Point, Click, Love by Molly Shapiro is the story of four friends, Maxine, Kate, Claudia and Annie, who are all dealing with issues related to the internet in one way or another. Maxine is not the happily married woman she portrays to the world and, in fact, hasn’t had sex with her husband in years. She forgets her own troubles by burying herself in gossip magazines about celebrities. Katie is a divorcee who swore off men until she realized that she couldn’t swear off sex. She decides to find casual encounters online. Claudia’s lazy husband spends more time on Facebook than he does with his family or looking for a job and 38 year old single Annie is no longer interested in finding a soul mate but she does want a baby and has decided to pick her sperm donor from an online catalog.
I’m giving this book 4.5 stars not necessarily because I LOVED it, but because I really couldn’t put it down from page 1. I found myself tearing through the pages at every opportunity to see what happened.
The book is basically 4 separate stories that only come together because the individual women are friends. Although I enjoyed all four storylines, I was surprised to find myself most interested in Maxine and Claudia since I have never been married. Annie’s story was a bit far-fetched but I enjoyed it as well. My least favorite was Katie. The way things wrapped up for all four was somewhat predictable and while I was satisfied with how things turned out with Maxine, Katie and Annie, I was disappointed with Claudia. Finally, while each story was definitely unique, the personalities of the characters were all pretty similar and I wish there had been more distinction made. They were all likeable and sympathetic characters but there were no character traits, aside from appearance, that really made them stand apart from each other. For instance, we were told that Claudia was a bit aggressive sometimes but you never really saw it.
Although the book had the potential to dig deep into how our society has become so dependent on technology and using the anonymity of the computer to avoid relating to each other on a more personal basis, it really didn’t. So, if you’re looking for depth, keep searching. If you’re looking for a fast read to get you through a long commute by train or plane, though – this is a perfect pick!
4.5 Stars
Buy here: http://tinyurl.com/bvjm5vq
