#scandal by Sarah Ockler
Published by Simon & Schuster on June 17, 2014
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss, Publisher
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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...

Sarah Ockler very quickly rose to the top of my list of favorite authors. She has cemented a place on that list with #scandal. #scandal has everything readers could want in a contemporary novel; romance, secrecy, betrayal, and more.

The base of the story isn’t anything new. Lucy and Ellie are best friends. Ellie is dating Cole. Lucy is in love with Cole. Lucy and Cole hook up one night. That’s where all similarities to other stories end though. Lucy goes to prom with Cole, in Ellie’s place. Lucy and Cole hook up later that night. Someone takes pictures of Lucy and Cole and posts them on Lucy’s Facebook page. They also post a lot of other scandalous photos though. Of course, Lucy then becomes the most hated person at school, especially by Ellie. Now it’s up to Lucy to find out who really took and posted the pictures. With the help of some unlikely new friends she just might figure it all out.

Lucy is remarkably easy to relate to. She’s fun, friendly, smart, and kind. She doesn’t always do smart things but she knows when she’s made a mistake and she does everything in her power to fix those mistakes. She’s doesn’t sit around moping, she takes charge. Her old friends aren’t there to help her but she makes some new ones who prove to be not just great investigators but wonderful friends. Sure they make some mistakes along the way too but just like Lucy, they do everything the can to right their wrongs. Then there is Cole. He’s a really sweet guy who was perfect for Lucy but he wasn’t present for a lot of the book. He seemed to take a backseat for most of the drama and that part bothered me. I wanted him to take more responsibility and be there for Lucy through it all. He didn’t ditch her but I felt like he could have been present a little more. There was also a wonderful sense of family in #scandal. Sarah Ockler always manages to incorporate family and this time around it was about the relationship between the sisters. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about them at first but “Jayla” and Lucy were great together. They just needed time to work through things.

The mystery was not something I was able to solve until the very end. Part of that was because there was more than one mystery. The first mystery was about who was behind the Miss Demeanor website. I really never saw that one coming. The second mystery was regarding who took the photos and posted them on Lucy’s Facebook page. That mystery was a little more predictable but still left my guessing for a while. I was definitely captivated with both mysteries.

Overall, #scandal may be the best yet from Sarah Ockler. I was hooked from the start and I never once felt compelled to put it down. All contemporary fans should definitely pick this one up!

What others are saying about #scandal:

Nick’s Book Blog’s review: “As hard as I tried to enjoy this book, I simply couldn’t.”

Spun With Words’ review: “It has just the right amount of character development, good plot, and strong conflict.”