Review

September 11, 2017 karenjo462 Comments

Click’d

Tamara Ireland Stone

4 ★ – Entertaining and Inspiring

Published by Disney Hyperion September 5, 2017

Genre(s): Middle-Grade, Contemporary

Pages: Hardcover 208

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Allie Navarro can’t wait to show her best friends the app she built at CodeGirls summer camp. CLICK’D pairs users based on common interests and sends them on a fun (and occasionally rule-breaking) scavenger hunt to find each other. And it’s a hit. By the second day of school, everyone is talking about CLICK’D.

Watching her app go viral is amazing. Leaderboards are filling up! Everyone’s making new friends. And with all the data Allie is collecting, she has an even better shot at beating her archenemy, Nathan, at the upcoming youth coding competition. But when Allie discovers a glitch that threatens to expose everyone’s secrets, she has to figure out how to make things right, even if that means sharing the computer lab with Nathan. Can Allie fix her app, stop it from doing any more damage, and win back the friends it hurt-all before she steps on stage to present CLICK’D to the judges?

Click’d is a such a delightful coming of age story. I’ve never read anything by Tamara Ireland Stone, but that’s definitely going to change.

The plot is fast-paced, easy to read, and so much fun. For a middle grade book, I was surprisingly very entertained.. but beyond that, Click’d also has heart. Stone delivers empowering messages that apply not only to children or tweens, but to also to adults like me. That’s what I truly love about this book…that I can walk away with something more than just a few laughs here and there. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I love stories that seem simple, but definitely packs a punch. Being successful does not mean winning, but working through your failures and never giving up. It’s about taking a leap and really believing in yourself to achieve whatever goals you have.

I really love the idea of creating Apps and using technology to do some good and make the world a better place. We definitely need more of that right now. Allie and Nathan are such great role models. I absolutely admired them for being creative, passionate, and determined. I don’t have any experience with coding, but it must take a lot of hard work and patience to be able to do what they did. Their commitment and enthusiasm with their projects was absolutely inspiring. I also loved the growing friendship between them and it was so adorable to watch them work together and become great friends. I liked the side characters too. Allie’s friends and everyone seemed genuine and realistic.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story – it’s heartwarming, beautifully written, engaging, and inspiring.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Sincerely Karen Jo

The Miranda Sings Award

September 8, 2017October 13, 2017 karenjo466 Comments

Happy Friday lovelies!! I’m so excited for the weekend are you? Any fun plans? As for me, I’m hoping to get a lot of reading done and write up some reviews. It takes me a while to do my reviews because my brain is so spent on work during the week. I mostly just read, take some notes, and do a quick draft. I think I have about 5-6 reviews I need to work on. Also going to finish watching Westworld with my boyfriend (OMG this show is AMAZING!!! It’s my newest obsession) and then take tons of bookstagram photos.

As many of you know, I just started this blog about 4 months ago. Being new to the blogging community, I’m not very familiar with most of the awards or how it even works. When I was nominated for this award, I had to sit on it for a while to think about what my answers would be. I’m quite shy and an introvert so I don’t like talking about myself. I want to say THANK YOU to Des of Des’ Random Thoughts for nominating me. This was a challenge to write, but also really fun. Be sure to check out her lovely blog and give her a follow. She’s such a sweetheart!

The Rules

Announce your win with a post, and link the blogger who nominated you.
Include the featured image on your blog post.
Nominate 10 bloggers (or as many as you can think of) and link your awardees in the post.
List 7 things you love about yourself. (This can be about your appearance, your personality, your achievements, etc.)
Don’t use negative connotation (i.e. Don’t say things like – “I’m prettier than an average person.” or “People have told me I’m smart.” You are pretty. You are smart.)

My Answers

1. I guess I would like to start by saying how proud I am of my blog and bookstagram account @sincerelykarenjo (Feel free to follow me). It took me such a long time to start a blog and a lot of encouragement from my friends and my cousin Mellanie.

2. I love that I’m creative and crafty.

3. I love that I love watching scary movies and being scared.

4. I like how I’m more outgoing now and try to go out of my comfort zone as much as I can even if it sometimes gives me anxiety.

5. I love that I’m a homebody and enjoy the simple things in life.

6. I love how I love books! Stealing this one from Des… but I really like his about myself. When I was 9, I moved from the Philippines to the US. I wasn’t fluent in English yet, so it was difficult to enjoy reading. But the more I read, the more I loved it and now I pretty much can’t stop (unless I get into a bad reading slump).

7. And finally, I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished so far and where I am right now in life.