Sometimes you just need some fluff. This book was fluff. Not to be confused with smut. Those are two entirely different literary categories. 

I know of Grace Kelly. I've seen Rear Window. I have to admit to having seen more movies featuring the named dropped Audrey Hepburn or Ava Gardner. I had to stop reading for moments and do a few Google searches. There were so many names. I now find myself wondering where one can find older movies during a shelter in place order. I'll have to see what Netflix has to offer once the children are in bed. 

The book starts in 1949 with a 20 year old Grace on her own in New York. From the beginning, the author makes it clear to the reader, Grace is not like other women of the time. The author then spends the next 380 pages reminding the reader that Grace wasn't like other women. This book is clearly a tribute to one Grace Kelly. Grace Kelly must have had flaws but the reader is never granted any access to what they might be. 

And that was my biggest problem. This Grace was just a little too perfect. Sure her marriage to Rainer wasn't a happy one but the author places all of the blame squarely at Rainer's feet. As someone who has been married for 11-ish years, I know that's rarely the case. It takes two. I'm not suggesting that I wanted to see any knock, down, drag -out fights. Even if they did exist, the author would omit them. Her Grace Kelly has too much class for such a thing. Again, I may not have been married as long as some people but I know fights happen. Sometimes they aren't pretty. 

So why such a seemingly high rating for a book that had a main character who was just a little too Mary Sue for me? Because it was a charming book at the end. It oozed old Hollywood. The descriptions of California, southern France, and Monaco were just what I needed to help escape from whatever this current reality of ours is. And at the end of the day, I'm a sucker for old Hollywood. 

.......

When I started this review, I had the book at four starts. While I was writing this review. I took away a star. The more I reflected, the more I took issue with the way the book ended. It was abrupt. Sloppy. It was completely out of sync with everything else the author had done in the book up to that point. The epilogue wasn't at all necessary. Everyone knows how this story ends. 

Read 3/22/2020 - 3/27/2020

Book 21/75

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4.25 stars - Reviewed for Wit and Sin

Girl Gone Viral is a genuinely sweet romance with two protagonists so kind and giving that you can’t help but be swept into their love story. The beginning of this book is familiar if you remember the “Plane Bae” viral phenomenon in 2018, where someone grossly violated the privacy of her neighbors on a plane by tweeting out their interactions, reporting on what they said, speculating on their actions, and generally weaving a story without their knowledge or consent and feeding it to Twitter. In Girl Gone Viral a similar situations happens to former model Katrina King and it’s horrible. Katrina has anxiety and a panic disorder and she’s worked hard to build a life where she feels safe going to even a few places without worry. She guards her privacy and with good reason, so it was even more heartbreaking to watch that privacy be violated when she speaks to a handsome stranger in a café. After someone live tweets the interaction (and makes up some things to go along with it) and it goes viral, Katrina feels the need to get away. Her bodyguard (and longtime crush with amazing eyebrows), Jas Singh, sweeps Katrina off to his family farm in Northern California… And that’s where things get really interesting.

Katrina and Jas are so kind and self-sacrificing that they trip over themselves trying to give the other what they want. It’s incredibly sweet, but their wariness and caution have also kept each from revealing their true feelings to the other. Getting out of their normal routine may just be the push these two cinnamon rolls need to take a risk and let their feelings show. Author Alisha Rai takes what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward romance and gives it depth and breadth by introducing real-world issues into the story. As previously mentioned, Katrina has a panic disorder. I love that she’s so matter-of-fact in how she copes and how Jas interacts with her in the midst of an attack. Mental health problems can’t be cured, only managed and I appreciated that it wasn’t sensationalized but that we see how Katrina builds her world around her to accommodate her needs without shame. Jas also has very real-world issues to face in this story. The military veteran suffers from PTSD and he struggles with communicating and asking for what he needs, even when he’s among those who love and care for him. Add in family drama for both heroes and you have a very full story, but Ms. Rai weaves everything together effortlessly.

From the start of Girl Gone Viral it’s clear that Jas and Katrina are in love with each other, but their actual romance is slow to burn. I do wish I had seen more of them together once they were romantically linked, but it wasn’t too big an issue for me because they operated as a team so well from the start of the book. I really enjoyed Jas and Katrina’s romance and I know I keep using the word “sweet” but it fits them perfectly (even when things get spicy). Girl Gone Viral feels modern in every way, but there’s a timeless quality to the gentleness and quiet strength of Jas and Katrina’s characters that means this book will be enjoyable for years to come.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.