First of all, I love a teen novel centered around social media. It always feels current.

In a world where everyone is desperate to make it big on Youtube, Not Your #Lovestory shows the massive downsides to going viral; trolls, haters and judgement from strangers. It has a strong feminist narrative, which is part of the reason I enjoyed reading the book so much. There's one rule for girls and another for boys when it comes to casual sex.

Macy's home life, part of a family of strong women struggling to make ends meet was a particular highlight for me. It was refreshing to read. A litany of really well drawn background characters also makes this book stand out. Hartl has created some fantastic characters that really jump off the page. I particularly like the sassy grandma and video shop crew who's dialogue sparkles with fun.

My one reservation is I thought Paxton's backstory deserved more focus, but appreciate that there is already so much in this book that it's just a minor thing for me.

What if you woke up one morning to find out the you were the next internet sensation? Macy Evans knows exactly what that’s like. All it took was a baseball game, a hottie, a trip to the restroom with him escorting her, a fly ball and a stranger documenting the whole ordeal on Twitter for her life to be flipped upside down.

Not Your #LoveStory is the follow up to Hartl’s debut Have A Little Faith in Me, a book about female empowerment, sex positivity, and consent. While these themes are still prevailing in her newest book, Macy has to deal with another form of consent; having her life shared online without her permission.

Macy is dragged hard by the haters who think she banged a guy at a Braves baseball game. I mean even if she did who cares and whose business is it beyond hers? A stranger shares all of this online and the boy in question jumps aboard the internet sensation train without even consulting Macy or shutting down the lie that he had sex with her. While she may dream of being a real YouTuber who can make money for her poor family and this sounds like the perfect opportunity, in reality it starts to affect who she is as a person and the relationships she has in her life.

Macy herself was such a complex character and I loved that the Evans women used movies to broach tough subjects such as classism, sex and feminism. The relationship between the three women was one of the many highlights of this book. While they might bicker they obviously loved each other and would skin anyone alive who ever hurt one of them. Grandma was hilarious, stubborn and sassy as hell while her mom was a sweetheart and such a hard worker. Together they survived and did the best with the hand life had dealt them.

There was definitely some romance happening, both a fake one and something a lot more real. The fake boyfriend was truly awful but Paxton, our true love interest, was such a sweet baby angel that deserved to be protected at all costs. He lives with his grandma and her life partner who has shown him how to raise rabbits and show them at the local county fair. He adores his baby rabbits and his grandmas which is just so heartwarming and endearing. He was super patient with Macy even though he had his own feelings about what she was going through due to some past demons. Together they were hilarious and their moments together were realistically perfect.

While sex might not be one of the main plot points like it was in Have A Little Faith in Me, it’s still very present. Macy is dragged for supposedly having sex at the game while the golden baseball boy gets no such slack. Macy also uses her favorite movies to promote feminist forward thinking along with female sex positivity. It wasn’t ever shoved in your face but more lightly touched on in these scenarios to show this is 2020 and girls can do whatever they want with their bodies.

I laughed, I cried (a few times) and began wondering just how many people that went viral really wanted that while also learning that going viral isn’t always a good thing. Paxton and Macy along with their friends were so fun to follow and I truly felt like I really go to know each and every one of them. I also really enjoyed the message that there are more options than college to have a successful future and that it may not be everyone’s dream or goal. Hartl really hit it out of the park with her second book and I truly think it’s books like this one that need to be on shelves for young women to pick up.

Not Your #Lovestory is a profoundly relevant and timely read that is very easy to connect with and invest in as you can imagine it happening in society today.

An original story that will appeal to social media users young and old that keeps you hooked with it's relevance, honesty and strong characters,

It was just supposed to be a special day for her mom. Macy Mae had saved and saved to be able to take her mom to a live Royals game. It was just supposed to be a great day.

And it seemed great at the time.

Even after accidentally spilling a drink on her seatmate, his subsequent t-shirt removal, and a few sparks, the day went pretty well.

Unfortunately, Macy Mae had no idea that her special day with her mom was going to be completely blown out of proportion when the woman sitting behind them decided to use this "meet-cute" between Macy and that boy into a way of earning instant Internet fame.

Within hours of getting home, Macy Mae has been all over the Internet and the news, and speculation is running wild about her and her #baseballbabe. Soon, her YouTube channel is blowing up and getting trolled. Her identity is doxxed and leaked out to the world. And Macy Mae gets everything she always thought she ever wanted, but never knew how to achieve.

But there's a cost.

Local boy Paxton finally seems to be ready to step up and talk to Macy Mae about more than just movies, but now she's Internet famous and her fame is dependent on dating #baseballbabe.

Final thoughts: This is a fictionalized version of the July 2018 #PlaneBae incident that took over the Internet for a few days. While the meet-cute incident is different, the players are much the same with a woman behind posting to improve her Internet presence and the boy playing it up for his own fame. Neither seems to care about the girl in this instance or how this all affects her life. This is a realistic and somewhat scary tale of what the Internet does far too well... make assumptions and run with them. This is not so much a YA novel as it is a NA (New Adult) novel, as Macy and all of the characters are post high school.

