#Scandal by Sarah Ockler

#Scandal by Sarah Ockler

Release Date: June 17, 2014

Publisher:  Simon Pulse

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 416

Summary:Lucy’s learned some important lessons from tabloid darling Jayla Heart’s all-too-public blunders: Avoid the spotlight, don’t feed the Internet trolls, and keep your secrets secret. The policy has served Lucy well all through high school, so when her best friend Ellie gets sick before prom and begs her to step in as Cole’s date, she accepts with a smile, silencing about ten different reservations. Like the one where she’d rather stay home shredding online zombies. And the one where she hates playing dress-up. And especially the one where she’s been secretly in love with Cole since the dawn of time.

When Cole surprises her at the after party with a kiss under the stars, it’s everything Lucy has ever dreamed of… and the biggest BFF deal-breaker ever. Despite Cole’s lingering sweetness, Lucy knows they’ll have to ’fess up to Ellie. But before they get the chance, Lucy’s own Facebook profile mysteriously explodes with compromising pics of her and Cole, along with tons of other students’ party indiscretions. Tagged. Liked. And furiously viral.

By Monday morning, Lucy’s been branded a slut, a backstabber, and a narc, mired in a tabloid-worthy scandal just weeks before graduation.

Lucy’s been battling undead masses online long enough to know there’s only one way to survive a disaster of this magnitude: Stand up and fight. Game plan? Uncover and expose the Facebook hacker, win back her best friend’s trust, and graduate with a clean slate.

There’s just one snag—Cole. Turns out Lucy’s not the only one who’s been harboring unrequited love..

My Thoughts: I had really high hopes for this one! And while I liked it, I think it could have been a tad better. I got the sense from the summary that it was going to be all about forbidden love story between two people, etc etc. And while it was kinda, I never really felt the dyer connection between Cole and Lucy.

This one starts out with Cole and Lucy at prom together. Lucy’s best friend and Coles girlfriend is supposedly sick so she ends up at prom with him instead. And things go haywire from there. Someone takes pictures of Lucy and Cole together and blows up a internet feed.

I don’t know, I liked this one. I did. But I never really felt the chemistry. It had important issues such as bullying and with Lucy’s sister, how things aren't what they seem.

And while I did like it and I liked the way things ended up, I just didn’t fall in love with Cole. He was sweet enough, I just didn’t get the connection I guess.

I always love Ockler’s books and I did enjoy parts of this one. I think there just wasn't enough romance (Yes I’m a sucker for those) but it was also good on some level since it didn’t outshine the lessons in this one.

I liked this one enough, I just didn’t feel like it was my favorite of Ockler’s books!

Overall: I’d probably give this more of a 3.5 cupcake rating, but I’ll round it up to 4 cupcakes since its SARAH OCKLER! She’s one of my favorite authors and I’ll continue to read all of her books!

Cover:  Like it! I love how they are kissing. Very cute!

What I’d Give It: