I loved this one I couldn’t put it down it was a quick read and I can’t wait to read more by this author

I received an #ebook copy via #netgalley. I did not get through the second chapter due to this being #socialmedia related and #contemporary.

Do you guys remember awhile back when a couple of a plane went super viral by live-tweeting a meet-cute for an attractive man and women sitting in front of them? It went huge, then the man went public, then the woman was devastated to have her privacy invaded like that. So, we all felt super guilty and/or self-righteous?

That's basically the premise of Girl Gone Viral if the woman involved was a Chrissy Tiegan-ish ex-model who is secretly in love with her body guard.

It's basically impossible to go wrong. I loved it. You will too.

Katrina King gets her own story in the second installment in Alisha Rai’s Modern Love series. I love the way this book explores trauma, anxiety, and PTSD in both main characters. Each character deals with these issues but for different reasons. Therapy is normalized and speaking up for your mental health is a theme. Katrina and Jas are both sweet cinnamon rolls who deserve each other’s selfless devotion. In case you’re wondering, there are only a couple steamy scenes. This is very much a story about the characters and exploration of different family dynamics. I look forward to reading more books in this series.
*ARC provided by NetGalley and Avon for review.

Thanks to NetGalley for making this eARC available to me.

I thought that the descriptions of the anxiety attacks and PTSD problems the protagonists had were fairly realistic, including their not wanting to ask for help. Of course, as you might suspect, they did end up helping each other with these issues. I really enjoyed the use of the family farm location, and the interactions with the various members of his family. I almost liked this book better than the previous book in this series, but I didn't find the resolutions (or lack of full resolution in some cases) of the various subplots to be quite as satisfying. That said, I did greatly enjoy this book and look forward to more in the series at some point.

You know what my favorite thing about Alisha Rai books is? They're just as much about a couple falling in love as they are about two individuals learning to love themselves because of their proximity to each other. And also? That loving yourself means improving yourself and wanting yourself to grow. She does this without "tough love" tropes I frequently see in fiction, but she doesn't shy away from having characters who disagree with each other or find certain things infuriating about each other. They're so well-rounded! I wanted to spend so much more time with Katrina and Jas.

This book? It's good.

More "slow" than "slow burn," I enjoyed parts of this but some of it really dragged. It's very plot-focused, with a romance that's on the back-burner for much of the story. We learn a lot about these two as individuals, their pasts and feelings for each other, but they don't spend much time on the page together and are too sedate to have any real chemistry. The tone is also jarringly different than the vibe the cover gives off - I thought I was in for a fun rom com, and instead got a serious and emotional read. Combined, those elements impacted my reading experience and left me feeling disconnected. There's nothing wrong with the book; there just wasn't enough to keep me hooked.

The story follows Katrina, a widow who suffers from anxiety. After some past trauma, she's been leading a very introverted life, hiding her identity and avoiding most contact with people. The person she feels most connected to is her bodyguard, Jas, a longtime companion who she has started to have romantic feelings towards. Thinking that her feelings are likely one-sided and probably caused by proximity, Katrina believes it might be time to start looking for love elsewhere. However, when an innocent interaction with a stranger goes viral, Katrina seeks isolation. Alone in their bubble, Katrina and Jas' feelings for each other grow and come to the surface.

While I love a good slow burn romance, this lacked the spark that's necessary to keep a reader interested. I wanted more time with Katrina and Jas together, but that took a while to happen. I found myself skimming ahead to see when they would interact next - those scenes are what make the book. There were things that I loved - the diverse characters, the rich backstories, and the likability of the couple - but they weren't enough to overcome my boredom with parts of the story. If you go into this expecting a heavier, serious, slow burn romance, then you might enjoy it more, but my initial impression was definitely different than the book I ended up reading. I received an ARC via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Follow-Up to The Right Swipe with Katrina going viral in an apparent Meet-Cute. Bodyguard Jas is all over it with overprotection. They run to Jas’s childhood farm 7hrs away for privacy while the internet calms down.
While they are at the farm Katrina and Jas find they both have troubled family pasts, baggage and they find they have may have more than that to share...

