⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Search History starts off really strong but it fell flat for me in the end. Ana is obsessed with her boyfriends dead ex-girlfriend and is constantly searching her and comparing her life to her- so much so that she inserts herself into Emilys old life. It's pretty messed up, but Ana comes off as a crazy women. The best way to describe it was a slow burn towards nothing. There was a lot if fluff in this book and it didnt work for me. I definitely saw the struggle between social media and reality and I do think that is pretty relatable and I'm sure there are some crazies who use it just as Ana had.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A modern take on the dating in the 21st century. The female protagonist internets stalks, lives in a world of sexual expectations and struggles with her identity. These twenty somethings don't have it easy to find love.

Search History got off to a pretty good start, lost its steam mid-way and found a sweet conclusion. At times I found Ana's incessant obsession tiresome to the story. Someone needed to step-in to tell Ana to put down her phone and live in the present.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Random House, The Dial Press for the complimentary copy.

The author draws her readers into a vividly rendered world of current dating, relationships, and how social media portrays our lives.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ugh this book is a bit too relatable. It’s about dating in the digital age and boy is it rough out there. It’s definitely a great debut novel and I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future. The main character compares herself to others which is so easily done these days with social media, obsessively stalking our new love interest’s ex, etc. Gosh, be careful what you post on the internet. I found this book very relatable and filled with a lot of inner monologue I have at times found myself saying.
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a witty debut novel from Amy Taylor that is so relatable. This story follows Ana who moves across the country after a bad breakup. We are there while Ana navigates her loss, new love and navigating the relationship in the wake up the digital age. While this book was funny at time, the characters, their thoughts and behaviors were so relatable. This book truly exceeded my expectations.

A great debut book from Amy Taylor. It had a promising star and great end but the middle was where i got distracted and kinda lost the plot

Ah, modern dating! This story brings in many of the nuances of being a young adult in today’s age. The assumptions we make due to people’s digital footprints, and the misplaced emotion that comes with assumption. I give this one 3.5 stars, rounded up. Easy read and would recommend
to a friend

Really enjoyed this one - felt like a less unhinged, more commercial version of Big Swiss or Milkfed. A great look at the cons of dating in the digital age with a pretty unexpected twist at the end. I didn’t love some of the choices made with the plot but it was an overall fun, enjoyable read!!

Search History is a modern dating story. That said, it's not a happy one, because our main character is a miserable person who is determined to ruin everything for herself.

I recently went to a concert and was surrounded by young 20-somethings. When the band took the stage, hundreds of phones were being held up in the air - and the 20-somethings were filming themselves - not the band. That's what this book is.

Ana is not able to enjoy anything without a deep dive into the past. Whether it be her own failed relationship with the ex with the crooked teeth or her current partner whose ex died, she obsesses to an almost....scary degree. She's so concerned with comparison and with social media that it takes away from her own growth.

I wanted to enjoy this more. I wanted Ana to grow up and see change. Sadly, none of that happened.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I want to first thank Netgally and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with this arc.

The summary:
The book starts with Ana who is sort of new to town. She meets a guy named Evan and they hit it off. Ana has a bad habit of internet stalking and learns that Evan has a dead girlfriend. This sends Ana on a rabbit hole of obsessing over the dead girlfriend.
My thoughts:
I had trouble deciding what I wanted to rate this book. Now for anyone wondering I would not label this a romance book. Does the main character pursue a relationship with another... yes, but the relationship was very shallow. Very little was spent with them together as a couple. The majority of the time was spent in Ana's head. I also wouldn't rate this a thriller. While the main character at times displaced obsessive stalker like behavior, it was not thriller like. This book had great potential but kind of fell flat. Too much time was spent in Ana's head listening to her monologue about society. I feel like this book tried to make commentary on society but fell flat. I had trouble figuring out where the book was trying to go at times. Glad it was not any longer than it was.

The premise was interesting, but this book made me feel like a crabby old lady who doesn’t understand The Youths.

