
Publication Date: May 16, 2014
Love. Marriage. Infidelity. Parenthood. Crises of identity. Death. Cupcakes. The themes in Right Click, the third and final installment in the Click series, couldn't be more pressing for this group of friends as they navigate through their 30's. Another six months have passed since we last eavesdropped on the hilarious, poignant and often times inappropriate email adventures of Renee and friends. As the light-hearted, slice of life story continues to unfold, relationships are tested and some need to be set "right" before everyone can find their "happily ever after."

Review:
Renee, a public relations guru with a big heart and an emotional spirit, is engaged to pragmatic and calm Ethan. Shelley, a bold spirit and inventive lover, has moved to Seattle to be with her new love interest, Nick. Renee worries that Shelley will find someone to replace her as her ‘bestie”. Ashley, more of a strict-laced, control type, is coping with being a new mother. Renee realizes that Ashley is having trouble with an infant since children do not fit into control all the time. Mark, the nerdy computer guy, is enjoying his new romance. Renee wants happiness for Mark even if his three lady friends aren’t too fond of Cassidy, the lady who doesn’t know what a capital letter looks like and is enthralled with cat videos.

The year of Renee’s engagement is about to lead to lots of changes for the friends. There are so many real life issues such as infidelity, betrayal, job loss, depression, insecurities and more.

A fun and unique aspect of this series is that it is told entirely through emails. This gives the story a real-time feel as characters express their emotions and opinions in ‘live’, if sometimes delayed, email conversations. The email captions are easy to skim, although they take up reading time if you let Kindle read to you as I often do. I love the pun competition and the musical banter.

This series deals with the everyday lives- difficulties, emotions, up and down - of Renee and her friends. This is book three of the trilogy and does a very nice job of wrapping up the story, the relationships and the connections between the characters. It is lovely to have everyone receive what is anticipated as a “happy ever after” in the end. I do recommend reading the books in order so the reader can get to know the characters and enjoy their growth through the fun developments.

I received this ebook from the author for an honest review.

Book Review: Double Click by Lisa Becker

This is a fun story of friends sharing and supporting each other in life situations.
Double Click
by Lisa Becker

• File Size: 463 KB
• Print Length: 309 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1482004992
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• ASIN: B00C1RIZHU

Genre: Contemporary Romance
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Book Description
Publication Date: March 26, 2013
Fans of the romantic hit Click: An Online Love Story will enjoy another voyeuristic dive into the lives of Renee, Shelley, Ashley, Mark and Ethan, as Double Click picks up with their lives six months later. Are Renee and Ethan soul mates? Does Mark ever go on a date? Has Shelley run out of sexual conquests in Los Angeles? Will Ashley's judgmental nature sabotage her budding relationship? Through a marriage proposal, wedding, new baby and unexpected love twist, Double Click answers these questions and more. Readers will continue to cheer, laugh, cry and cringe following the email exploits of Renee and friends.

Review:
I enjoyed the first book, Click: An Online Love Story, and wanted to find out how the characters progressed. This book continues the same rather unique and fun format of being presented completely through email messages between the characters.  Interestingly the characters seemed to be ‘tempered’ or more mild than portrayed in the first book. This made them even more likeable for me, except perhaps for Mark’s bouncy but annoying love interest. The lady doesn’t know what a capital letter is and can’t spell ... but she sure is cheerful.

Each of the characters is going through their separate life experiences - new mommy with postpartum blues, moving to new town for new work and new love interest, etc.- and it is interesting how they react, share together and support each other. There is a travel journal of sorts reporting on Renee and Shelley’s road trip from LA to Seattle with lots of crazy fun sites to report along the way in funny, punny emails.

I really liked Ethan’s input with Renee, from sharing business advise and philosophy to travel games.* I also enjoyed how Ethan listened to advise from Shelley and managed a perfect “do-over” of a very important event for Renee.

This is a fun story of friends and sharing.  I am not really a lover of ‘life drama’ and I appreciated that this story and format shares emotions between friends and lovers in little e-bites instead of long drama. It is quick and easy reading once you get used to the format. And it is a story that made me smile.

I received this book from the author for review.

*(Some of the questions are so fun I might use them for my Sharing Beyond Books Comment posts!)

Guest Post by Author Lisa Becker: Online Dating

Online Dating Inspired Click: An Online Love Story and Double Click
By Lisa Becker

I first met my husband while wearing my pajamas. Really! No, we weren't at some kinky singles party. I was sitting comfortably in my apartment and he was hanging out in his. But, I will never forget his email introduction via an online dating service, which invited me to check out his profile. It was sweet, endearing and intriguing enough for me to log on to learn more about him.  After a week of emails, followed by a week of phone calls, we met for our first date - a traditional dinner and movie outing. Even before I opened the door to greet him, I knew he was "the one."  Considering he lived 30 miles away, I'm not certain our paths would have typically crossed. But after nearly 13 years together - including 10 years of marriage (which in Los Angeles is apparently no small feat!) and two beautiful daughters, I have no doubt he is my soul mate.

