Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai

Modern Love series, #2

Genre: contemporary romance

Rating: 4.5 stars

Alisha Rai is one of my favorite romance authors, not just because she creates fantastic love stories, but because her books also focus on strong friendships, family dynamics, and mental health. In Girl Gone Viral, we’re following Katrina, a former model and current investor who suffers from panic disorder, and her bodyguard and love interest Jas, a veteran dealing with PTSD and the heir to his family’s peach farms. No one is ever just one thing in Alisha Rai’s books–people are multifaceted, the way they are in real life, and this is one of the best things about her writing. She shows us, over and over again, that people can struggle yet remain awesome, and that mental health issues aren’t something to be ashamed of. It’s a message that’s never heavy-handed, but instead infused into the story, as we see Katrina and Jas support each other, as well as how they’re supported by their friends, family, and therapist, and how, without fail, open and honest communication makes things better, not worse.

Katrina and Jas have a sweet relationship; both have unwittingly been pining for each other for years. I don’t always like when couples in romance novels have relationships prior to the start of the book, but Rai does a great job justifying why they aren’t together yet (not only does Jas work for Katrina, but he also worked for her late husband, and no one wants to cross any lines). I loved how supportive they were of one another throughout the book; what tips off the series of events that brings them together is a threat to Katrina’s identity that occurs when a chance encounter at a cafe with another man goes viral, akin to the live-tweeting of a possible couple on an airplane that went viral awhile back.

I can’t ever talk about an Alisha Rai book without remarking on her strong female friendships (although there’s also a developing friendship group with Samson and his former NFL buds from book 1 that Jas finds himself included in). Rhiannon, the heroine of The Right Swipe, the first book in the series; her badass associate Lakshmi; and Jia, a beauty influencer and Katrina’s roommate, support and love one another throughout the book. I also loved the scenes with Jas’s family, and their near-instant approval of Katrina.

If you love contemporary romance, and want to read a book that’s both extremely fun and extremely thoughtful, you’re really going to need to pick this one up. It’s one of my favorite romances I’ve read in a long time.

I received an eARC of Girl Gone Viral from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.