28 August 2014

The Real Thing Blog Tour - Review & Excerpt plus a giveaway!


The Real Thing by Cassie Mae
Published by Flirt
August 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-553-39253-1

The Real Thing on Goodreads


In this electrifying novel from Cassie Mae, two close friends surprise themselves by shifting from platonic love to sexual attraction.
Eric Matua has one friend—his best friend and childhood sweetheart, who needs a place to stay for the summer. Mia Johnson has thousands of friends—who live in her computer. Along with her email chats and Facebook notifications, Mia also devours romance novels, spending countless hours with fictional characters, dreaming of her own Romeo to sweep her off her feet. When she starts receiving supersweet messages from a stranger who thinks she’s someone else, Mia begins to believe that real love is possible outside her virtual world.
When the two friends become roommates, Mia finds herself falling harder than she ever thought she could. But Eric keeps his desires locked away, unsure of himself and his ability to give his best friend what she deserves in a boyfriend. As her advances are continually spurned, Mia splits her time between Eric and her computer. But she soon realizes she’s about to lose the only real thing she’s ever had.



Get your copy of THE REAL THING
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About Cassie Mae
Cassie Mae is a full-time writer and mother from Utah. She loves being glued to the computer, thinking up new stories, and writing the day away while the kids run wild at her feet. When she finished her first novel, she started a blog that now gets more than five thousand hits a month. Her group blog is also dedicated to reaching out to aspiring authors by providing critiques and other marketing tools to help them succeed in the industry. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with the youth in her community as a volleyball and basketball coach, or searching the house desperately for chocolate.


Connect with Cassie
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Connect with Flirt
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My Review:

As soon as I started this book I fell in love with it. What I love the most about this book is that it is so realistic with the use of social media and it also made me see just how much we all seem to use it. Another part of the story that I loved was that it wasn't all about the romance and social media but body issues and what is so unique about this is that it isn't the girl that is hung up about her body but the guy which was great to see. I loved the relationship between Eric and Mia as they was friends first which I felt like it made the book even more realistic than if they had jumped into a relationship without knowing each but in this case they had know each other for year whilst secretly wanting each other for pretty much the same amount of time. When they where together it was sweet but also hot I just needed them to be together forever as they made such a cute couple. I loved the ending for this book as it was the kind of ending that I always feel like I need in a stand alone book, as we got to see what was happening a year later.

I absolutely adored Eric he is the sweetest guy ever he seemed so genuine that I just couldn't help but love him. He did break my heart a lot of the time but not because of anything he had done but the issues that he has had to deal with. With Mia I had a love/hate relationship with her as there was a lot of times when I felt she was sweet especially when she was in the same room as Eric but she was annoying at times and I wanted to slap her phone/computer away from her. It was great that in this book we got to read from both Eric and Mia's perspective as this gave us the chance to get to know what each of them was thinking which I always want to know what the other person was thinking and in this book we get to know.

Overall this was a great modern day romance book that everyone who loves contemporary romance should read.


Excerpt
“Should I reply?”
I raise an eyebrow, glancing at her profile. She pulls at her bottom lip, tilting her head back and forth as she stares at the screen.
“What would you say?” I ask.
Her fingers tap the home row, and she gives a little shrug. “Not sure. But I feel bad if he thinks the right Mia is ignoring him. But seriously, you’d think he’d know her email if they were going out.”
“I don’t know.” I point to her email address at the top. “How many Mia Johnsons are there in the world? And not all people have relationships with their computers.”
She turns to face me, almost smacking me in the nose. I must’ve gravitated toward her without thinking.
Instead of making it majorly awkward, she presses her forehead to mine and says, “But some online relationships are the best kind.”
I gulp, and then my mouth goes dry. I can’t argue with her. It was because of the Internet that we’ve been able to keep up with each other—the reason we’re here together now like we just talked yesterday. We did talk yesterday.
I’m about to make a stupid move by tucking hair behind her ear just to touch her, but then I remember I’m still in my sweaty clothes, and I get a dizzy spell and pull back.
“Uh, I’m gonna jump in the shower,” I stutter as I slide from the bed.
Em nods and clicks her mouse pad a few times. “Okay. I’m going to order some food. You still like Hawaiian pizza?”
I think I do, but I don’t eat pizza anymore.
“Get what you want. I’ve already eaten.” It’s bullshit, but if I have one slice of pizza, before I know it, I’ll have eaten five more.
Her brow furrows and her eyes drop to the bottom corner of her screen. “Oh crap, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize what time it was. And you’re probably still in a different time zone in here.” She pats her stomach, flicking her eyes from the screen to me.
“It’s no big deal.” I smile and go to hit her door frame on the way out, but she
stops me.
“Oh, Eric?”
“Yeah?”
“The whole ‘make yourself at home’ thing goes both ways.” She nods toward my chest. “I don’t care if you walk around without a shirt on.”
“Huh?”
She points at my neck, and I look down and see the tag sticking out under my chin. Inside out . . . and backward.
“Whoops.”
She laughs and her eyes rest on the screen again. I let her return to her email, but I keep my shirt covering me until I’ve locked myself in the bathroom. Twenty more pounds and I’ll walk around buck-ass naked if I want to.



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