A Facebook Affair by Tara Chevrestt
Contemporary Romance
December 9, 2011
Breathless Press

Reviewed by Mandi

Kelly Littleton has had a hearing impairment her entire life. As a child, life was very difficult for her because she was different and in a public school. She had to wear hearing aids over her ears and talked a little different than everyone else. In her second and third grade years though, there was a boy, Brandon, who always had a gentle smile for her amid all the mean girls. After having to move away in her third grade year, she never forgot that friend.

Now as an adult working in journalism, Kelly has made peace with her disability. She reads lips and has high-tech hearing aids which help her out. Pursuing her career and her mother’s recent sickness and death has not helped her dating life however. With a push from a friend, Kelly finally decides to sign up on Facebook to see if she can reconnect with any old friends. The first person she looks up is Brandon, and boom – he is on there. They start shyly chatting by private message but soon the flirtation ramps up and they decide to meet in person.

I decided to read A Facebook Affair because the heroine has a hearing impairment and I haven’t found that a lot in the books I’ve read. I think the author does a nice job with showing us Kelly’s impairment and how as a child and as an adult she has to deal with issues. However, a lot of time in this book is spent in flashbacks to when Kelly and Brandon are in grade school together and I think we spend too much time there. During these flashbacks we see just how mean the kids are to Kelly. But after awhile it felt very repetitive and I don’t think we needed more than just a few examples to get the full effect and consequences of their behavior. I also thought in these flashbacks that Kelly did not speak nor react as a eight or nine year old should. It was almost like she was an adult, living in the second and third grade.

I did like how the romance unfolds in this one. It seemed very realistic and I like how they start by flirting on Facebook. They slowly work up the nerve to meet each other in person. There really isn’t any internal conflict with Kelly, it is more just a very sweet build up to romance and I enjoyed it.

Some of the mean girls from Kelly’s childhood come back to haunt her now that she is an adult and I think that storyline is a little overplayed. Especially the events surrounding Brandon’s twin sister and ex-wife. It felt a little forced.

While some parts of the story didn’t work for me, it does have a sweet romance and a unique heroine.

Rating: C

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