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by L.M. Augustine

Sam Green (a.k.a. West Ryder) has a thriving and popular vlog and on online romance with one of his subscribers (Harper) who posts comments at 2:02 p.m. every day on the dot.

West Ryder (a.k.a. Sam Green) has a crappy home life, especially after his mother died in car accident caused by his alcoholic father.  His only two joys are his alternate identity's vlog and his best friend, Cat.

When Sam and Harper agree to finally meet up in person, it's a Catfish moment as West realizes that Harper is really his best friend, Cat, who fell in love with him years before and has only now been able to confess it.

Now West and Cat must navigate this new layer of their relationship, while West must also deal with his father's alcoholism and the constant reminders of the loss of his mother.

Final thoughts: Meh. West and Cat have a cool friendship, but the "witty repartee" gets really annoying really quickly.  There are also a number of consistency errors with things like West mentioning that he works at Starbucks to help pay the bills, but then he's NEVER there and even meets his Catfish at an unremarkable coffee house somewhere else.  All he does is go to school, go home, vlog, do homework, rinse, repeat, so when does he go to this nightly job that he mentions ONCE?  The lack of closure at the end regarding his relationship with his father is frustrating, too.  However, the relationship between West and Cat feels as real and as chaotic as any typical high school budding romance.

Rating: 3/5