Book review: Please Retweet by Emily Benet

"Social media whizz kid, May Sparks has landed her dream job. Well, not quite, but the salary is great and all May has to do is handle the online profiles of Z – list celebrities who have the tendency to say inappropriate things. Easy, right? #wrong

May’s clients include an ex big brother star (who she's definitely not going to sleep with #neversaynever), a disgraced TV presenter (who wants May to sort out his marriage as well as his Twitter account), and a woman who once flashed her boobs on X-factor. They're all relying on her to turn them into stars. But they're not going to make her job easy.

As May is sucked further and further into her job she begins to lose her grip on real life. Her friends don’t ‘like’ her Facebook posts anymore and even her gorgeous neighbour, who once seemed to be on the same wavelength, criticises her career choice. Worse, May’s clients start getting trolled by an annoying tweep, who May happens to agree with.

Then May’s secret online identity is leaked, causing her to start trending on Twitter. It looks like the status update is over. Unless May can leave the superficial social media word behind and find her own voice again…"

When I found out Emily was releasing a new book, I was so excited. If you read my review of The Temp, you'll know I well and truly fell for Emily's witty writing style and unique ideas. Before I'd even started reading the book, I knew she wouldn't disappoint on the latter. The story revolves around May Sparks, who has a demanding job managing social media accounts for minor celebrities. The concept of the book stood out to me- it's modern, different and would no doubt provide some brilliant scenarios.... and boy does it!

As May embarks on her new career, she begins to feel the pressure. Social media is a 24 hour business, and she doesn't feel like she can ever take a break. She is always scouring for favourites, re-tweets and witty tweets to make her clients accounts shine. With the promise of a bumper pay-rise and a successful career, she works hard to impress her boss and her clients. However, this work-a-holic attitude doesn't impress her friends or her family, and also doesn't really impress her clients... she's very much taken for granted.

At times, I found May's attitude to work frustrating as it was so full-on. Sure, I'm all for working hard, but the job eats into May's whole life. She doesn't ever seem to stop, and I wanted to shout at her to switch off all her electronic devices, grab a drink and chill out, on an evening at least. The world will still spin if a Z list celebrity doesn't tweet for an evening. But this adds to the story - it shows what a dedicated and hardworking person May is, while also ringing true to life, and showing what a big impact Social Media is having on everyones lives - we've become obsessed with liking pictures of peoples dinner or watching the latest viral video. It's absorbing and I think it's easy to not quite realise how much time is spent in a virtual world. (Pretty deep stuff for me, heh?)

When May started loosing friends over her dedication to work and neglectful attitude to them, I began to become infuriated. I wanted to reach into my kindle, grab her by the shoulders and give her a good shake. I won't say this is a negative aspect to the story as it just accentuates how lost May is, but it certainly will draw emotions from you.

As usual with Emily's stories, theres loads of varied characters with a wide range of personalities, which really showcases Emily's skill at creating characters that bring out a range of emotions. Theres funny characters, annoying characters, swoon-worthy characters and even more, which immerses you into the story and has you hooked. I loved seeing how all these different characters engaged with May and how they prised a different reaction from her.

Overall Please Retweet is an interesting, unique plot that is completely different to anything I've ever read before. I really enjoyed it. It isn't quite as laugh-out-loud-funny as The Temp, but I think that's due to it being such a different plot, which is brilliant. Emily's writing just gets better and better and I love the way she brings characters to life and has a knack of stringing together witty, well thought-through sentences. If you haven't already, add Please Retweet to your reading list, it's a corker. #Iheartemilybenet #gobuythisbook #seriouslygogetit (sorry... couldn't resist!)