'Tweet Heart' suffers from a standard storyline, nothing too special. All of it, and especially the ending, is fairly cute but, in the long run, overdone to the extreme. I wish the author had thought to try something new; with a fresh plot, she could have had a real winner in her hands.

The characters are cardboard cutouts of stereotypes: the girl with confidence issues, her best friend who gets all the guys, her guy friend who wants something more with her, his geeky best friend, and the athletic crush of the insecure girl. They are the typical characters youd find in any stereotypical high school stories with nothing added to make them really pop in the eyes of a reader.

The saving grace of this novel is its style. It is not a typical novel with a normal storytelling approach. 'Tweet Heart' is told entirely through Internet Tweets, e-mails, blogs, and an advice column from a school newspaper. Even if the characters and stories fail in being original, this unique style makes up for it. Filled with chat speak and user icons, the style makes the novel fun and different from the normal avenues of typical storytelling.

Now this unique style does have its downsides. The cardboard cutouts that are passed off as characters? Most of that stems from this approach to writing. Its really hard to get to know someone just based on their tweets, especially when, as the book points out, its so easy to lie about who you really are when a computer screen separates you from your online pen pal.

Also the style isolates the reader. Rather than drawing its audience into the story, readers remain on the outside looking in. Imagine becoming friends with an old high school classmate you dont talk to in real life on Facebook. You read their status updates, look at their pictures, and browse through the comments their current friends post on their Wall. Maybe you post on their Wall once a year, when Facebook alerts you that it is their birthday; if youre really lucky, theyll even return the favor when you become a year older and wise. You can follow along with how their life is going but you are in no position to change because they are no longer truly part of your life like they were in high school. Thats exactly what reading 'Tweet Heart' is like.

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Wellthis was alright I liked the idea of the book more that I did the actual book. You cant really get to know any of the characters beyond a superficial level because its only set in tweets, emails, and and blog entries. Thats obvious, right? Well I think I would have preferred to have some real life action and then heavy tweeting.

It was also hard for me to connect with Claire, since Im more like Lottie. Or at least I was when I was in high school. I did like Will though. I married my own Will.

The most disappointing thing about this book is how it reflects our current culture both in America and Japan as well as plenty other tech savvy countries, Im sure. There is getting to be so very little in-person communication. Why talk to someone when you can tweet the hard stuff? Why interact with your friends or family at a restaurant when you can text or play angry birds instead?

When in Japan, I remember seeing groups of friends standing together on the train platform not talking because they were too busy texting

Im not basing my review rating on the cultural stuff, that was just a side note. The rating is purely on the story itself. If you are looking for a super fast read then this is it. I read it while doing my laundry.

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Reviewed by Breanna F. for TeensReadToo.com

Claire has two best guy friends, Will and Bennett, who are complete nerds with basically no social life. She also has her best girl friend, Charlotte, aka Lottie.

Ever since she was little, Claire has been majorly crushing on a guy named JD Whitcomb. He is super-popular and Claire thinks that he'd never notice a girl like her. She is always talking about JD to Will. She always seems so upset about JD not noticing her that Bennett gives Will an idea...a very dumb idea.

He tells Will he should make up a name on Twitter and pretend that he is JD. He tells Will that he should only message Claire once, just to make her smile. But does Will listen? Of course not.

This book was absolutely delish - short and easy to read because it's written in emails, blogs, and tweets. I think that this writing style actually makes the book even better. Basically, I loved the way it was written. And the four characters of the story were awesome, as well.

This is the ultimate summer read. It has boys, which is always a plus, even if they are nerdy! And it has a really sweet girl plus a very flirty girl, which usually adds up to some trouble. I'd go pick a copy of TWEET HEART ASAP. It's a super-cute read.

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