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Quick Note
So I have read one book by Cassie Mae and actually had an ARC from NetGalley and automatically fell in love with her witty and cutesy writing. I had planned to read her other books and love the hell out of em’ but never got to it. Honestly I didn’t even know that The Real Thing was by Cassie Mae, I just thought the cover was hot and I had one clicked the galley read to request and then I found out a day later that I had been approved for a copy. Immediately I went to my NetGalley dashboard to download the book to my Kindle and read, that is when I noticed the book was by Cassie Mae and I squealed.
Out loud.
I couldn’t believe my luck. Literally weeks before, I was looking through NetGalley for any galley reads by Cassie Mae which was like looking through a black hole, that I was gonna spend all my I had left in my bank buying her books online if I didn’t have my dose of her stuff in my brain soon. Then I have her next book on my Kindle and here I am on the BLOG TOUR!!!!!
Hello everyone and welcome to The Real Thing blog tour with the host, yours truly, on my blog! I am so excited for everyone to read the book and fall in love with the characters just as I did and also to be here on the tour. Sooo lets get started…..
(OMG that cover *fans self*)
THE REAL THING
Written by Cassie Mae
Published by Flirt
August 19, 2014
In this electrifying novel from Cassie Mae, two close friends surprise themselves by shifting from platonic love to sexual attraction.
Eric Matua has one friend—his best friend and childhood sweetheart, who needs a place to stay for the summer. Mia Johnson has thousands of friends—who live in her computer. Along with her email chats and Facebook notifications, Mia also devours romance novels, spending countless hours with fictional characters, dreaming of her own Romeo to sweep her off her feet. When she starts receiving supersweet messages from a stranger who thinks she’s someone else, Mia begins to believe that real love is possible outside her virtual world.
When the two friends become roommates, Mia finds herself falling harder than she ever thought she could. But Eric keeps his desires locked away, unsure of himself and his ability to give his best friend what she deserves in a boyfriend. As her advances are continually spurned, Mia splits her time between Eric and her computer. But she soon realizes she’s about to lose the only real thing she’s ever had.
The Review:
Like the only book I have ever read by Cassie Mae, I adored this one, ravaged the hell out of it and finished it in only one sitting. I was awwwing and oooohing at everything, sighing with happiness and then yelling angrily and my Kindle when something did not go my way or when I had to charge the battery and walk away from my bed to find the charger.
The Real Thing introduces readers to two best friends, Emilia and Eric, who may just have feeling for one another and are ready to take that friendship to the next level, well once they actually confess these feelings. Emilia has a slight problem with the internet but then again don’t we all? However Emilia’s problem is not being able to take her eyes from her phone long enough to have a normal conversation with anyone. Her phone is filled with her Twitter feed, Facebook comments and likes, Pinterest picks, and mysterious emails from a guy who mistakenly emailed the wrong Mia.
Eric has loved Emilia for what seems forever and believes that this is the chance to get them somewhere than only friends but Eric has these anxiety attacks that is triggered by intimacy and pressure. Once they become a thing it all seems perfect until Em’s social life in her phone begins to come between the two and Eric’s issues start top resurface as they become closer than ever.
Em was a pretty laid back character and I could totally relate to her being addicted to the dangers of social media. Like Em I am constantly swiping through my Instagram feed, Twitter chats, Facebook messages and Tumblr pictures like there would be no tomorrow. Though unlike Em there is a time a place for me to stop scrolling through my phone and face real life and I felt as if Em was hiding behind it all. Maybe she wasn’t exactly hiding but she never really held a real conversation without taking a peak at her phone. It was funny at times because she knew herself that if she was to look at anything on her phone, even as simple as checking her email, she knew that she would succumb to the social media powers and not come out till hours later.
Eric was such a sweetie that you can’t help but fall in love with him on the spot. He isn’t like most guys being that when he was younger he was in an abusive relationship with a girl and it now haunts him in his everyday life, constantly second guessing himself when it comes to any girl, leading to these anxiety attacks. Despite it all I wanted Eric Matua to be my hero and love me like he was always in love with Em. It hurt me when he was trying to take their relationship slow, easing in to it rather than rushing to help with his panic attacks and Em would get frustrated and he felt the blame only furthering is attacks more.
Like most NA books, the two characters are bound to fall in love, one being more broken mentally or physically, while the other is needed to mend and bring the relationship together, get it working right, And that is perfectly fine with me! I love broken relationships because we get to see how the author gets the characters together, find solutions with each others flaws and remove it entirely or learn to work with it. I believe Cassie Mae did her job perfectly while adding the right amount of awkward and adorableness within the characters.
I loved how the author incorporated the title within the story because the characters do deal with real problems, Eric is super insecure while Em suffers social media addiction and its all 100% REAL. We see how they learn to succeed in winning their own mental battles and watch how they deal with it together because it isn’t something you do alone and I think that’s why I fell in love with the book in the first place. In a way I felt like I was both characters, I mean everyone has there insecurities of course, but then again there are some that just get to us and every time Em pulled out her phone or laptop I would smile inwardly because that was so me! It also didn’t hurt that she was a reader, the tears, feels, fangirling and all.
Their story is perfectly flawed and the way it was written was perfectly adorable. Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for approving me for the read I give it 5 perfect stars!
About the Author:
Cassie Mae is a full-time writer and mother from Utah. She loves being glued to the computer, thinking up new stories, and writing the day away while the kids run wild at her feet. When she finished her first novel, she started a blog that now gets more than five thousand hits a month. Her group blog is also dedicated to reaching out to aspiring authors by providing critiques and other marketing tools to help them succeed in the industry. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with the youth in her community as a volleyball and basketball coach, or searching the house desperately for chocolate.
Thank you guys for joining me on the tour, I hope you enjoyed the review and go buy the book! Then you can come back and we can discuss (: Also, you guys didn’t think I would leave you without a giveaway did you??? Well the author is giving away a $25 e-gift card to any e-book retailer of your choice! Go enter and good luck!
A Book Fanatic Obsession 