Abandoned by Booklikes

Please note that I received this ARC for free from NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review. 

I ended up giving this three stars because I think the author can definitely write. I just think that I was more interested in Jess's sister and her best friend more than I was with her and her trying to find fulfillment writing a mommy blog. I think it didn't help that Jess was shrill and generally unfair to her husband throughout mos of the book and also angry that a rival blogger wasn't opening her arms to her. A times you think it's the first time she ever had someone that didn't like her. The other reason why I gave this three stars is that the letters to her daughter/blog entries were actually written very well and made me smile, laugh, and tear up at times. If it had just been that, I would have given this book five stars. 

Jess is a stay at home mother dealing with her 14 month old daughter. Jess realizes that staying at home isn't all it's cracked up to be. She feels tired and resentful that her husband gets to leave all day and barely seems to be around to be around their daughter. When her husband encourages to do a mommy blog (a subject that came up some other time) Jess is surprised to see that people really want to hear what she has to say. Quickly gaining internet fame and followers, Jess is quickly set up against the queen of all mommy bloggers, Tiggy, a childhood friend. 

I think the book playing into the rivalry really wasn't a thing besides here and there. Most of this book was about Jess learning what is important and being there for her sister and her friend. I thought at times though Jess was being a brat and unreasonable. She needed people to tell her how good she was every single minute it felt like it.

The secondary characters took up a bit in this book and not complaining because I liked them, but Clarke should have pushed the rivarly more. Maybe have Jess do a huge messed up viral moment and deal with being "cancelled" by people.

I thought the writing was good, but have to say that I wish that Clarke had talked more about how someone is popular for a moment before the internet moves onto someone else. Also I am going to say it, it seems really odd to have a blog be a huge influencer these days. Most people are on Instagram, twitter, snapchat, etc. So the book missed the boat to not even have those come into play. I can't recall the last time I went out and read a lifestyle blog. I just follow people on Instagram because I like the pictures/writing content that way. The only thing I read is Apartment Therapy, Cup of Jo, and Domino. 

The flow was good. I liked the book having Jess in the present, with her typing up letters she had written to her daughter before and after she was born. 

The ending left some things up in the air (mostly with Jess and one of her best friend) but I think we are supposed to take away things are going to work out.