Girl Gone Viral features Katrina, a former model and current recluse who really enjoys her privacy (and after everything she’s been through, it’s totally understandable), and her longtime bodyguard, Jasvindar. Katrina finds herself going viral after a very mundane experience in one of the few public places she visits. She was just sitting at a table in her favorite coffee shop when some guy comes over and asks if he can share her table since the place is hopping and there’s nowhere else for him to go. They exchange pleasantries, and unbeknownst to them, some chick at the next table decides they’re actually falling in love and live tweets the whole thing. Katrina leaves the shop thinking it’s just another day, and then suddenly her picture is all over Twitter and she’s gone viral. It’s her worst nightmare come to life. Katrina decides she needs to escape to regroup and wait for #CafeBae to die down, and when Jas offers his family’s farm in Northern California as a refuge, she agrees to go. And the fun begins!

I really, really, really loved this book, especially since I’ve read a few duds lately. I gobbled it up in a couple of days. Last night, I tried to explain the plot and the backstories to my co-workers and realized how crazy sauce it seems out loud, but it does actually make sense in the book. Also, it’s based off of an actual thing from a couple of years ago when some lady intruded into two strangers’ privacy on a plane for the sake of what she thought was a meet cute. As someone who deals with anxiety issues on a daily basis, I really appreciated having a heroine who reflects some of those same issues, and I really haven’t seen a character quite like Katrina before. Going into this book, you have to know that Katrina and Jas are a slow burn, but once they finally get going, it’s good. They’re super cute with each other through the whole thing, and you just know how much they care for the other—how could they not be together?!

This was a very sweet book. I enjoyed the slow burn but it was almost too slow. My favorite part was how the heroine had anxiety and how she coped with it. It didn't define her. It was a very realistic portrayal. The hero was frustratingly closed off. I didn't connect as much with him. I loved the female friendships as well. I'm eager to read more about this group of people

I LOVE Alisha Rai's books. This is the third by her that I have read and the second in the Modern Romance series and it gave me so many happy feels. I also may have cried from joy and the absolute sweetness of some parts. I think that Ms. Rai's work is wonderful and I was so so excited to dive into this second installment in a great series!

I am so here for this book because of the amount of representation there is in it! The fact that the main characters suffered from PTSD as well as other mental health issues and that those around them didn't treat it as a negative or weird or make a big deal of it was such a refreshing thing to read! The support system that Katarina had was just there for her, they knew how to work with her and knew how to take care of her without it being a big deal. I loved that, and it was a refreshing way to have mental health issues included in a book. Not to mention that the characters all come from different backgrounds and were people of color. LOVE THAT!

The only real complaint I had about it were the sex scenes. I am a lover of steam and while this book didn't have enough for my taste I felt kind of awkward reading the scenes that were in there. I appreciated that the characters didn't have much sexual experience because of their traumas which helped to show people with PTSD even clearer it felt dirty reading about their first time. But I loved how kind the two of them were to each other. I just enjoyed watching the two of them want to care for the other and watching Jas start to come out of his shell the more he was with Katrina was wonderful to watch.

All in all this book gets a solid 4.5 stars from me! I was such a fan of the different amounts of representation in this book and as someone that suffers from mental health issues I felt very well represented. Alisha Rai is quickly becoming a favorite romance author of mine and I really, really look forward to reading more of her in general and in this series specifically!

Can we start by giving snaps to Alisha Rai for making lube sexy? This is the energy we need for Romancelandia in 2020
Anyways, this is a lovely slow burn of a book. I absolutely LOVED both of the main characters (and was of course thrilled to see Rhi again), and I appreciated how each of their mental health issues were so meaningfully incorporated into the plot. I am a sucker for a protective hero who is also kind of a cinnamon roll-- this book actually reminded me quite a bit of One Night with Her Bodyguard by Noelle Adams, which is a favorite novella of mine.
I will say that this book did suffer from the things that kept me from just fully loving her previous book, Hurts to Love You- love the characters, love the conflict, love the family dynamics.... but I wasn't fully sold on the actual transition into a relationship from the two main characters and there was not enough of a denouement. Both of these books were slow burn type tropes, so I wonder if this is just something that doesn't click with me for how she handles this kind of story?
Still, I enjoyed myself immensely in this book, would definitely recommend, and I'm hoping for a book with Lorne (if there's not already one?)

Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai is an absolute delight. From start to finish, I enjoyed every page of it. I have a new favorite contemporary romance.

Kat is a former cover model, striving for anonymity, and Jas is her bodyguard and best friend. He started protecting her when she married her wealthy older husband ten years ago and has continued to protect in the years since her husband’s death. He knows her inside and out. He also loves her. What he doesn’t know is that she loves him too.

