This book was an enlightening look at the "perfection" of social media and how much of it isn't reality. The author made me think and rethink about what we put out there. I enjoyed the plot and the growth of the character, literally from being broken down to someone who is standing on her own two feet. I loved the relationship between the two sisters, who lost their mom when they were young, and they both handled grief in different ways. I definitely recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Bree’s not so great boyfriend leaves her, her car is toast and now she needs a new job as a Grub-Getter delivery service. She is barely paying rent when her sister makes her promise to read a self help/motivational book.
Bree finds herself one step closer overnight to her dream life by just posting a vision board on her Instagram. She has a date with her hot surfer neighbor, her insta goes crazy...
Can you truly Fake It Til You Make It?

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley.

This book is about a woman, Bree, who was raised by her older sister. She has struggled with feeling like a failure, never being able to make ends meet, a bad relationship with a toxic person, and just overall she seems like a lost soul. The story is loosely about Bree trying to become an Instagram influencer by "faking" a great life as so many people do on social media. I think this book draws attention to the way that people fake it online. Bree tries to find true success away from social media.

This wasn't too deep of a read but it did have some good messages and I did enjoy it.

Totally another book I loved by Kristin Rockaway! This was fun, fast paced and filled with sisterly love and drama with a love of the beach and Instagram! Such a fun behind the scenes look at how sucked into the Instagram world we get and how it takes over our lives quickly!
As a bookstagramer that started my account for “fun” and now have almost 3k followers it still amazes me that I have all these followers.
Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced ebook copy!

What impressed me the most of Bree is her resilience. She was downtrodden and blamed her life on extenuating circumstances but once she choose to expend positive energy into the world, things started to change. Most importantly, she started to believe in herself as extraordinary. No filter via Instagram but a real person. It also helped deeper her relationship with both Natasha and Trey as she became real and not filtered.

I flew through this book--probably because of how much I identified with Bree who is at times a hot mess, simultaneously an under-achiever and an over-achiever (she may settle for low skill jobs, but by God, she'll excel at them). She's struggling and hustling and trying to figure out who she is and who she wants to be. She's one mistake away from ruin and one lucky break away from having it all, but through it all, she keeps trying, keeps reaching for better. Like Bree, I've lived above a garage in a dump of an apartment, barely getting by. I've done surveys to make fast cash only to discover the pay is nonexistent. I really felt seen in her constant plight. What keeps Bree afloat are her family, her friendsand a love for the town she's made her home. Add in a totally hot, totally amazing surfer guy, and the scales tip toward a little bit jealous of Bree. Bree by the Sea would probably be happy to know that.

What makes Kristin Rockaway's writing extra compelling is her total grasp of modern social media and technologies. She nails our obsession with likes and the envy of total strangers, the prevalence of jobs in the gig economy, and our utter reliance on all things Internet. In this novel, she also takes a close up look at those hardest hit by this economy--from those who are privileged but barely scraping by, to those who are less fortunate and entirely left out.

I was totally sucked in by Bree's journey. Fans of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Bridget Jones will love this book.

This book is about social media, how we fake it to break it and over share our embellished, photoshopped, ultra filtered lives with the world. And it’s also great mockery of Secret and positive energy, feeling good scams that some wise and sneaky people benefit from other people’s insecurities and miseries. This approach of the book and the social influencers’ boot-camp parts deserved five stars.

Let’s meet Bree living by one of my favorite seaside city: San Diego: amazing beaches, water sports, surfing, fantastic Mexican food, friendly people.( Yes, I want to drop my book and climb on my car, drive 2 hours for better visualizing.) But unfortunately Bree is in trouble. She’s working as Grubhubber oh pardon me Grubgetter, already left the college, renting a small place with full of unnecessary junk (she might be living there illegally but she doesn’t want to question it), barely makes ends meet and now her only income source, her one and only junk car is kaput! She is jobless and two hundred dollars short for her next rent so she can be homeless sooner.

Thankfully she has supportive also lecturing, know-it-all, down to earth sister Natasha who is married, with a lovely kid, successful, organizer. She dropped the college after sisters lost their mother and their father was not in the picture for so long. She is second mother of Bree but she is also pushy and a little irritating. Now she tells her sister she needs to pull herself together and make positive changes with her life. She gives her self-guru Demi DiPalma’s book which is new written version of Secret. There are four steps suggested at the book to change your life completely.

Bree decides to open a new instagram account for using it as her vision board and adds photos about her wishes, her expectations from her future. And she slowly starts to see the changes with her life, finding herself reorganizing her house, getting rid of her ex’s junks (her ex left him to live in Amazons for spiritual awakening. But I think instead of going there, he stole his parents’ credit cards and bought gazillion stuffs from Amazon.), starting to date with her famous surfer neighbor Trey, facing her fears of water, starting to get surfing lessons (yes, she gets them from charming, mysterious Trey who suffers from infidelity of her long time ex and hates social media!)

I loved the book’s positive approach about life, taking second chances, being brave to take risks, being honest with your loved ones, how to deal with grief and how to move on after suffering big traumas.
I also enjoyed sisters’ relationship dynamics and her emotional backstory.

Only weakest point of the book is romance part. I think it is a little overshadowed with entire spirituality, friendship, life aims and sisterhood parts of the book. And I got a little frustrated that Bree thinks so low about herself when it comes to Trey. And at the end Trey acts like a little douchebag. Their chemistry was hot and entertaining but it seems like an insta love which fits with the subject of the book.

So spiritual mockery part: 5 stars Sisterhood and friendship: 4 stars Romance: 3 stars

Average: 4 solid stars. But I have to admit, I enjoy this book more than “How to hack a heartbreak”

It was fun, enjoyable, positive, heartwarming reading.
Special thanks to NetGalley and HARLEQUIN/ Graydon House for sharing this lovely ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

Kristin Rockaway does it again! An amazing story about finding happiness in yourself and how the world views it from the filters of Instagram. A great follow up to How to Hack a Heartbreak