July Chick Lit Challenge #3: Point, Click, Love

There's a theme with this month's challenge reads. They all came from my local library! I went a bit nuts after I finally got a library card as it turns out my library has an awesome selection of new books. Also - all three July books have been debut novels! I was happy to see Point, Click, Love by Molly Shapiro on the shelf because I had heard some good things about this one. While it didn't blow me away, I still really enjoyed reading this one.

Here's the synopsis:

Best friends and fellow midwesterners Katie, Annie, Maxine, and Claudia are no strangers to dealing with love and relationships, but with online dating and social networking now in the mix, they all have the feeling they’re not in Kansas anymore. Katie, a divorced mother of two, secretly seeks companionship through the Internet only to discover that the rules of the dating game have drastically changed. Annie, a high-powered East Coast transplant, longs for a baby, yet her online search for a sperm donor is not as easy—or anonymous—as she anticipates. Maxine, a successful artist with a seemingly perfect husband, turns to celebrity gossip sites to distract herself from her less-than-ideal marriage. And Claudia, tired of her husband’s obsession with Facebook, finds herself irresistibly drawn to a handsome co-worker. As these women navigate the new highs and lows of the digital age, they each find that their wrong turns lead surprisingly to the right click and, ultimately, the connection they were seeking.

This book almost got a five star rating but I wasn't quite feeling it and I believe this was more a personal quirk than any real reflection on the book. I had just finished reading The Singles when I started Point, Click, Love. The two novels had a similar set up - several characters and flipping back and forth between their stories (read my review of The Singles here for more). I think the reason I didn't love this one was because the characters were at a very different stage in their lives than where I'm currently at.With the exception of Annie, the women in Point, Click, Love were already well into their marriages and had at least one kid. I'm nowhere near that point in my life so it was a bit harder for me to relate. Like I said, this won't mean much to some people but there might be a few readers out there who would rather stay away from novels that feature characters they won't be able to relate to. Make sense? Hopefully! :)

Even though I couldn't personally relate to what the women were going through, I still enjoyed reading about their lives. Each woman had something different going on in their lives and that made things fresh. They were all, for the most part, having marital trouble but the issues were diverse enough to keep me interested.

It was hard for me to decide how I wanted each woman's life to turn out. Situations kept evolving and revealing more information which changed my mind constantly. In the end, I was happy with how each character's story wrapped up. Some things may have been drastically different than what I predicted but that's what makes books fun - not knowing exactly what's going to happen!

Overall, I had fun reading Molly Shapiro's debut novel Point, Click, Love. I'd definitely recommend it to other chick lit lovers. I look forward to seeing what Molly comes out with next!

Happy reading :)