***Thank you to Netgalley and Allen & Uwin for the advance e-arc***

Search History is an interesting book that explores modern dating in the age of social media. Ana has recently moved to Melbourne, leaving behind an ex, her mom, and all her friends to start new. After a terrifying experience with a man she meets on a dating app, she deletes the app and ends up meeting Evan IRL. The novel picks up from there and we watch the relationship unfold. As a millennial woman who prides herself on being able to find all kinds of information on dates and friends on the internet, I am definitely the target audience for the novel. Ana's thought processes and justifications for doing things throughout the book are so real. The overthinking of what to say in a text message, the miscommunications that occur while both parties are playing the game--it's all so relatable.
I loved being in Ana's head especially when she started spiraling about how to practice self help and care. We've all been there desperately seeking answers online. The writing is concise, funny, and polished. I look forward to Amy Taylor's future novels!

I highly recommend reading this book if you want to read a super modern take on the ups and downs of dating in our ultra modern age while navigating social media.

Well this was an unexpected delight - thanks to Net Galley for an advance copy! It read like a cross between two books I loved - Ghosts by Dolly Alderton and Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler - but also something all its own. A woman Ana, recently single after a bad break-up, falls for Evan but her obsessive social media scrolling & snooping uncovers things that would be better revealed by good relationship communication. So good - loved it! Laughed out loud - Ana is hilarious - and also appreciated the depth.

Wow, I loved this. It reminded me a bit of "Ghosts" by Dolly Alderton. Ana has left Melbourne after a breakup with her long-term boyfriend. She's starting completely over: new job, new apartment, new city. During a night out with coworkers from her start-up she meets Evan and begins dating him, only to become obsessed with his dead ex-gf whom she found after a little social media digging. Search History was funny, poignant, and completely on the nose about online dating, social media presence, and the anxieties that come with a new relationship. I really loved this book! I will definitely be using it in book displays and hope to do a book club with it.

Search History is the perfect book for the internet age with the perfect title. It makes those of us who were dating before cell phones and dating apps grateful to have constructed our lives before the complexity and possibilities of finding a temporary or life partners via cell phones.

Amy Taylor writes a lovely, real and funny book that is also moving. Ana has just moved to Melbourne from Perth after a painful breakup. Her first experience there is not only unpleasant, but dangerous and traumatic. How pleasant it is then when she meets a seemingly perfect man in a bar. Evan seems kind and caring and good in bed and before long, Ana is in love. However, despite their cute emails, something is missing in their relationship: the sharing of feelings. Evan won’t discuss his dead ex-girlfriend and Ana pretends she is not curious about her while searching her online.

What I took away from this novel is that using Google and Face Book to look people up is akin to opening Pandora’s Box. What do you do when the search and following not only gives you information but becomes an addiction you can’t break.

I loved this book! For a first novel it impressed me with how original Taylor is in constructing her romance. It is not only funny (Like the memory of Ana’s mother dyeing her eyebrows black for a prom.), or meeting an avid gardener whose zucchinis are so large that they look like they work overtime on weekends and evenings. Even peripheral characters are living, breathing people.

Ana’s ability to break old habits and thought patterns and to change herself on a molecular level is arrived at believably. I can’t wait or Amy Taylor’s next book.

Thanks to Dial Press, an imprint of Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 since this novel was such a quick and pleasurable read. The plot was interesting, though the storyline about the dead girlfriend took up a little more space on the page than I might have preferred, and one other narrative thread read as underdeveloped for me, but overall an enjoyable experience with a novel that falls a little outside of the type of fiction I normally read.

I would like to thank Random House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. I really am torn at how to review this book. I ended up at a 3 star-rounded up from 2.5. This is a debut novel and I would like to see her next book. There were a lot of interesting characters and plots, however , the interesting ones were side plots and supporting characters. The main character, Ana was a borderline stalker. The male "love interest" was withholding, controlling and manipulating.Ana left Perth for Melbourne when she broke up with her boyfriend. She left her job, her friends, her mother and her life. She is in Melbourne, trying to start over. Interestingly, she talks about her father who left his life in Perth (along with her and her mother) to live a new life in Bali, and never seems to make a connection. Ana is looking for love in all the wrong places( an early sexual encounter with a chef she met on line was downright horrifying to me at least. She keeps stalking her ex on social media . Then she meets Evan. He seems nice, attractive, attentive , good job, etc. Of course she immediately does a deep dive into his online accounts. Evan had an ex as well, but Emily died in an accident almost a year ago.Evan doesn't want to talk about Emily. He does introduce her to his friends,but any thing about his past is off limits. He also has a disconcerting habit of going silent( no calls, no texts) when she asks too many questions.Ana notes that her mother also gives her the silent treatment when she is unhappy with Ana. This book is way to heavy with Mother/Father issues and way to stalkerish for my liking. Ana becomes obsessed with Emily, and Evan's past. As I said, there are some interesting side things( I actually liked Ana's friends, the description in the place she worked at was a hoot, and the ending, while a bit farfetched, was good. It was just too many things thrown into one book. I wasn't sure if it was meant to be a novel, a cautionary tale of over use of social media or a self help book.

