Review: The Real Thing by Cassie Mae

The Real Thing

Cassie Mae

19th August 2014

NA, Romance

Summary from Goodreads

In this electrifying novel from New Adult sensation 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.

Praise for Cassie Mae

“Cassie Mae’s writing is fresh and original!”—Rachel Morgan, author of the Creepy Hollow series
  
“A fabulous author who tugs on your heart strings as if she owns them.”—Jade Hart, author of Coffee and Cockpits
  
“Cassie Mae has a knack for developing characters who have you wanting to climb into the pages and become part of their world.”—Theresa Paolo, author of (Never) Again

“Cassie Mae’s books have become my latest guilty pleasure. Pleasure, because who doesn’t love to read a romantic comedy? And I say guilty because when I lay my hands on one, I tend to read them in one sitting and let all my other responsibilities go to the wayside. What dishes?”—Pauline Creeden, author of Sanctuary

“Mae is very good at getting me to chuckle throughout an entire book, because her heroines are quirky and unique.”—Book Nerd 

My Review

5/5

It's no secret that I absolutely LOVE every single one of Cassie Mae's books. (Yes, I have read them all and yes I did love them all)

There are only a handful of them which are New Adult and this is the third. She is amazing at writing the cute and the funny, the sweet and the adorkable but in this book there is a teensie darkish undertone.

I was so excited to read this because after reading all the teasers I was so ready to meet these characters. Straight away I could see this would be different from a lot of books because for once it is the guy who has the insecurity and the bashfulness. Most books out there have women being paranoid about size or looks and the guys are usually confident and reassure them but this is the opposite and I am so grateful for that. Not only does this give the reader a break from the norm but it also shows that guys can have these issues too. I love this about Cassie's books. She brings out stories that not everyone else can see and tells them with a cute and light-hearted flair that is all her own.

There are so many swoon-worthy moments in this book that will have you sighing and awwwwhing all day. Most of them are because of how adorable and sweet Eric is. That boy deserves cuddles!

I think Mia is someone we can all relate to in this time where technology has taken over a lot of our lives. The first thing we check is our phone for text messages, Facebook notifications, tweets, emails, etc. Then we spend the day on our laptops or kindles or tablets just trying to keep up with the entire world. I think Mia embodies this need for social media perfectly.

I love how Cassie shows the positive and negative aspects of these technologies with regards to a relationship. In Mia and Eric's case they maintained their friendship for years over long distance by texting and messaging which is one of the best thing that social media can do but then as they spent time together physically that connection began to get lost because of that very same technology.

I really love the message here. Technology is good when it's connecting people but too much of it can ruin a relationship if you don't spend time with the people around you.

It's not all seriousness though, not by a long shot. There are some definite "laugh out loud" moments that had me in stitches and half cringing at the same time.

I could probably write forever on how much I enjoy Cassie's work but I should probably leave it at that for now.

I would recommend any of her books to anyone of any age. Seriously. They're beautifully written and so cute and funny I just want to smush their faces. Smush smush smush. :D

-Tia