In this moderately steamy friends-to-lovers romance, there is literally nothing to dislike.

Some romances really play up a miscommunication, or manufacture drama to create a conflict--but this one avoids these crutches. Everything about their relationship felt organic. It evolved and developed naturally, and they handled every aspect of it as two adults who are learning to ask for what they need. Honestly, the way they communicate with each other was so refreshing.

Kat learns to spread her wings a little and take up space in the world, and Jas supports and encourages her every step of the way, while providing a safe place to land if she falls. She, in turn, helps him open up and let others help him the way he’s always helping others.

They both suffer from PTSD--hers from a kidnapping, and his from his time in Iraq. Hers is complicated by crippling anxiety and panic attacks. Rarely do I read a book that gets anxiety SO RIGHT. From the descriptions of the attacks themselves to the emotions Kat experiences during and about the attacks, Rai has done her research.

I don’t normally underline quotes but there were several in this one that stood out so much I wanted to remember them.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Avon Romance, and Alisha Rai for my e-ARC.

Based on the cover, I opened this book thinking it was going to be this cute, light romcom. Although it did have romcom aspects to it, it dug more deeply than I was expecting. I loved that there were some heavier issues tackled and addressed (TW: Veteran PTSD, parental neglect/abuse) within the pages.
I loved Katrina because she is nurturing, loves cooking for the people in her life, and has this generous spirit about her, despite not having grown up in an environment that provided that for her. There were aspects of her personality I really identified with.
Jas is this quiet, stoic man of few words. He is difficult to get close to, because he’s got these walls up from a past trauma. He doesn’t let people in easily, but he’s got such a servant’s heart when it comes to Katrina, even when it is to his own detriment. Watching the two of them navigate their boss/employee relationship while harboring secret feelings was frustrating at times, because I just wanted one of them to open their mouth and admit what was in their heart! The payoff was worth it though.
Now, the “gone viral” part of the title comes into play, it really makes you consider the cost, the ethics, and the plugged in world in which we live. I wonder if Alisha derived her inspiration from one specific real life event, because as the story unfolded, I kept thinking of the #PlaneBae incident of 2018. I remember following along with that supposed fairytale being documented, and the fall out that quickly followed. This is a real, relevant, and valid issue in everyday life, and seeing it addressed in this story humanized it even more for me.

Look I don't know how many romance readers out there are familiar with that whole Plane Bae mess that went down last year. Short recap, a couple grossly violated two strangers privacy. A woman decided to spy on the people sitting together on a plane and decided that it would be great to tweet about them. During this whole thing a ridiculous amount of people followed her on Twitter and were cheering this mess on. The whole thing went viral. Buzzfeed and others picked up the story and the woman who originally tweeted (who was a writer) used this to parlay herself into fame. Of course people rightfully said this was gross, why would you be taking pictures, implying that they had sex in a bathroom (they didn't) and use this to push yourself forward. It was awful and I think people on both sides of this mess were yelling at each other. The poor woman in question who was spied on had to delete her social media. The main in question was all, heh, this is good for my brand (I think he may have been an Instagram model. No I don't understand how that's a thing). I think within 7 days the whole thing had boomeranged with people who initially thought this was cute realizing it wasn't and the whole thing was messed up.

So the above is what Rai sets up as her big plot. The heroine (Katrina King) goes to a cafe where she let's a stranger sit at her table. She's polite, but not interested cause she has a crush on her bodyguard (Jas Singh). The main at the table asks her out, she turns him down. She notes that a woman next to her is typing furiously and thinks nothing of it. The next day she finds out a twitter hashtag called #cafebae has taken off and a woman had taken a picture of the side of her face and talked about how it was true love between her and the stranger at the table. This causes issues due to Katrina's past (she suffers from panic attacks) and she is scared that her anonymity which she treasures is about to blown to bits. Jas takes her to his family's farm where they grow peaches and then romance romance romance. Honestly the book did not work for me at all.

I think Katrina was just too nice. I really hated the outcome of the whole plane bae thing. I was hoping that Rai would tackle that more in the story. Instead if was talked about here, talked about somewhat here, and then just dealt with in a way that I doubt would have resolved itself in real life. Katrina also had another thing happen to her in this book and it was just too much after a while. I think I was supposed to go all girl power, but it started to read a bit too Lifetime for me.

