Keep Me Posted

Keep Me Posted

Lisa Beazley

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Two sisters share the surprising highs and cringe-worthy lows of social media fame, when their most private thoughts become incredibly public in this fresh and funny debut novel.

Sisters Cassie and Sid Sunday have not done a bang-up job of keeping in touch. In their defense, it hasn’t been easy: life veered in sharply different directions for the once-close sisters. Today, beautiful and big-hearted Sid lives an expat’s life of leisure in far-off Singapore, while harried, iPhone-clutching Cassie can’t seem to make it work as a wife and a mom to twin toddlers in Manhattan.

It doesn't help that Sid spurns all social media while Cassie is addicted to Facebook. So when Sid issues a challenge to reconnect the old-fashioned way—through real, handwritten letters—Cassie figures, why not?

The experiment exceeds both of their expectations, and the letters become a kind of mutual confessional that have real and soul-satisfying effects. And they just might have the power to help Cassie save her marriage, and give Sid the strength to get her life back on track.

But first, one of Cassie’s infamous lapses in judgment comes back to bite her, and all of the letters wind up the one place you’d never, ever want to see them: the Internet...

Review: I am tired of books about women in Manhattan looking down on everyone who doesn't live in Manhattan.  That wasn't the focus of this book, of course, which was about a disorganized and whiny SAHM NYC mom handwriting letters to her sophisticated ex-pat sister who lives in Singapore.  But every so often, Cassie would shoot off these one liners about fat tourists from flyover country that would make me so mad.  Her superior point of view didn't add to the story (other than making her sound even more selfish and pretentious than she already was) so why bother to include them?  Is the author trying to alienate women who don't live in Manhattan?  Seems like that would give her a pretty small reader base...

Anyway, that quibble aside, the premise of this book was interesting, and I enjoyed seeing the sisters connect through the hand written letter they mailed each other, which allowed themselves to express their innermost thoughts with an honesty that was missing in their other everyday communications.  However, I found it impossible to like Cassie, given that she is a stay at home mom with a part time nanny, who has the time and money to take yoga and get pedicures every week, and who has no problem shopping for an entirely new wardrobe online just because she feels like it.  If she acted grateful for all these luxuries, that may have been different, but she constantly whines about her life.  I also didn't really buy into the huge drama about her letters going viral - would that really have happened?  No.  Would that have been a big deal in anyone's life?   Probably not.  

Rating: 3 stars