Call Me, Maybe takes me right back to the days when I was so in love with Robbie Williams……Which in all honesty I still am. I had him plastered all over my bedroom walls and wanted to marry him. I think we all had a crush on that one certain famous person back in the day. But unlike Cassie I wouldn’t expect Robbie to friend me on Facebook LOL

She is one very lucky lady when she starts chatting to her teenage heart throb Jessie then before you know it she is hanging out with him. Oh my days this story is so much fun. Things take an unexpected turn when Cassie hears something unexpected which changes things. And that’s all I am saying about the plot. This book is simply brilliant read it for yourself to find out what happens.

I adored Cassie and Jessie they are awesome characters. I also loved the friendship between Cassie and Rachel. This story takes you on a roller-coaster ride with some breath taking moments. With the story alternating between the two of them you can feel the excitement passion and emotion of their feelings throughout the story.

This is a well and truly gripping entertaining read which gave me goosebumps. And boy did it make me smile. I am blown away by the fact that this is the authors debut novel. This is a perfect uplifting laugh out loud story.

It is just Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant…..I cannot recommend it enough giving it all the stars.

Thank you to Rachel Gilby for the book tour invite and to Hera for a copy.

I was not familiar with Stephie Chapman when I accepted this book for review. I was very pleasantly surprised with this interesting and unique plot. What girl hasn't had a crush on some young actor or singer? And so few of us ever get to meet them. Cassie was lucky enough to be up close and personal briefly with Jesse on two occasions in their youth which did nothing but make her like him more. Now as an adult, she's shocked when he accepts her friend request. It's fun to watch these two get to know each other through messages and to really start liking each other. Cassie finds she's even more attracted to Jessie as she talks to him and Jessie is glad to find she's not some crazed fan.

Of course, all good romances must have misunderstandings and these two are not immune. All of which add to the angst of the story and give it depth.

I found Call Me, Maybe an interesting, fun story.

When Cassie was a teenager, she had a massive crush on the bass player from a boy band named Franko. She lovingly tore their interviews out of magazines, went to their concerts, and showed up at radio stations and CD signings just hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesse Franklin. Fast forward 15 years, and Cassie now lives and works in London but hasn't had much luck in the love department. Feeling a bit nostalgic one evening, she decides to look up her former crush on Facebook, never imagining that she'd actually find him. After a few too many sips of wine, she sends him a friend request...and can't believe it when he accepts it. They start chatting online, slowly getting know each other, and when he's able to make it to London for a whirlwind weekend, they meet up for an amazing night together that changes everything. A few weeks later, she's able to go visit him in LA and they're pretty sure she should move their permanently. Until one of his family members lets slip this giant secret that he's been keeping from her the whole time. Maybe Jesse Franklin, the former teen heartthrob turned love of her life really is just too good be true. Has she been fooling herself that her teenage dream of marrying her boyband crush could actually become a reality?

This was a cute, fluffy book. Not a lot of substance, maybe, but a good palate cleanser if you need an easy read. I do wish the characters had a little more depth to them. Aside from Jesse's conflicted feelings about his band ending, he didn't really seem to have much of a personality. We heard more about his long hair and his Converse than we did about him. Cassie had a lot more to her, and I did love her friendship with Rachel (her oldest friend whose wedding she's supposed to be helping to play instead of starting a long distance relationship with a former pop star). But still, the characters were very wooden and it was hard to really get a sense of who they were aside from their obvious identifiers: Guy who Used to be in Boyband and Girl Who had a Crush on Said Guy.

My only other issue was that the plot was trucking along just fine for awhile, but the "secret" that arose to break them up should have been easily resolvable in like 2 seconds flat. It was kind of ridiculous that it caused all the drama that it did. But of course, where would we be if crazy things didn't separate people (WE WERE ON A BREAK!) just so we could be sad and pine with them until they figure it out and get back together.

This was Stephie Chapman's first book. It was released a few years ago, and this is a re-release after some major edits. For me, it was a fun story, and I'll be interested to see what the author does next!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Hera Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!**

Having your teenage fantasy come true is something we've all thought about and this book is now an idea of what could have happened (just like we knew it would). Funny with a snag our teeneage heads would not have come up with. Since this didn't happen for most of us we get to enjoy it vicariously without the bumps along the way. Fun idea and read.
I received an advanced copy of this book for my honest review.

