review: keep me posted

I received an advanced reader's copy of Keep Me Posted by Lisa Beazley a few months ago and finally got around to reading it. This book is a fun chick-lit  about two sisters in their late thirties who live on opposite sides of the world and decided to stay in touch the old fashion way by writing letters. I was very surprised to find that i really enjoyed it! I had low expectations for the book because the Goodreads rating for it was 3.65. I'm rating it a 4.3 out of 5 stars!

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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...

 Plot
I feel like there wasn't really much happening plot-wise, but at the same time i feel like a lot did happen. Reading this book was basically like reading Cassie's journal with all the details. When she doesn't write to her sister about the more interesting things happening in her life, she talks about her daily routine with her children and her husband and her other mommy friends. I've been reading way too many Young Adult books and so reading about motherhood and living in an apartment in New York and facing marital problems in a realistic contemporary setting was oddly refreshing and thrilling. I did feel kind of excited at times wondering if i'd have to go through the same things Cassie did if i have children someday.

The second half of the book was more fast-paced than the first half, particularly when Cassie finds out that her and Sid's personal letters had gone public and that they were basically trending on the internet. It's not often that i read books that describes the latest social media as on-point as in Keep Me Posted, so sometimes i couldn't help but wonder if it might have been based off a true story.

The only criticism I have for the plot is that i thought it was a little far-fetched that Cassie's blog had gone viral so quickly, and that it was such a huge hit in the first place. I didn't think their letters were THAT special. They were interesting and fun, yes, but it didn't have the charm that would make it worthy of going viral. But I understand that it's a story and that these things don't really matter, so with all that aside it was still great.

We get to read most of what happens at Sid's end from her letters to Cassie. I really enjoyed the way her story gets tied in nicely with Cassie's at the end. Her experiences in Singapore did sound accurately Asian at some point, especially regarding the maids/helpers thing. I was quite excited to get a bit of modern Asian culture described.

Keep Me Posted had a very heartwarming ending, and I loved that it became more than just about Cassie and Sid's relationship.


Writing
The writing was super easy to follow and had a bright vibe to it. Most things were described in great detail that at some point I felt like i was watching a romantic comedy movie. However, sometimes there was too much unnecessary detail that the book could have been better without. These were mostly some paragraphs about the background stories of the minor characters(specifically Cassie's friends and Leo's family). It just felt like the author wanted to make the story longer and it seemed to run away from the focus of Cassie's story at times. This didn't really happen in the second half though, which is why i enjoyed that half a lot more.

I was surprised to find out that i didn't mind some of the adult characters swearing and cursing. The book could have been cleaner and still great without it, but i found it hilarious and it gave a great vibe to the story.

Characters
I think my favourite thing about this book would have to be the characters. I liked most of them, particularly the Sunday sisters Cassie and Sid. I think a huge reason for this would have to be because their relationship reminds me so much of the one i have with my own sister, and i can't help but wonder if we would have a similar relationship later in life when we reach our thirties.

I thought that Cassie was a very honest character. She went through a sort of midlife crisis without realising it, and although I cringed and disapproved when she started taking her marriage for granted, I appreciated that she was honest to herself and to her sister. I loved seeing her character develop throughout the book as she handled the consequences of her mistakes. I love how great of a mother she is to her twin boys! I absolutely love Joey and Quinn and how such adorable kids they are.

I only have two criticisms for the characters; Firstly, i found the twin boys to be a little too smart for their age to be realistic. They were supposed to be 3-4 years old but their perfect grammar and how understanding they get seems to be a little bit mature for typical boys their age. Or maybe toddlers these days are just a lot smarter, i don't know. Secondly, I think too many new names were introduced especially from Leo's family and some of Cassie's friends. It was a little tricky for me to keep track of who was who, and some of the new names didn't really play a huge role.

All in all, i think this was worth my time and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading chick lits. Perhaps I'll give letter writing with my sister a chance someday.