DISCLAIMER: I received an advanced reader copy (eBook) of She’s Faking It by Kristin Rockaway from Harlequin through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. She’s Faking It is part of Harlequin Trade Publishing’s 2020 Summer Reads blog tour for Women’s Fiction and Romance.

Book Summary

You can’t put a filter on reality.

Bree Bozeman isn’t exactly pursuing the life of her dreams. Then again, she isn’t too sure what those dreams are. After dropping out of college, she’s living a pretty chill life in the surf community of Pacific Beach, San Diego…if “chill” means delivering food as a GrubGetter, and if it means “uneventful”.

But when Bree starts a new Instagram account — @breebythesea — one of her posts gets a signal boost from none other than wildly popular self-help guru Demi DiPalma, owner of a lifestyle brand empire. Suddenly, Bree just might be a rising star in the world of Instagram influencing. Is this the direction her life has been lacking? It’s not a career choice she’d ever seriously considered, but maybe it’s a sign from the universe. After all, Demi’s the real deal… right?

Everything is lining up for Bree: life goals, career, and even a blossoming romance with the chiseled guy next door, surf star Trey Cantu. But things are about to go sideways fast, and even the perfect filter’s not gonna fix it. Instagram might be free, but when your life looks flawless on camera, what’s the cost?

*Summary is courtesy of Harlequin

She’s Faking It

“I never posted any photos of my own—it’s not like I ever did anything worth Instagramming—but there was nothing more deliciously distracting from the difficulties of real life than an endless stream of beautifully filtered photographs.”

Once Upon A Time (not so long ago), life wasn’t documented on social media. It’s crazy to think that we didn’t care how many followers we had nor did we envy people’s perfectly curated Instagram lives that we only saw from our phones. Social Media has been one of the best and worst things to happen to us. It’s a great way to connect with people across the world and there’s an online community for everyone. On the other hand, when we are feeling insecure, our social media feeds aren’t the best places to scroll. Due to this fact, we are constantly comparing our lives to the lives of people in our feeds. She’s Faking It by Kristin Rockaway might be fiction, but the story builds on these ideas surrounding the digital age of social media.

She’s Faking It is the perfect beach read: sun, sand, a hot surfer, and social media. When Bree Bozeman picks up a self-help book of a famous influencer, she is inspired to manifest her lifelong dreams into reality. Her new philosophy is, “Fake it until you make it your reality.” So, what better place to start “faking it” than Instagram? Bree decides to take a stab at creating and curating her online life as an Instagram Influencer, @breebythesea.

@BreeByTheSea

Bree learns a lot about the Instagram platform and what it takes to be an Instagram Influencer. She learns that it takes a lot of work to curate an Instagram feed that’s entertaining and tells a story. From the outside, the general public just sees pretty feeds. However, it takes a lot of time and energy to create those pretty feeds.

“But when it came to Instagram, my actual mood didn’t matter. As I was quickly learning, Instagram wasn’t about authentic emotion. It was about fantasy and facade, about crafting a narrative to entertain and engage. To make people want what you had, or more accurately, what they thought you had.”

She’s Faking It shows the non-glamorous behind the scenes of Instagram content creation. As a Blogger and Instagrammer, I know how much work goes into creating an Instagram post from taking and editing the photo to writing the caption and choosing the hashtags. From my years using Instagram, I’ve learned a lot of the Dos and Don’ts. Unfortunately, Bree learns many of the “Don’ts” the hard way, such as re-blogging content as her own, buying Instagram followers, and collaborating with sketchy brands. But, it’s easy to sympathize with her because as Influencers, we’ve all made mistakes as we’ve grown our accounts. Making mistakes is how we learn.

Fake It Til You Make It

As someone who’s always struggled in the confidence department, I’ve always thought that Fake It Til You Make It was a great mindset to have. If you believe you can, you will. She’s Faking It shows that this philosophy can pertain to our personal and online lives. Really, you can manifest anything (within reason) with a positive attitude.

Rating & Review

“Fake it until you make it your reality.”

She’s Faking It by Kristin Rockaway should definitely be added to your Summer TBR. While it’s a light and fluffy contemporary read, it also covers a topic very relevant to this day and age – social media. I gave She’s Faking it 4 out of 5 stars! It was the first book I’ve read that depicted social media and Instagram Influencers in a non-glamourous way nor was it centered around cyberbullying or internet trolls.

As a blogger and Instagrammer, I wasn’t offended by anything mentioned in the book. Actually, I laughed at the relatable mishaps Bree has as she tries to navigate Instagram as a newbie. Even readers who aren’t Instagram Influencers will enjoy this book because social media is such a big part of our daily lives. Most importantly, the book has a great philosophy, Fake It Til You Make It, which can positively pertain to our lives – online and off.

★★★★

Thank You

Thank you, Harlequin for inviting me to join Harlequin Trade Publishing’s 2020 Summer Reads blog tour for Women’s Fiction and Romance, and Netgalley for the digital advanced copy! Check out She’s Faking It by Kristin Rockaway, which is now available in stores and online!

Enjoy this review? Check out my other book reviews on the blog! If you’d like to see what other books I’m reading these days, follow me on Goodreads!

♥ Candis