I really like the synopsis of this book and was excited to get into the story. However it didn’t end up working for me and I’m deciding to dnf.

It’s hard for me to put a finger on exactly what wasn’t working for me. Mia is a social media influencer on an app like Instagram. I have seen this more in books and keep waiting for one to present it with someone who is thoughtful about her posts and genuine in her interactions. Instead - Mia is obsessed with what gets likes and grows followers - to the point of faking her own wedding for social media. I guess it makes a more dramatic story for when she quits it all but it makes her so unlikable to me that I don’t even care to get there.

And interspersed with the vapid Mia chapters, we have Paige - dealing with a lot of heavier topics including her struggles with panic attacks, a job that is draining and learning about her sister’s suicide attempt.

I know this unevenness may resolve if I continue reading - but right now I’m not interested in spending more time with these characters.

Thank you to Lake Union, Netgalley and Brilliance Audio for the advance reading and listening copies.

THE BRIGHT SIDE OF GOING DARK was a wonderful eye opening reality check about social media influencers, the truth behind the screens and the responsibility it holds. This novel by Kelly Harms was entertaining and honest. Wonderful characters, depicting all range of the technology - to- not at all variety and spectrum. I enjoyed this book. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the e-reader copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I loved this book! I enjoyed it so much that I am going "dark" on my social medias too. I found myself enjoying the Paige chapters more than the Mia chapters; Paige was hilarious in her delivery of information. She was so literal and socially awkward and I found a kinship with her. Mia's character was likable, don't get me wrong, but I didn't connect with her as much as I did Paige.

I love that this book tackled the "fake" life that most social media "influencers" present to the world, and the Jessica angle was heartbreaking, but sadly, not hard to believe it could be real life.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

The Bright Side of Going Dark is told from the viewpoints of Mia and Paige. Mia is a social media influencer who is left at the sponsored altar. Paige is a highly anxious computer programmer who spends her work day flagging inappropriate social media posts. Frustrated with her phone addiction, Mia throws her phone off of a mountain. When Paige’s sister Jessica attempts suicide after reaching out to Mia, Paige takes over Mia’s idle account. This is a surprisingly easy read considering the heavier topics (depression and suicide), and I enjoyed Mia and Paige’s personal journeys and reconnections with their families. I like this a lot, but I kept comparing it to The Overdue Life of Amy Blyer - which I realize is unfair. Definitely check it out! I got a copy from @netgalley, but you can listen to it via your Kindle Unlimited account too! I also want to recommend The Overdue Life of Amy Blyer via Kindle Unlimited too. 😉

Another Kelly Harms book, another very satisfied customer! Her books make me sniffle, outright sob, and make me happy...

So Paige is a techy Eleanor O and Mia starts out as a yet another vapid influencer but they both undergo these magical transformations that made me want to take a step back and evaluate my own life. Together they're quite a pair..

And yes, there were parts that had tears rolling down my face but that scene was so beautifully well written (tearing up right now as I remember it...) that I have to give her a pass on my books that make me cry are books are not ever my favorites. But then there were parts that made me smile (shout out to my hometown in the book!! Mar Vista!!) - anything that makes me miss Taco Bell's Sunset Heart Hands commercials is a winner.....

The premise of The Bright Side of Going Dark is interesting and made me want to add this novel to the top of my TBR pile. At first I thought it would be similar to Love and Miss Communication by Elyssa Friedland, but aside from someone going off the grid, it was a different story altogether.

I like that this novel focused on mental health. Just like Kelly's previous novel talks about self-care for working mothers, this novel also emphasizes the need for self-care, regardless of whether or not someone is a parent. Paige worked at a job where people were checking on her mental health all the time, as she was dealing with social media comments that could be harsh or even suicidal.