Jas was an interesting hero, but once again there was a lot going on with him too. I think the plane bae thing should have been dropped since the story could have just focused on how similar these to are (both dealing with past trauma) though Jas had a loving family though his grandfather is ticked at him somewhat. I just started to feel like I was getting four stories worth of information in this book and it was too much.

We get previous characters we were introduced to returns in this one, but once again they felt apart from the main story at times.

The writing was okay, the flow was hit or miss for me after a while though.

The ending had a nice Happily Ever After (HEA) I thought, but once again we have another hero that is dealing with some really serious stuff that I don't think gets fully addressed by the end of the book.

I'm finally understanding the Alisha Rai is the best romance writer in the market right now, and probably forever. Alisha Rai can create romance that isn't sexist, that is inclusive, and that can still be loving, steamy, and amazing. (Too many "ands"? Probably.) There aren't enough words that would describe the amazingness of this book, but I will try.

Something that bothers me about any book I read written by a woman is that the men don't feel like real people. Sure, men like Jas are hard to come by, but the flat characters I read in romance novels are nothing in comparison to the amazing character Rai created. I'm beyond thrilled that, for the first time ever, I like the male character in a romance novel MORE than the amazing and strong female heroine. It has never happened before, and I commend Rai for reaching into the black pits of my feminist heart to find hope that men can be like Jas. (Is that a blurb or what, Avon.)

Every character in this book was incredible. The story was incredible. ALSO! Can we take a minute and appreciate it was the WOMAN who was the millionaire! I'm sorry white female romance writers, women can make a lot of money too.

This was such a fun and sweet read. Alisha Rai, I'm so happy I finally got around to reading one of your amazing novels. I can't wait to read the rest.

A sexy, Sikh bodyguard and a reclusive billionaire, each with their own troubled pasts and issues, come together in Girl Gone Viral. I really loved The Right Swipe and wanted to love this one as much, but in my mind it fell short a few decimals despite the tech talk.
Still, it's a happy romance that you will want to finish and hug.

Pretty cute. I read maybe about 30% of it on Valentines day and then ii put it down and didn't pick it up until about a week later but its a really cute romance with all the feels. If you're a romance fan go pick this up

Thank you to @netgalley for the advance copy of this book. I thought the premise of the book was so relevant in today’s world of broadcasting everything on social media. I did enjoy that there were diverse characters with real issues. I was bummed that this book did not work out for me. I felt it odd that they characters had know each other for so long and all of sudden have mutual feelings for each other. The book is a bit slow with a really slow burn. I did enjoy it but expected a lot more fun banter. ⁣

Girl Gone Viral is the second book in the Modern Love series, but it can be read as a standalone. I hadn’t read the first book but was never lost in this story! Girl Gone Viral was an incredibly cute and respectful love story.

I loved our two protagonists! Katrina is a former model who now stays out of the spotlight; Jas is her trusty bodyguard who’s been by her side for the past ten years. They’re thrust into a sudden situation when Katrina suddenly goes viral after she allows a guy to sit at her table at a coffee shop and a stranger thought they were having a meet-cute.

I really liked how “going viral” was presented in this book. There are plenty of meet-cutes or overheard conversations that go viral, but there are definitely ones where the person sharing it is creepy. Sharing one tweet is fine-ish to me (although not including a picture like this woman did in this book), but when you write a whole thread about their conversation and you clearly have many opportunities to just stop listening to them, it’s a problem.

Anyways, Katrina has panic disorder and PTSD after being kidnapped years ago, so she very much values her privacy. Jas takes her to the only safe place he can think of: the family farm where he grew up.

I really liked seeing their interactions! Both are so caring. They’ve both gone through a lot; Jas is a veteran and also has PTSD. However, they don’t “heal” each other, they just help each other survive. This felt very healthy to me. They respect each other’s boundaries and support each other.

The side characters were also great. Katrina’s friends Rhiannon and Jia are always there for her and support her throughout this entire journey. Jas’s family, including his meddlesome parents, his stern grandfather, and his slightly resentful younger brother, all have a dynamic that I really enjoyed reading.

The romance was a bit of a slow burn but I really liked it! Girl Gone Viral was just so soft, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. This was my first book of Alisha Rai’s, so now I need to go and read her entire backlist!