After my now-husband and I met online, I was recalling some of the hilarious experiences that I had during the whole online dating experience.  How could I forget the guy who started every story (no joke!) with “My buddies and I were out drinking one night.”  I decided to capture some of them in writing and, from there and based loosely on my own experiences, my novel Click: An Online Love Story emerged.  The entire story is told in emails between our heroine, Renee Greene, her three best friends and the gentlemen suitors she meets online. The format felt like a modern way to tell the story that fit the topic, and allowed readers to develop an intimate relationship with the characters.

Clearly, I’m a big fan of online dating and find it to be a useful tool for young professionals who are busy working and finding it difficult to make the right connection at the gym, bar, coffee shop or grocery aisle. I say, people today are “married” to their cell phones and laptops, so why not use that technology to really get married, right?

While Click doesn’t end with a wedding (sorry for the spoiler!), during Renee’s road to happiness, we find many advantages to online dating.  My five favorite are:

·    On Your Own Terms – Online dating provides a relaxed, anytime and on your own terms experience.  Share as little or as much information as you want.  Avoid people you are not interested in.  Communicate at your convenience.   But, don’t send a message at 2:30 am.  Nothing smacks more of desperation than an email from someone trolling the Internet for a date in the wee hours of the morning. 

·    Multi-Tasking Enabled – Flirt while filing your taxes.  Chat and trim your nails.  Meet a mate while making breakfast.  It’s a well-known fact that women are great multi-taskers.  Take full advantage of that skill.  As Shelley, the over-sexed character in Click says to the about-to-try-online-dating Renee, “A whole host of hot and horny single men that I can review, chat with, judge and mock – all while sitting in my office looking very busy.  Maybe I should give it a try myself.”

·    Trade the “Meat Market” for the “Meet Market” – Now you can avoid the “meat market” scene of bars and clubs and instead enjoy a “meet market” – an international bazaar (but let’s hope not too bizarre) of prospective mates.  The Internet allows you to make an online introduction to thousands if not millions of people around the world.  So, if you want to meet someone in Katmandu, well then, can do!

·    Save Time, Money and Energy – Let’s face it.  Dating isn’t cheap.   It takes time, money and, likely your most valuable and scarce resource, energy.   With the “try before you buy” environment of online dating, you don’t have to meet for a drink, grab a coffee or sit through a long dinner only to discover there’s no physical attraction, you have nothing in common, conversation is lacking, etc.    

·    Rejection Made Easy – In Click, Renee gets an email from someone halfway across the world looking to meet someone willing to move for him.  After sending a polite and diplomatic “thanks but no thanks” email message, she proclaims to her friend, “It’s so much easier to reject someone over that Internet than in real life.  Score one for online dating!”   While rejection is easier for both parties when done online, it’s important to remember that people still have feelings.


As I've said many times before, if it happened for me, there's hope for you.  So log on and take a chance. To purchase Click or Double Click, please click here. To follow updates on the Click saga and share your stories about online dating, visit the Click Facebook fan page.

Book Review: Click: An Online Love Story by Lisa Becker

This is a sweet, fun story of a nice Jewish girl looking for love in a cyber world.
Click: An Online Love Story
by Lisa Becker

• File Size: 486 KB
• Print Length: 286 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1460922638
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• ASIN: B004UI6IJ0

Genre: Contemporary Romance
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Book Description
Publication Date: March 29, 2011
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 a bright, attractive Public Relations executive who is concerned that she will soon celebrate her 30th birthday and she has no love interest in her life. She broke up with her last boyfriend almost a year ago and hasn’t done much dating since. She is lamenting her situation, and the awkwardness of meeting the right kind of men in a big city, with her friends, Mark, Shelly and Ashley. Mark, an intense, compulsive individual who designs video games, convinces Renee to try an online dating service as a New Year attempt to find a mate.

Conservative Renee shares the details and progress with exuberant playgirl, Shelly, who has no problem sharing and joking about traits and nick names for her steady stream of one night stands. On the other hand Renee initially keeps her online dating arrangements secret from her judgmental, but long time friend, Ashley.

The story is told primarily through emails between the friends and the prospective dates. The dating choices range from dumb, awkward, pleasant and scary. Along the way there are laughs, embarrassments and disappointments. But there are some good prospects too and even a celebrity rocker who Renee met in person who is showing interest in her down to earth, friendly personality.

This was different because of the way it was written but it didn’t take long to get accustomed to the format of email chatting. I was able to relax and enjoy Renee’s pursuit for love. I liked the distinct differences in the personalities of her friends which made for entertaining interaction.  The pacing was good and there were plenty of conflicts to keep things interesting including a bit of a twist near the end. This is a sweet love story and I am looking forward to reading the next book.  I recommend this to romance lovers who are up for a light read in a unique format.

I received this ebook from the author for an honest review.