My first book by this author. I was drawn to it initially by the cover with its bright colours and musical notes – it looked a really fun read! Based around the story of Cassie, who as a teenager had the biggest crush ever on popstar, Jesse Franklin. When seeing him on Facebook years later, she takes a chance and sends him a friend request, leading to what she dreamed about as a 15-year-old girl – a love affair with the popstar!!

We’ve all had crushes on famous people when we were younger, some of us may still have them now!! How many of us though have ever had those teenage dreams come true?!! I loved how Cassie could be any one of us, and thinking back to my 15-year-old self I could completely relate to the younger version of Cassie! Unfortunately, I never got to even meet any of my teenage idols, let alone start a love affair with them, so it was great to finally experiencing through Cassie what it felt like for that to happen!! The story wasn’t all music and lights for our main character though and as the story moved on, we get to realise that Jessie wasn’t everything she thought he was.

The story was an entertaining and amusing read, with plenty of love and laughs to hold my interest throughout the book. The characters are all really likeable and you can instantly relate to them. I liked Cassie’s character and the wish to see her with a happy ending kept me turning the pages! Being of the age where I’m struggling to get to the top of that hill, I do think this maybe for more of a younger reader, but nonetheless it was still a modern, heart-warming read which had me remembering my youth with fondness!!

Rachel told Cassie/Cass after dinner as she wanted to get her thoughts on centerpieces for the wedding. Rachel was getting married and cass was her maid of honor, they had known each other since the were kids and were best friends. Rachel asked if cass was bringing anyone to the wedding and she said no. Rachel said her fiance wanted to hook Cass up with his best friend Marcus. Cass thought marcus was a jerk and said that wasn't happening. Rachel couldn’t blame her. Rachel said cass had been out of circulation for a long time and pulled up Date My Mate dot com. And said she had made Cass a profile and rachel sends it. Frank had been rachel’s and cass’s favorite boy band back in the nineties. They knew the band’s songs inside out. They had traveled to signings and every gig they possibly could. Jesse had always been Cass’s favorite. Rachel found Jesse on Facebook. Jesse had been mysterious, jesse had been a closed book, Cass had lived to see him, and the eye contact and the butterflies she got when she saw him . Rachel was sure it was him and under his name was freelance musician. Cass’s crush on Jesse had been so intense she was convinced it was love. Jesse had been mysterious, a closed book. At signings Cass had lived for seeing him, the eye contact and the butterflies she got when she saw him. Now she lived in a house share with John who works in IT support at UCL. Sara manages an independent art supply shop. They were relatively fond of each other and used to each other habits. Now Cass was pouring a lot of effort into her career . She had five messages from her profile but they were all from losers from the dating site. Than Cass sent jesse a friend request. Cass received more request but only answered fred’s who said he was new to internet sites for dating. Jesse thinks about the friend request he got two weeks ago from someone named Cassie Banks. Maybe she knew him from Franko. Or maybe he was the wrong Jesse Franklin, either way it didn’t matter if he didn’t accept the friend request. Jesse had been added by one of Travis’s friends and seen Cassie had changed her profile picture. He decided to accept her friend request. Cass went out with Rachel and Cass told her about jesse accepting her friend request and rachel typed hi to Jesse and sent it. By the time she went home Cass was fairly tipsy. She couldn’t sleep so she went on facebook and then conversed with Jesse for a little while then he had to go. As Cassie settled down to go to sleep she knew her massive crush on Jesse was back. They had even sent pictures of each other to verify who they were. Cassie had lived with Jack who cheated on her in their own bed and she moved out and stayed with rachel until the house share. Brandon said he had a job for Jesse, actually more of a favor. It was in NYC but Nicole lived there. He had been with Nicole for fifteen months and then she told him after they had sex, she had a job at the U N and was moving to NYC and didn’t plan on coming back. It was New Years Eve. Than Jesse told Brandon he would do it. Brandon asked if Jesse had seen their mom and dad and he said no. They only lived a half hour from him but they were not close. Jesse got a call from a guy named Mick, manager of the Kitten Tricks who said he would pay Jesse a lot to fill in for their base player who had an emergency. The gig was in London, Jesse said sure. He had a day off in between and he thought maybe he and Cass could hang out. Cass and Jesse meet at his hotel have a drunk at the bar and go eat. He kisses her while they are walking and they decide to go back to Jesse’s room and they sleep together.
This was a good book that I enjoyed reading. It was a good romance with a little drama.I loved Cass and Jesse together and how they interacted. I enjoyed the plot and the pace. But i do think they fell in love a little too quick especially Jesse as Cass at least had her hidden feelings from when she was a teenager. I didn’t like Holly. I think she wanted Jesse to pay for losing her friend- his ex- Nicole. I just don’t believe Jesse was too rough on her, she even went to his work and humiliated Cass in front of everyone that she left that same day. Also, she was so smug and unfriendly to Cass from the minute she met her. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend it.

