I was provided with an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I really enjoyed this book! It was so topical, addressing women/girls in the tech/dot-com industry and how difficult it can be for them to succeed there. It also addressed the "Boys Club" culture that's still prevalent in many industries, and how marginalized women often are. I adored the three leading ladies - Lucy, Maddie, and Delia - and seeing their relationship build and strengthen. I feel like this is a must read for any young lady, especially those who already show an interest in STEM.

So I'm not sure what really made me decide to do the blog tour for this book. I think part of it was the cover, I do enjoy friend group books. I also think the title drew me in as well. Also the topic of girls in the tech industry is not something I really see in books so I wanted to dive more into that. I do have to say I ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would.

So the story is about three girls, Lucy, Maddie, and Delia. They are the first ever all female team that could win this high school tech incubator competition that they've been accepted to. They each have different personalities and different family backgrounds that are explored in this book. The one thing they do have in common is they came to win. This book takes you through the high and lows that they face during this competition. They must learn that in order to succeed they have to stick together.

The first thing I really enjoyed about this story is the three main characters. The story is told from their different perspectives which I ended up really liking. You get to learn more and more about each character every time their chapter pops up. They are all unique in their own way. They each have their different talents that they bring to the table. I was never confused about who was who. They also came from different family backgrounds which I enjoyed. Not only are they dealing with the stress of the competition but they each have different family dilemmas throughout the book. It was nice seeing the development in both throughout the story. I really ended up enjoying both aspects.

Another thing I really enjoyed is the tech aspect of the book. So the competition they are in is called Valleystart. They have to come up with an app in 5 weeks. If they win then they get an internship at Pulse. Pulse is a social media website where you are rated 1-10. 10 is the highest you can be and those people get a ton of different perks. This reminded me a lot of the Black Mirror episode called, Nosedive. Anyway you get to read about them going through the process of creating the app and even beta testing it. There are a lot of ups and down in this process but I did end up loving the end result.

I think the only thing I didn't really like about this book is there were a couple of times I found things to be a bit slow. That's fine but I just wanted things to move a long a bit faster. I also found myself a bit confused at times with who was talking. There would be times characters were having conversations with each other and then I'd lose track of who was talking. This might just also be because I had an e-arc of this book so the formatting wasn't perfect.

Overall I thought this was an enjoyable read. It wasn't something I normally would have picked up but I am glad I did because I liked it more than I thought. It had a lot of great characters, modern day topics, and lots of empowerment. I think if this book sounds interesting to you that it's worth checking out.

*Thank you so much to the publishers for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review*

Screen Queens was an interesting read, particularly in that it deals with girls in the technology field. I myself am a girl in tech although I'm fairly new to the field, but I loved reading about other girls succeeding in this field. There were some aspects of this book that I wasn't familiar with, but some that I actually did know, so that's proof that you learn things in school, kids. I'm not sure that we've gotten such an in-depth discussion of girls in tech in a YA book, so I recommend this if you're interested in that.

Our three main characters, Lucy, Maddie, and Delia, are assigned to the same team at an elite coding camp. They all have different reasons for being at ValleySmart, and they all have different issues they're dealing with. I liked that, while they initially don't get along, they eventually build a strong friendship.

I liked the girls' app idea, although calling it "Lit" is a little . . . cringey. Also, the whole concept of Pulse, a viral app in this novel, was actually really intriguing. Basically, it combines all your likes and page views to give you a standing, from 1 (comatose) to 10 (crushin' it). The higher standing you have, the cooler you are. Honestly, this could totally be an app today.

The plot is very interesting, especially as each girl has her own story line, and the pacing is good. It's hard to believe all this happens in five weeks, but honestly, when you're under pressure, a lot of things just fly by. I really loved how all three girls' story arcs ended.

However, all of the characters were so flat, and by that, I mean that they are incredibly two-dimensional and have very little growth until the very end. That was a bit irritating to read and made the dialogue stale. I also found their narratives to be very impersonal because of this, although I might be influenced by the fact that I've had some similar experiences and couldn't relate to what they're going through.