Mia and Paige were both interesting characters and I liked how they contrasted and also how they had some things in common. I really enjoyed both of their storylines and I never knew what to expect from either. This novel speaks volumes about people's reliance on social media influencers these days. Aside from the online drama, I loved the focus on dogs in this story, especially Mia's dog Mike. There were a lot of great characters and descriptions throughout.

The Bright Side was an entertaining and engaging story overall. I recommend adding it to your list of summer reads.

Movie casting suggestions:
Paige: Molly Ephraim
Mia: Justine Lupe
Jessica: Kaitlyn Dever
Tucker: Nathan Parsons
Dewey: Taylor Kitsch
Tim: Khylin Rhambo
Marla: Nancy Travis
Cary: Cary Elwes

Influencer Mia fakes her wedding after her fiance pulls the pin just days before the big day. After all she has lucrative deals with sponsors to see through and her followers would be so disappointed. Then fed up with everything, she throws her phone off a cliff and goes dark (offline).
Social media moderator Paige finds out her half-sister – a big fan of Mia’s - is in trouble so takes off a road trip to see her. She figures out that all is not right with Mia’s feed so she hacks into it and starts impersonating the internet celebrity. And she’s surprised to find that Mia doesn’t seem to notice at all.
The author deftly examines the lure of constantly living your life through a screen. For Mia, it’s all about creating the perfect photo moment for her followers. And for Paige, she prefers tech over connecting with people IRL. It’s a touching and well-conceived story with a socially relevant message.

Thanks to Netgalley and amazon publishing for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be insightful and interesting. A unique take on our social media obsessed culture with a story about an influencer who decides to be real.

Some parts of this dragged but overall makes you think about what you want to put on social media and why.

The Bright Side of Going Dark is a smart, witty story by Kelly Harms.
The central theme is social media and and social medial influencers.
The story is well written and engaging.
Loved the story!

I nearly put this book down. As bedtime reading, the mention of suicide early on made me think twice about whether I wanted to read on.
I'm so glad I did.
I was fully immersed in this story and think that it has an important voice for those people battling with their mental health and social media addiction. It is affirming, and at the same time acknowledges life's difficulties and challenges. It seems a very relevant book for our times. Tackling a serious subject in a work of fiction is a really clever piece of writing.

I was sent this book from the publisher/publicity team. My ratings and reviews will be my own personal opinions and are in no way influenced by publishers or authors who may have sent me books to review.

This one took me as a surprise! It was such a great and fast read that kept my attention from the start. I actually picked this up on audio and went back and forth between the Ebook and the Audio. I really enjoyed both ways while reading this one.

This does have triggers for depression, mental health, and suicide. I really loved how this story really makes you look at yourself in todays world.

Overall, I really loved this one and need to check out more from this author.

Kelly Harms writes another masterful book! This book was soooo good! How many times do we go online day after day only to wish we could be the ppl we see online? This is the case of the main character Paige who decided to hack into Mia’s account. All sorts of stuff happens and in the end a invaulable lesson is learned. Be sure to grab this remarkable book!

Social media – love it or hate it, we all have a relationship with it and it defines us to a point and especially in confinement, we may have rethought our use of it.

This book may have been written before the world changed, but it comes at the perfect time. Disguised as a story about social media, Kelly Harms makes us analyse our family relationships, our life and our anxieties.

For some, social media was/is the saviour in unprecedented times, a way to stay social, stay updated, and stay in touch with loved ones. For others, it became a source of stress and anxiety and they stayed away from the “online world” as much as possible to limit their exposure to bad news.

Whatever your path, you learn something about society and about yourself.

Mia’s life is social media. She is an influencer on the Pictey platform; her every move is shared online to her followers and everything she does has to be picture-perfect. Except it’s not. Being told days before your perfect (sponsored) wedding that it’s “not happening” is not picture-perfect.

Paige’s life is also social media. Not that she is on it herself that much, but it is her job. Daily, she checks flags on the Pictey page. One night, she turns off her computer and leaves work, not knowing the next flag was a cry for help from her sister on Mia’s post.