I always love a book that looks at when you were younger, at the crushes and ideas you had about love, then fast forwards to the present to show you just how it’s going to work out. The nicely done difference here is that the person isn’t an ex, or indeed a boy from school, it’s a guy she never (really … you’ll see what I mean!) met! I loved from the start that the band in question were possibly big, but that Cassie had built them up to be the biggest thing ever, even though all her family and friends were very noncommittal about the whole thing.

This book is very much for people who like dramatic and angsty love stories, with a bit of light heartedness thrown in. It is touted as a romantic comedy, and actually, given the title, cover and in general rockstar romance vibe I was surprised at what it was as for me this would appeal strongly to people who like their romance.

I beyond enjoyed this book. I opened it expecting something else but was thrilled to find a story was 100% invested in, a couple I wanted to follow (I was especially thrilled when I realised we were hearing from Jesse too!), and settings that were real and put me right there. Thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources and Netgalley for book in return for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5

I do love a rockstar/popstar romance and this is a pretty darn good one! I love that it starts through Facebook and goes on from there. This is just perfect for any teenager who dreams of their favourite popstar dating them.

Would love to read more from this author and i'm excited to see what she will come up with next!

This book wasn’t for me at all, I couldn’t connect with the story, found it uninteresting and the characters kept annoying me far too much. I’m sure plenty of others will enjoy but just not my cup of tea

So truth be known it took me a few chapters to get into this book. However I am glad I gave it a chance. The story is so good when you really get into it.

What an original idea for a romance book! Anyone who can remember their teenage fan crush (come on, I bet you can) will relate to Cassie and how she just holds this special flame for Jesse Franklin that no man has been able to really live up to.

You are instantly drawn in to their conversations (which were displayed in the ebook in a clever format that looks like a text/chat screen) and I was gripped by how they developed a rapport and a bond, both looking for escapism and drawn to each other in different but equally strong ways.

There was a gentle vulnerability about Jesse that made him a really likeable character; you could see his flaws but also how much he wanted to be happy in spite of himself. Cassie too was a flawed character, which sometimes meant I became exasperated with her viewpoints and petulance but also I could completely understand why she had this "imposter syndrome"/lack of self esteem at times, and it was something I could relate to even if I wasn't always on side with her reactions.

Cassie's friend and Jesse's brothers created a varied cast of supporting characters that really added depth, humour and soul to the story line and I felt represented a really authentic nature of friendships and sibling relationships and their ups and downs.

I found this a really enjoyable read, full of nostalgia, hope and a little piece of every teenage crush daydream.

This was such an odd reading experience for me. I was absolutely gripped and I LOVED the concept of an adult boy-band romance, but there were some things that happened in the story that I really didn't like. The conflict of the story relies really heavily on the love interest hiding something Very Big from the heroine and what he was hiding happened to be one of my least favorite romance book tropes so it just didn't work well for me. Overall this was a VERY fun time and I recommend if you want something fun, fast, and boyband-y, but tread with caution if you aren't a fan of intentional miscommunication being used to further the plot.

DNF. I read about 25% of this book and it didn’t click for me. I thought for a YA book both people were like 29-30. It didn’t feel as fun as I thought it would!

Thank Netgalley for the ARC

Cue Carly Rae Jepsen.

Back in ‘98, Cassie from London was a huge fan of a band named Franko and had a huge crush on the bassist. Years later, when she and her best friend Rachel randomly googled him during a drunken dating discussion, they found Jesse Franklin on Facebook. Cassie impulsively friend requested him, and to her surprise, he accepted, which became the opening sequence to an overseas love affair.

Told in dual points of view, I was able to see more of their story. But, I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters; tbh, I found Cassie rather annoying. There were good parts and adequate drama, but it was perhaps a bit longer than I would’ve wanted, though I absolutely enjoyed the ending (it was my fave part). Otherwise, if you like British dialogue and a love story that goes the distance (literally and figuratively), give this one a whirl!