When Ana googles her new boyfriend, she discovers that his long-term girlfriend had recently died. Unfortunately he won't talk about his deceased girlfriend at all. Ana's curiosity and her worries about how this will affect her new relationship lead her down a rabbit hole of internet sleuthing. I found Ana to be a flawed and very relatable character. The writing style and pacing kept me interested and I really enjoyed this novel. I hope that Amy Taylor writes more novels and I look forward to reading them. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

Ana was a relatable and fun character. I raced through this in less than half a day. I love a tale crafted around social media and was breathless while Waited to see where the rabbit hole would leave Ana. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for making my wish come true!!! This will appeal to a large audience

Search History by Amy Taylor was a really great and entertaining debut.
The characters are realistic and Ana‘s story and personality just seeped off the pages.
The main character was relatable and I enjoyed this journey of hers.
A thought-provoking and relatable contemporary.
The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Random House & The Dial Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

After moving to Melbourne in the wake of a bad breakup, Ana is determined to create a new life for herself. However, navigating an unfulfilling job and the dating scene in a whole new city just might be more difficult than she thought. But then she meets Evan—charismatic, successful, and kind, he's everything Ana could ever want. But as their relationship begins to bloom offscreen, Ana is tempted to look him up online. When she finds out that Evan's last girlfriend, Emily, died unexpectedly—and recently—in a tragic accident, Ana starts to worry that she's living in someone else's shadow. Soon, she's scouring Emily's now-inactive social media accounts as a way to compare herself to Emily and try to understand her better. Emily and Evan's life together seemed so perfect—but was it really? And can someone ever truly present an authentic version of themselves online?

SEARCH HISTORY was a fantastic debut—readable, realistic, and relatable all at once! I loved the theme of social media—how it can create such a big disparity between one's real self and how they depict themselves online, how it creates struggles with comparison and loneliness, and also affects the connections we make away from our screens. I also appreciated how the novel explores other important and timely topics, like complicated relationships, misogyny, and the perils of online dating. Ana isn't always a likable character, but I think so many readers will be able to relate to her, and I really enjoyed following her journey. And I thought the ending was perfect! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed Search History by Amy Taylor. There were parts that dragged on a little too much for me, but overall I would recommend this book!

This writing is outstanding, and this book is bound to be one of the best of the year.

Search History is described as the story of a woman who becomes obsessed with her new boyfriend’s dead ex and, consequently, essentially stalks the ex-girlfriend via her old social media profiles. In reality, this story is so much more. It’s an attempted reconciliation of our true selves with the personas that we create and share online. It’s also a commentary on how the façades that we construct and view on social media impact the way that we build and maintain relationships in our daily, real-world lives.

My thoughts? Wow, wow, wow. There was enough plot to keep me interested, but the writing was spectacular! Our main character is perceptive, sharp-witted, and poetic in the most 21st-century way. Her observations were like a hundred mini think-pieces on love, modern dating and relationships, feminism, and social media.

In the end, I felt sick, I cried, a piece of me healed, and I squealed and laughed in delight… all in the span of a few chapters! If it means anything, the conclusion left me feeling the way I do whenever I finish 500 Days of Summer (my favorite movie).

4.75/5 ⭐️ (but may work its way up)

Thank you so much to Random House (The Dial Press) for providing me with an advanced reader copy! As always, my opinions are entirely honest and my own.

I was pleasantly surprised by my experience with this book! It's one of those rare (for me, at least!) novels where the ending sticks the landing so well, it elevates everything that came before it.

I won't get too specific for fear of spoilers, but I will say I felt frustrated throughout most of the book by the apparent flatness of some of the characters and their motivations (in particular, Ana seemed obsessed with Evan more *because of his interest in her* than any of his own personality traits). BUT - Taylor tied it all together in a way that surprised and delighted me. I've found myself randomly reflecting on this book in the few days since I've finished it, which is always a good sign.