Both women have decisions to make: Mia fakes her wedding for her followers, then throws her phone off the mountain, goes dark and experiences screen-free life for the first time in years.

Paige, forced to take a break from work, goes to see her sister in hospital and spends some time investigating Mia, the woman who her sister idolises so much she appealed to her in her hour of darkness.

The women’s lives become entwined and Kelly Harms carefully weaves in stories of anxiety, family and grief into the story. What started out as a story about screens and online presence very quickly develops into something much more human. Buried family histories surface, the women deal with pain they had tried to supress, and we all question what life is really about, and how we can influence people around us on and offline.

The Bright Side of Going Dark is an entertaining read featuring the perspective of Paige, a social media reviewer of flagged content, and Mia, an influencer who lives and breathes social media.

One day things change drastically for Mia, causing her to go offline, and Paige, who soon notices - what happens then is a story of learning to care for others and go beyond a screen, each in their own way. Family challenges, self-doubt, facing the past all come up in the days that follow.

I felt like the resolution came too quickly, and was looking for more complexity in the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

Oh I love Kelly Harms! I absolutely loved The Overdue Life of Amy Beyer and was excited to read her follow up, The Bright Side of Going Dark. Harms' writing is brain candy - at first glance it's light and fluffy "chick lit" but there is substance to her plot line and her characters are complex. This story focused on family relationships and second chances. It's a quick read but is touching, poignant and emotionally engaging.

The bright side of going dark is in some ways a more thoughtful read than I would have expected. The story itself is captivating but most of all I appreciate how it makes you take your own use of social media under the loop. Mia Bell is a top influencer, living the dream. According to her followers at least. In reality however, Mia’s real life and internet existence are miles apart. When Mia’s fiancée leaves her mere days before their widely broadcast dream wedding, her perfectly created bubble bursts. Forced to deal with the aftermath and finally face the problems she’s been ignoring all along, Mia decides to go dark after years of being addicted to her phone.

Social media is both a blessing and a curse and I think this book handles the topic well. It pierces the image that influencers live the perfect life by doing next to nothing. That it’s no more than some modelling and getting free samples of the latest brands. Instead this story shows just how much energy it demands to keep up and how consumed one can become. And the biggest downfall of it all, how easy it is to ignore your real problems and to start pretending online that everything is fine. Is better. Is perfect.

That’s a trap we should all be wary of. One I’ve myself fallen for more times than I’d like to admit. It’s so much easier to pretend everything is alright sometimes. So I can’t say I didn’t understand why Mia made the choices she made, even though they could hardly be called reasonable or smart. But no matter what there comes a time you have to face yourself and the choices you’ve made.

Paige is the second main character, a girl not at all bothered by the likes of social media. She works for a social media company, charged with finding the trolls and deleting inappropriate content so she still finds herself involved in Mia’s life all of a sudden. Her story is far more tragic however, suffering from depression and anxiety and still struggling to make her peace with a previous suicide attempt. But when she sees an opportunity to take over Mia’s life, she realizes that it’s not as shallow as she would have believed and that perhaps influencers are just normal people after all.

I’m not entirely sure the heavy topic of depression and suicide are given enough depth here, then again it’s hard to say. While it’s by no means downplayed, I still sometimes felt it wasn’t given enough topic and discussion. But if there’s one thing I couldn’t be bothered to care about, it’s the romance. I don’t think I’ve ever said this before but this book did not need a developing romantic relationship. Definitely not two. I was perfectly fine when it was still just women trying to come to terms with who they are. But what do you do.

Mia has an on line business as an influencer. She is constantly posting and recommending people, places and things. She has a wedding coming up and she must give all the sponsors their due. Well, when her wedding falls apart she heads back home…then she throws her phone off a mountain. She has sudden relief and then the panic ensues.