Thank you NetGalley and Hera Books for providing me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a Netgalley ARC review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

WOW!! I loved this book. Cassie is living every teenage girl’s dream by social media stalking her crush and then actually meeting him. Cassie is an “everywoman” in her relationships with her friends and exes. She’s real and has flaws. Jesse is the heartthrob who wants to be “normal.”

I think Stephie Chapman’s writing will touch so many on different levels.

The major issue I had with this ARC is during some of the text or IM chats because the sender wasn’t identified it could be hard to follow, especially in the lengthy chats. Also, there were phases used by Jesse and his family that I don’t think would have been use by American English speakers. For example, Jesse says “whilst” instead of “while.”

Otherwise, I loved this book and can’t wait to gift a copy to a friend.

First of all I would like to say thank you Netgalley and the publishers for this lovely,lovely book. I haven't read book like it quiet yet. This one is as cute as its cover.
It is my first Stephie Chapman book and it is definately not going to be my last. I loved cassie and I though I did not love jesse but I liked him enough to continue reading this book.
This story starts a true fairytale for Cassie as she gets to form an online friendship with her teenage idol,a popular band member,Jesse through facebook. They clucked instantly and their chemistry was mutual since both of them were interested to see this thing through. Our girl Cassie,she flew down to America to have a holiday romance with Jesse which to an extend was successful till she gets to know a horrifying truth that Jesse had been hiding from her. I kinda hated holly a little for the way she made Cassie feel when she outed Jesse's secret. I had to admit,the way Jesse choose to shy away from his problems was a huge turn off. But none the less the ending was cute and a huge relief too. The secondary characters were awesome ,adding to the adorable way this story came out to be.


Its a cute story with delightful characters,engaging banters and realistic view on love and friendship and makes us imagine what if our teen idols fell in in love with us.

Happy reading...

I have loved this book, it has been such a delightful and pleasant read. This is my first read by this author but I know it won't be the last.
This is a book which had me hooked from the very beginning. The writing style used, has made it easy to lose myself in the pages of the story.
Every girl dreams of meeting their teenage heart throb, especially band members. I for one, would probably faint if I met Shane from Westlife. This plot made this story exciting and relatable to the reader. I was desperate to know how it was going to play out between the pair.
The characters are extremely likeable and as a reader you can't help but feel connected to them. This is another of those books where I felt connected to the characters and rooted for them from the very beginning.

Blog post to follow

Call Me, Maybe, Stephie Chapman

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: ,Women's Fiction, Romance

Bah, Humbug. Women's Fiction – that infuriates me. Why do we insist on having such an outdated category?
Well, that's out of the way so on to the book...I liked it, a lot, but didn't Love it. And I'd expected to, its got one of my favourite tropes.

Its got some fun characters, some humour that lifts parts and the potential for some great drama. I just didn't feel it lived up to that potential. There were characters that were fairly major in parts who then just dropped away. There's the mystery of Franco and its demise, which was kind of storm in a teacup when finally revealed, and the actions of some of the family over that seemed a bit OTT.

I was never really convinced of the romance between Cassie and Jesse, it seemed kind of insta-love and yet although they're talking online they've only met a couple of times before they're in deep....They were good together but I didn't really feel I knew either of them well enough, and didn't feel they knew each other well. Hot sex doesn't make a relationship work, you need more.
The relationship between Cassie and her best friend for years seems rocky at times, and there's no real explanation – like the romance issues its kind of hinted at, there are hurt feelings and then all's OK again without any real exploration of what went wrong.

That Big problem, yes I can understand Cassie's reaction at the way it came out, but TBH given that the real circumstances aren't yet clear, no one has asked, or even really bothered to find out the essential question, and as it all happened well before Cassie and Jesse were in contact it seemed again an OTT reaction all round. By the time it had all happened simple maths would have given the answer too....It seemed too as if all the relationship issues were put down to that one problem but they had much wider ones, ones which if they didn't explore would simply reoccur. Jesse cam close to seeing some of his issues but I'm not sure he was willing to look at changing them though. The same for Cassie, she recognised that maybe she'd over reacted but given similar issues I think she'd still be the same. I guess for me its back to that build a relationship – they didn't really, but went from online chats to full fledged all in, and that middle part, the getting to know each there, is so important.
I did like Holly, I do adore a “good” nasty person, and she was a queen bitch! I wish there were more like her in books ;-)

Stars: three and a half, a lot of potential, but for me it didn't quite hit it.
Arc via Netgalley