I was clearly not the audience for this one.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book early in exchange for my review. A relatable, witty, funny, and sometimes slightly distressing look at modern dating. I haven't seen another book so accurately portray dating in our online obsessed world. The constant comparing we do between others and ourselves, and the general lack of privacy (despite our online lives being almost entirely fabricated). Ana is super relatable, most of the time, bringing to light the obsessive thoughts we can feel when attempting to date. But then taking it one step further. There were multiple parts in the book that I was excited to see these feelings being put into words that I have never been able to verbalize. Then, of course, she would do something concerning and beyond questionable, acting on these impulses and intrusive thoughts. Overall I felt the story was extremely well written. I was excited every time I picked up this book to continue readying it. I guess it just left me wanting.. more? This story started so strong but I felt it stuttered out by the end. That could also have been intentional, since in life when we let these delusions control us we end up realizing we were overthinking nothing. In the end I am sure Ana felt vindicated in her obsessive need to learn more about our main love interest. I just felt like I was waiting for something more interesting to happen. I will be eager to read future works by Amy Taylor, she can definitely bring to life those deep dark emotions we all try to stifle.

I picked this one because I thought it would either be a thriller (maybe Evan killed his ex!) or messy-zany-hilarious (picture Brittany Snow singing “research me, obsessively, uh-huh” in Crazy Ex Girlfriend). What it actually is - I’ve never read anything by Sally Rooney but I feel like this is what it’s like. There is just so much internal monologue going on, and not much actually happening around it. I love a messy protagonist but being inside Ana’s head just felt sad and depressing.
Anyway, it kind of reminded me of Ghosted by Rosie Walsh, which I also didn’t care for, but other people did, so those people should read Search History, along with the people who really like Sally Rooney (I think).

After a breakup, Ana moves from Perth to Melbourne to start afresh working at a startup in an uninspiring job. She meets Evan and begins a relationship with him. At first, she resists doing an internet search to find out more about him. When she succumbs, she discovers his last partner, Emily, died in a bike accident almost a year ago, but Evan never mentions her and is resistant to any discussion about her. Soon Ana finds herself obsessed with all things Emily.

I enjoyed this debut novel. Quite contemporary, there is humor and poignancy. Taylor captures well the angst so many women go through in life, walking on eggshells, calculating how their significant other might or might not react to what they say or do. Women have always had to deal with so much in dating relationships; Search History illustrates how our tech obsessed world compounds these issues.

Thanks to #netgalley and @randomhouse #dialbooks for the ARC

Ana is a master of research both on the internet and in real life. She works for a startup company in Melbourne, after running from an unsuccessful love affair in Perth. She meets widower Evan and immediately begins browsing social media: his deceased wife Emily’s, her friends and his. She visits places and people associated with his life with Emily. Her researching turns quickly into stalking. Amy Taylor’s protagonist is neither likable nor sympathetic. Her story is filled with confusing subplots, some of which lack explanation. One wonders at their significance.

An amazing dissection of a young woman’s life and what the results of online searches can reveal. Ana is constantly overly examining her life and the way she was brought up has a lot to do with her insecurities. Definitely a lot of personal growth here which leads to better decisions.

I always love an Australian novel! This one was solid but I did feel like it was a little repetitive when it came to some of the social media stuff.

I could not tell if we were supposed to like the main character or not or if she was supposed to be a caricature. That kept me from fulling enjoying the book--she was so over the top and cartoonish at times but then I'd feel like we were supposed to like her.

This was a did not finish for me. I found the writing to be a strange stream of consciousness and I found the main character boring and unlikeable.

SEARCH HISTORY is described as Fleabag meets Rebecca, which is such an irresistible combination. Loved this take on modern dating and the various perils and pitfalls of being a women who is romantically invested in men. Ana is a charming narrator with so much humor and heart, and I couldn't help but sympathize with her impulse to dive deep into social media while pulling back in real-life interactions. I was interested in the thread Taylor weaves throughout the novel re: the threat of violence women experience every day, but I wasn't sure where she was ultimately going with it in relation to the other throughlines in the novel.

This was entertaining, though it took me a while to get into it. The story was engaging and felt quite relevant to these times. That being said, nothing really stood out to me or made me connect all that deeply to the characters or the story itself.