ROMANCE WEEK: Girl Gone Viral Review

Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai (Book Two in the Modern Love series)
Publication Date: April 21, 2020

TW: Panic Attacks, Panic disorder, discussions of past abuse, & PTSD,

I was not the biggest fan of The Right Swipe I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars. To be fair I did read it while traveling and had a hard time wanting to read it (I was on vacation okay) so it could have been a more of a me thing. I did see a review that said The Right Swipe was not the place to start with Alisha Rai’s books, which of course I did.

Here is my brief review of The Right Swipe:
This is a very well written romance novel. It is also objectively a good book, but I had such a hard time connecting to the characters. I am not sure if it because I kept having to set the book down or because I was not super invested in the plot. I enjoyed the main character’s story arcs but was not the biggest fan of their relationship and did not see much chemistry. This is super diverse with most of the characters being POC, a stay at home dad, and a character with agoraphobia which is always nice.

I am sad I did not enjoy this more, but it just did not click with me. 3.5/5 stars.

As a result, I was a bit hesitant to read Girl Gone Viral. But, I LOVED IT! We follow Katrina King a widower who suffers from panic disorder and does not leave the house much. She is the BFF of the main character in The Right Swipe. She ends up going viral after chatting with a guy at a coffee shop and someone posts an inaccurate version of their exchange on Twitter. (Remember when that women live tweeted two people on an airplane?). Suddenly #CafeBae is trending and Katrina is terrified. So, her and her bodyguard, Jasvinder, (who she has a crush on naturally) run away to Northern California to Jas’s family farm. It is a time.

Originally, I thought she went viral with the bodyguard and was like, how would this happen? But even though it was not what I expected, I think this was a better plot.

WHAT I LOVED:

• I loved the friendships! Katrina has a strong group of female friends and Jas is slowly starting to make some male friends.
  •  It is interesting seeing how both of them interact/rely on their friends and how different they are in this was
• Seeing Jas’s family
  • When Katrina cooks for the grandpa
• The whole “We have to live in the same house” trope
  • I am learning I like this trope
• The diversity! All the main characters are POC
  • But also, there is a stay at home dad and Jas’s brother is gay
• The slow burn & mutual pining (are these AO3 tags??)
• How supportive Jas was of Katrina’s anxiety and panic attacks
• I love how two people who have both struggled and been beat up by life find each other and can find comfort in each other.
• Jas’s family history is so interesting, like I would like a spin off with the brother or a prequel with his mom and step dad or the grandpa…

WHAT I DID NOT LOVE:

• Honestly nothing! This book was exactly what I wanted it to be!

Even though it might not be like top tier literature, this book was so much fun and I had such good time reading it. I did not want to put it down and if you like romance novels, make sure to add this to your TBR!! It releases April 21st!

Goodreads Link: Girl Gone Viral

*Thanks to NetGalley & the Publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

Thanks for reading!

xoxo, Tree