Screen Queens details the very real experiences of women in tech today: the gender disparity, sexism, and sexual harassment. I also love that they strive to encourage girls to pursue a career in this field at a young age; many girls drop out over the years because they are a minority in the field.

A timely, Silicon Valley-set YA novel for the #MeToo era. Also, young women in tech is something you don't see a lot of, especially in YA. We definitely need more of this.

This book just looked so girl-power-ish and I am here for it. I loved that they’d be taking on the tech world and Silicon Valley, especially because I read this right before heading off on a trip to San Francisco for this week! It centers around the three girls featured on the cover and their experience at ValleyStart, a prestigious tech incubator/summer internship. Lucy has tech running in her family, growing up local to Palo Alto. Maddie is from the Boston area and is hoping to beef up her graphic design portfolio, while missing her brother on the East Coast. And finally, Delia: she taught herself how to code and now she has to see if she can match up to everyone else at ValleyStart.

I didn’t love Lucy at the beginning because she was a little irritating, with her constant chatter and semi-rude comments to Maddie when they first met. She grew on me the more I got to know her and understand why she struggled (under her mom’s big name and general pressure to succeed). To be completely honest, each of these girls had their own flaws that made them different from each other, as well as their own individual strengths. I loved that they were imperfect and trying their best in the “Dave-dominated” tech world. They came out of their shells (well, Lucy was already very much out of her shell already!) and grew together as a team. I loved the idea for their app, Lit – it tells you if a public place is fun or terrible on any given night, using crowdsourced information (like Waze does for traffic).

Overall, this was a unique story that did give me The Bold Type vibes once the girls started getting closer to one another. It tackled sexism in the tech world really well and had a lot of instances that would certainly be familiar for any woman who has experience working in a male-dominated field. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to scream about the injustice of it all – so powerful but also accessible and easy to read… if that even makes sense. Highly recommend this!

I really enjoyed this book! Lucy, Maddie and Delia are a powerhouse girl group. I have been wanting to read a lot of books with female empowerment vibes recently and this one was an awesome fit for that topic. I've always been intrigued about the digital tech world and this story offered a glimpse into it and truly how unfair it is to women. I liked that at the beginning of every chapter, there was a little word/phrase and definition of popular terms used in the tech world. It gave me some education about it as well as being a cute way to begin a new chapter. 

Lucy had to be my favorite character in Screen Queens. I loved the genuine feel of her character and how her relationship with her mom was portrayed. Every daughter and mother have rocky relationships at times and theirs was done in a way that made me feel for Lucy. I also have to comment on the fact that there should be a content warning for assault here within her storyline but I think it speaks to the fact that many times in today's world, power is abused. Someone can seem super nice with their public image but you have no idea what is going on behind the scenes and the real person they are. It's sad to say but it's become an unfortunate truth. Luckily, we have women like Lucy and her friends who will stand up and speak out, akin to the #MeToo movement.

There was a cute romance in this book and it wasn't overshadowing the main plot line. I learned a lot about the digital tech world and this also gave me vibes of the Black Mirror episode where people have ratings, which distinguishes certain things they can/cannot do in relation to their popularity. I loved the idea of the girls' app and it was neat to see some nerdy girls who know how to code and come up with a unique idea for an app. I feel this is a great contemporary for anyone to read but especially anyone who is looking for a book that makes you feel empowered as a woman to never give up and follow your dreams.

This is a Netflix film waiting to happen. Reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen books, it balances both humor and social commentary effortlessly. There were moments of predictability but that didn't take me out of the story. So smart to publish this in June, it's a perfect beach read.

This is usually the kind of brain candy books I gravitate towards - fierce girls and women staking their claim in industries that are hell bent on keeping them out. In this case, it's girls in tech.
I love the premise of this book, and empathized deeply with the mothers and mentor of the 3 young protagonists. But I didn't love this book.
The main characters - Maddie, Delia, and Lucy were one-dimensional. The story was predictable. And the book had me wanting to delete every single one of my social media profiles and never allow my sons to join any.
What could have been a refreshing, cautionary tale read like a half-hearted, 'girl power' tome that was less on empowerment and more a tired story that's better executed by The Bold Type.