Tweet Heart

Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick

Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick
Hyperion, 264 pages

Claire is a #hopelessromantic.y

Lottie is determined to set up her BFF with Mr. Perfect.

Will wants his #secretcrush to finally notice him.

Bennett is a man with a plan.

Claire can’t believe it when her dream guy starts following her on Twitter. She never thought he noticed her, and suddenly he seems to understand her better than almost anyone.

But the Twitterverse can be a confusing place, especially when friends act differently online than they do in person. Things get even more complicated when Claire realizes she’s falling for someone else, the last person she ever would have expected….

Told in an innovative format combining tweets, emails, and blogs, Tweet Heart is a contemporary romantic comedy that will set your heart atwitter.

I didn’t get into Twitter until last year, but I’ve had my account for a while now. At work, I think my friends and I converse more in Twitter, and it’s kind of fun to watch and read other people’s updates. Not to mention following authors and celebrities. Sometimes the best gossip can be found in Twitter, don’t you think?

So I was really excited when I saw and read what Tweet Heart was about from Amazon. At first I was frustrated when I saw that there wasn’t any Kindle version, so I decided to just wish and wait for it to get here. Then my friend Jana tells me she saw copies of the book in National Bookstore in Shang, and then comes my search. I finally found a copy of the book in National Bookstore Megamall, and this was one book I wasn’t going to pass up on, regardless of how big my credit card bill is. :P

The moment I opened the book, I understood immediately why there was no Kindle version:

The cover did say it was a book told in tweets, emails and blogs. ;)

I guess I didn’t think that the entire book was told in tweets, emails and  blog posts. I saw the line in the cover, but I didn’t think the book would only contain that.

At first I was disappointed, but once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. Tweet Heart is a quick and fun read. Claire is indeed a hopeless romantic, who has been pining for lacrosse team captain, JD Whitcomb since she was a kid. Lottie, her best friend, goes from one guy to another, but is always there for her best friend to help her in all her boy troubles (lucky her). Bennett is Claire’s guy best friend, who annoys Lottie most of the time and would rather talk and tweet about anything SciFi (or SyFy, as he often says) but is always there to be a friend to Will. Will is the smart, quiet guy who likes Claire and would listen to her swoon about JD even if it hurts him so.

Tweet Heart is a typical high school romance and mistaken identity. There’s really nothing new about the plot, and if it was told in the traditional way, I don’t think it would have been as charming as it is. But the tweets and emails and blog posts totally made it a different book. Since there was no narration, I had to deduce what happened in between the tweets, and since most of the characters were talkative enough, nothing is ever missing. I wasn’t so sure about the length of the direct messages exchanged, though. I mean, I don’t do much of direct messaging because the notifications spam my inbox. Maybe they turned it off?

It was also a great feat for the author to create well-rounded characters even with just their 140-character tweets. Claire is charming, Will is sweet, Lottie is wild, and Bennett! I love Bennett. He is probably the best character in the entire book, and I love all his references to Star Wars, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Joss Whedon and all things geeky (like mounts, for example). Despite his very annoying nature, he’s also a good friend, and I liked that he had a happy ending of his own. :)

A word of warning to the kids (and everyone else for that matter), though: the romance in this novel is between people who see each other in real life, and not just on Twitter. So don’t go starting online romances with people you know on Twitter (or email, or blog, or chat) alone!  Remember that not everyone online is a nice person just because they talk nice.

But I digress. Again, Tweet Heart is a quick and fun read. However, I don’t think all people will like this, especially those who prefer to read narratives in a book. Plus, I don’t think this book will be much of a hit in the future, if Twitter loses its popularity. This book is recommended for today’s generation, and anyone else who enjoys social media and a cute romance. :)

Rating: [rating=4]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 52 out of 100 for 2010

My copy: paperback, Php289.00 from National Bookstore

Cover image & blurb: Goodreads

→ Get Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick from Amazon.com
→ Elizabeth Rudnick’s Website

This review is included in Cym Lowell’s Book Review Wednesdays:
CymLowell

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