The Real Thing by Cassie Mae

The Blurb: 

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.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.

My Review:

It's taken me a while to write this review, to be honest.  I couldn't quite figure out if I liked this book or not.  On reflection, I  really really wanted to like this more but it wasn't for me.  Please don't get me wrong, it's well written, the characters have an interesting back story and it's one of my favourite writing tropes 'lovers to friends'.

I just couldn't get into it.  

I found that Emmy's constant use of social media grated on my nerves.  (My family and friends would call me a hypocrite for writing that but i'm not that bad!).  While Eric was sweet he was a bit of a sap; I thought Emmy was immature.  

Yet the overall story endearing but not enough to over come my indifference to the main characters.

Cassie Mae is a talented writer and if she ever reads this I hope she's not offended but as I said earlier, this book just didn't grab me.

*Arc copy received from Netgalley and the publishers, Random House Publishing Group, in exchange for an honest review.