#BookReview: Keep Me Posted by Lisa Beazley

Reviewer: Samantha

I received a review copy

Summary:

Two sisters share the surprising highs and cringe-worthy lows of social media fame, when their most private thoughts become incredibly public in this fresh and funny debut novel.

Sisters Cassie and Sid Sunday have not done a bang-up job of keeping in touch. In their defense, it hasn’t been easy: life veered in sharply different directions for the once-close sisters. Today, beautiful and big-hearted Sid lives an expat’s life of leisure in far-off Singapore, while harried, iPhone-clutching Cassie can’t seem to make it work as a wife and a mom to twin toddlers in Manhattan.

It doesn’t help that Sid spurns all social media while Cassie is addicted to Facebook. So when Sid issues a challenge to reconnect the old-fashioned way—through real, handwritten letters—Cassie figures, why not?

The experiment exceeds both of their expectations, and the letters become a kind of mutual confessional that have real and soul-satisfying effects. And they just might have the power to help Cassie save her marriage, and give Sid the strength to get her life back on track.

But first, one of Cassie’s infamous lapses in judgment comes back to bite her, and all of the letters wind up the one place you’d never, ever want to see them: the Internet…

Review:

The synopsis had me pretty hyped on this book. We live in the world of social media, of instant sharing, of make-one-mistake-put-it-on-Snapchat-and-everyone-knows. So I was curious how these sisters got themselves into the predicament they did, and how they would handle it.

The beginning started slow for me. I found myself struggling to pick up the book, as I couldn’t find much exciting about what was happening. Once the actual letters started and we got more into Cassie’s life and how she struggles with some of her choices, my interest perked up. I love the idea of handwritten letters. The only people I write letters to these days are my grandparents, but I remember having pen pals back in grade school and even back then was fascinated by the concept. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Cassie and Sid. So different, yet the bond they shared was clearly deep.

There were times I was really invested in the book, and times where it lagged for me. I don’t know if it’s because of my age, because I’m so invested in social media, or because I tend to be a gone-brush-your-shoulders-off type of girl, but I didn’t really get the utter meltdown Cassie has when their letters went public. Besides the one issue that affected her marriage, of course, but other than that, I just kind of failed to see it. I get it . . . but I didn’t get the strong reaction from Cassie.

Overall, I thought this was a unique plot line that could have been something insanely great, but fell a little short for me. Still a good book and fun to think about, but just not one that got me excited.

3 stars