I'd give the bulk of the book three stars and the ending five, so I'll give more weight to the ending and average it out to 4! Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

If only the whole book had been as perfect as the ending! While I certainly didn’t dislike the majority of the story, it did get to be repetitive, and the plot took a while to progress. It just felt exhausting watching Ana stand in her own way of a healthy relationship. I do think it should be said, I don’t think I’m the right reader for this book. As a happily married woman of 10+ years, it can be hard for me to connect with relationship stories in 2023, particularly where social media is a heavy plot point. It just isn’t something I have much experience with. That said, I loved how this book wrapped up and how much Ana came to realize about herself. I would definitely read more from this author, even if this wasn’t a total hit for me.

thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC.

i think the problem i had with this book was that it was literally all over the place. i could not tell where the plot was going from the start. the cover was a cutesy cartoony thing, so it must have been a rom-com! but the description gave me thriller vibes, so what is it????? it didn’t help that there were some chapters that were thrown into the book that didn’t make any sense to have because they did not contribute to the plot at all (like the part where Ana is wondering if she should have asked for a pay rise).

but the truth is, this is a story about a girl struggling with her self-image and confidence, and the conflict between what you see on social media and reality. i saw a lot of myself in Ana, which i found nice. she is terrified of rejection, she constantly compares herself to others, and is a little impulsive. this book follows her journey to accepting herself and realizing that she doesn’t have to be someone else to be liked.

ana becomes obsessed with her new boyfriend, Evan’s, dead ex-girlfriend after searching for his name on social media. she sees him in a picture of this girl, Emily’s, account, and in her photos sees a girl who had it all: family and friends who loved her, a wealthy background, and the perfect boyfriend. from there, Ana falls into a rabbit hole of obsession. obsession with inspecting every crevice of Emily’s life, talking to anyone who knew her to confirm how great of a person she was and how great of a life she lived. she sees Emily’s beauty and wonders why Evan would want to be with her after Emily, and why he would want to be with a girl whose family rarely talks to her. it is clear that Ana’s perception of Emily is a projection of her own insecurities and desires.

unknowingly at the time, this obsession only gave Ana many false preconceived notions about Evan and his relationship with Emily. as it turned out, Emily’s life online was not like that of real life, and Evan had his fair share of flaws, too. ana later learns that stalking Emily’s profile only hurts her developing relationship with Evan from having so many false expectations of him.

though for most of the book, i was a little confused about the plot and genre, i thoroughly enjoyed it. it was entertaining, the main character was relatable, and i got a few good laughs (and some secondhand embarrassment). the ending to this book was perfect, too. i think Search History is honestly a book we can all learn from. we shouldn’t use social media to base our first impressions of someone on but take every post with a grain of salt. and we should also touch some grass every once in a while.

Ana was a very interesting protagonist: wanting to improve herself and be better while also self-sabotaging at every turn. She moves from Perth to Melbourne after a tense break-up searching for direction but continues getting lost in the same repetitive and harmful patterns. She's not unreliable per se - more that she is still trying to figure herself out and has a contradictory or toxic thought process.

The book started with a good energy: Ana's isolation with her move, thinking she's ready to move on and try new things but ultimately having a very bad one-night stand (and it's pretty bad - she seems to gloss over it at first until she realizes it has affected her). She meets Evan and by all accounts their relationship seems to be fairly average - again, because we're only seeing things through Ana's lens - but Ana is just spiraling and trying to analyze every eyebrow twitch or text message as some sort of covert code. Evan asks her about it at one point near the end of the book, if she realizes she rarely initiates conversations via text and can let days go by without doing so, and Ana responds that she assumed Evan needed space and was being passive-aggressive: this is the kind of stuff that Ana wants to change and grow past but she's constantly stuck in the same behavior patterns.

The middle of the book is very slow and boring. It's many, many chapters of watching Ana's thoughts spiral: of course in today's world it's normal to "stalk" someone on social media, especially prospective partners, but Ana goes completely overboard. It's cringe to read, but also kind of dull. There isn't much "actively" happening in the story so we're left with Ana's inner monologue. The energy picks up in the last 10% of the book with a steady race to the end.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book but then got really bored and it felt like a chore to get through to the end - the end was satisfying but almost with relief that it was finally done and I could move on to the next book in my list. Overall it was mildly interesting but far too cringe for my tastes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a bit short and didn't go into as much detail as I would've liked. Your classic woman who delves too deeply into her partner's past. There wasn't really that much noteworthy in the story and I had to struggle to finish it.

I found this pretty engaging and well written. I kept waiting for the other show to drop regarding the ex's death as I initially thought it sounded fishy. My mistake LOL All in all this was a decent women's fiction drama centering around millennials' obsession with social media.

Ana has been dumped by her long time boyfriend. So of course she leaves her job and city to start anew.! The new job is ok and she starts to make friends. One night at a bar, she meets Evan. They start a relationship. Things seem ok. That is until she learns his last perfect girlfriend was killed by a car. Now Ana is possessed to learn all she can. Social media makes it easy to piece a story of a lost love together. Only thing is the things weren't that perfect.
A fun read about what happens when you start to dig into someone's past. Should you?
Thanks to NetGalley for another good suggestion.

Search History was described as a blend of Fleabag and Rebecca and I couldn’t agree more.

This book actually felt modern and contemporary without trying to hard. Amy Taylor manages to balance the plot and characters perfectly. This story was hilarious and sad and I absolutely loved the main character Ana.