Kelly Harms has quickly become one of my favorite authors. She always has a character I can relate to. This one is Paige! Paige is an smart introvert, well until she does something stupid. This is why Kelly Harms has wonderful books…her characters are so real and do real things…like hack someone’s account. Oops..did Paige really do something that stupid?? Yep, yep she did.

This is a heart warming read about, well, life. Family and friends and the daily struggle to survive have a huge impact on this story. Plus, unplugging from your phone. What a challenge! Oh…and I cried during one section of this book. That is what rolled it over to a 5 star read for me. I very seldom cry during a book…this one did it! Do not miss this one! It is wonderful!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Throw your phone over a cliff? Could you do it-go dark, for even a day? Read The Bright Side of Going Dark for insights into that odd, almost indescribable feeling of no social media feedback; no text, no GPS, Google; actually being without a phone for several days. (It’s rather mind boggling that we all used to live this way-well, those of a certain age, anyway.) This is a story of self discovery without a device for support; rather, actually speaking face to face, having conversations via voice rather than text-and living in real life (IRL) Kelly Harms shares such insights into “going dark”, that one wonders, did she manage it, even for a few days? Readers will appreciate the candid conversations between sisters, mothers, complete strangers and of course, all the so called, “friends.”

Why are those ‘likes” and “loves” from followers so important? Kelly Harms finds the humor but also the serious consequences of not being truthful and sharing real feelings and fears, with those we love. And then there’s the whole “virtual life” some find so intriguing. Main characters: Mia- a social media “influencer” on Pictey with thousands of followers and sponsors, posts thirty/day; Paige-employed by Pictey as part of the Standards Enforcement /Quality Assurance Team whose job it is to flag “obscene, dangerous, inflammatory, cyber-bullying or any way humans are awful to each other;” and Jessica, Paige’s half sister, who has attempted suicide. Each young woman has much to learn-about living IRL and about each other. Every page is a gem.

The self reflection and shared wisdom in this book will impact – daily- what readers think about when the phone is picked up to check FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter.

Here’s the IN REAL LIFE take-a-way: A Wish from Mia:

“Long quiet walks where the wind is your podcast. Lost wanderings where your instincts are your GPS. Peaceful early mornings where you have your nose in a cup of coffee instead of an email inbox. Yoga with a friend, not an app. Family time with no “shares” and lots of sharing. Mental selfies in the flat, calm reflection of a mountain lake. Sponsorships of children and animals. Quiet summer evenings where the stars are your backlight. A phone that’s used for calling someone you love. Friends, I wish you joy. I wish you airplane mode.”

Mia would make a great friend-now that she’s learned so much. There truly is a “Bright Side of Going Dark.” Read it, and then try it.

Have you ever been somewhere really amazing and found yourself behind a camera lens? Or being so worried about capturing the moment that later when you look back at the pictures or video you wonder, was I even there? Why didn’t I stop and take that in more?

I feel like this has been me a few times, consumed by wanting to remember the memory when I leave that I don’t stop and pay attention to what is right in front of me. So worried about the perfect picture for someone else, that I forget to enjoy the moment for me.

Influencer and Follower are two labels that we hear so much right now. One often confuses the real person behind the tiny picture in the circle and the other, the person behind the number that is another milestone achieved. This confusion can blur reality and take away from the original intent.

In The Bright Side of Going Dark we get to see both sides through three different characters. Mia the influencer, Jessica the follower and Page who gets to experience a bit of both. Throw in a called off wedding, a love for animals, loss and a struggle with depression and you have life ... The one not usually seen on a screen.

This is the first book I have read by Kelly Harms and I really enjoyed her writing style, the flow of the novel and her introduction to hard to discuss about subjects. My favorite part (too long to post here but I will share at some point) is from one of Mias’ chapters near the end where she shares a passage titled ‘I Wish You’ but it ends with “Friends, I wish you joy.” Which is what should be the goal no matter the side of the screen.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

A timely book with some great characters.