Rating: 3/5

Not Your #Lovestory felt a bit disjointed, especially in comparison to the brilliant Have a Little Faith in Me. The pacing felt a bit off and Paxton's backstory was very heavy in comparison to the rest of the book. But there were still moments that made me fall over laughing and the portrayal of going viral was one of the best I've seen in a recent novel. (It'll be interesting to see how that story stands the test of time.)

Compelling and nuanced characters pair with themes of loyalty, teen pregnancy, death, family, friendship, consent, social media, and depression. Fantastic read and authentic teen experiences!

Honestly, this is a disappointment :( it wasn’t a bad book, but it feels like a sophomore slump in comparison to Have a Little Faith in Me. The pacing was a little disjointed and the characters didn’t feel as fleshed out as they could have been.

I liked the portrayal of being poor. The scene was set super well and felt realistic to small town life. The family dynamic was sweet and there was decent f/f romance rep. Now that I think of it, I don’t remember any POC being mentioned, but I don’t always remember descriptions very well.

The romance was sweet, and even though the romance seemed decently paced, the I love yous seemed to come way too soon and we didn’t see enough of them before their first date to know what kind of chemistry they had.

The Twitter drama commentary was pretty realistic. Just the issues with going viral and the morality of posting about strangers’ lives and what you do to them by doing so. The different viewpoints people on the internet take when stuff like that happens. The media headlining it for a day then never bringing it up again. It felt pretty genuine.

Also Macy’s YouTube career felt pretty believable numbers wise. Often views and followers/subscribers on social media in books are either overshot or undershot, but Macy talked about how much money she made with certain amounts of views and it felt like good research had been done.

The love interest had a tragic backstory that seemed WAY too heavy for the tone of the book, and it didn’t play a big enough part in the story to warrant being so intense. I really didn’t like that addition.

Overall, I just found a lot to pick apart in this one, and it makes me sad because it was highly anticipated. Oh well!!

This book is Sonia Hartl's second YA book- and it does not seem like it. This book has all of the things that kids and adults love about YA: intrigue, dynamic family structure, love, and deceit. ​This book is a perfect summer romance: think Gilmore Girls meets Gossip Girl in modern day.
The twists that are introduced by Hartl are unexpected and very believable.In an age of social media, it is not difficult to imagine how we would all react to a viral twitter feed that documents a strangers perspective on a meet cute and how they can manipulate reality.
This story follows Macy as she lives through the most complicated week of her life, beginning on a high note of bringing her mom to a Royals baseball game and meeting a boy while there, to the lows of being publicly slut shamed for something she never did. This story shows both sides of viral stardom how it can help some people and damage others.

While exploring such important issues of the digital age, the author also allows the readers to see what love really looks like in a person's true moment of need. Macy does not know how she will follow her dreams if this viral twitter feed follows her forever, and how messy life can get because of social media. This was truly a quick, fun book to read. I would suggest it to any of my students who wanted a little romance and a little reality to spice things up for a great read. I wish it came out over the summer for kids to enjoy!

Not Your #Lovestory by Sonia Hartl comes out in September of 2020.
http://kaitlynrcarpenter.weebly.com/portfolio/not-your-lovestory-by-sonia-hartl

Hartl’s debut, Have a Little Faith in Me, was one of my favorite titles of last year by far. She’s a great new voice in contemporary YA, particularly with her gift for writing teen sexuality in such a frank and realistic way. Not Your #LoveStory addresses the problems that stem from social media threads like Plane Bae, as well as how unrelentingly female sexuality is punished in our society. The side characters are well-written and fleshed out, and this is also a great depiction of the realities of being working poor residents of a small rural community, which is certainly not something we see enough of in YA romance. Not as punch you in the face great as Have a Little Faith, but a really solid second novel and I can’t wait to see more from Hartl.

I was excited to read this book, because of how much I enjoyed Have a Little Faith in Me, but I still wasn't prepared for how much I loved it!

I FLEW through Not Your #Lovestory. There were moments that made my heart ACHE, and SO many that made me laugh out loud. The dialogue is wickedly funny, and I absolutely loved the motley crew of video-store employees who tease each other mercilessly in the way only long-time friends can. Plus, the Bees are the most wonderful, hilarious, give-no-crap posse of grumpy quilting grannies I never knew I needed.

Not Your #Lovestory is genuinely funny and romantic, but also wrestles with issues of classism, power, consent, and internet fame, all woven through the story with so much cleverness and care that it never feels preachy. Sonia Hartl has a gift for crafting characters who are flawed and human in unexpected ways, and stories that go beyond the confines of one genre. Once again, she's written a book that will leave a lasting impression on any reader lucky enough to pick it up.

Such a delightful read! This book really did give me all of the feels, and every page felt like a warm, comforting slice of apple pie. I love stories of characters reclaiming their own narratives, and this one totally delivered. I was cheering for these characters from page one! Five stars.

Brilliant, heartfelt, incisive, romantic, and full of empathy. I absolutely loved this book and can't wait to devour whatever Sonia Hartl writes next.