A review by katiebookqueen
Editing Emma by Chloe Seager

4.0

Guest post from Chloe Seager: http://www.queenofteenfiction.co.uk/2017/08/blog-tour-guest-post-from-chloe-seager.html

Emma really can't catch a break. This story follows her after Leon, her former unconfirmed boyfriend, decides to start completely ignoring her, and then enters a Facebook official relationship with another girl at their school. To stop the constant thoughts of Leon, Emma decides to use her private blog and the online world to recreate herself. She wants to become the ideal Emma. What follows is a whirlwind of dating disasters and wonderfully cringe-worthy moments.

The reason why I really connected with this book is because it reminded me so much of the stories I used to devour throughout my school years. I adored anything written in a chatty, diary-style way with funny and relatable characters. As I've gotten older, I seem to have discovered less stories like this. Instead I seem to constantly be reading either fantasy or more serious stories. Not that books that deal with serious issues aren't super important because they are, but sometimes you really need a good, funny story in your life. A charming bit of escapism. And that's exactly what Editing Emma is. But it's also a little more grown up that some of the former books written in this sort of style. It's on top of the game when it comes to modern issues and situations that teens go through.

For me, Emma is just one of those characters that you can't help but love. She's a little more than questionable at times, but everything that she does just adds to her overall charm. The story starts with her explaining her relationship with Leon and the heartbreak she's currently suffering because of him. I'll admit, with her moping about after losing Leon, especially when I didn't like his attitude from what we learn about him, I didn't take to her straight away. But this story had me in fits of giggles in no time. Honestly, I had one of those rare moments where I almost laughed on a train. In public. In front of actual people. During the early morning rush hour. This book is dangerous.

Emma has a group of friends, Steph, Faith, and Gracie, and we get to know more about them as the story unfolds. Their conversations and the moments between them are brilliant. We even get their tweets and texts included, which add another interesting element to the story and it breaks up the blog writing. Whilst the story is told by Emma, I enjoyed getting to learn about her friends through her, especially Faith who, among all of the witty moments, had some important and heartfelt moments that I'm so glad were included.

The various dating disasters that Emma has to face are hilarious. She has some serious guts to go ahead with some of the things that she does, I'll give her that! I don't want to say anything about how it turned out in the end, obviously, but I will say that I was so proud of the final blog post that Emma writes in this book. With such an interesting bunch of characters and so many laugh-out-loud moments, Editing Emma is perfect when you need a story to make you smile.