In Alisha Rai’s second novel in her Modern Love series, a reclusive investor goes viral, shoving her into the world’s spotlight—and into the arms of the bodyguard she’s been pining for… AT THE SAME TIME!!!
One minute, Katrina King’s enjoying an innocent conversation with a random guy at a coffee shop; the next, a stranger has live-tweeted the entire encounter with a romantic meet-cute spin and #CafeBae has the world swooning. Going viral isn’t easy for anyone, but Katrina has painstakingly built a private world for herself, far from her traumatic past. Besides, everyone has it all wrong…that #CafeBae bro? He isn’t the man she’s hungry for.
He’s got a to die for.
With the internet on the hunt for the identity of #CuteCafeGirl, Jas Singh, bodyguard and possessor of the most beautiful eyebrows Katrina’s ever seen, offers his family’s farm as a refuge. Alone with her unrequited crush feels like a recipe for hopeless longing, but Katrina craves the escape. She’s resigned to being just friends with Jas–until they share a single electrifying kiss. Now she can’t help but wonder if her crush may not be so unrequited after all…
more
Picked up Girl Gone Viral after loving The Right Swipe and I might love this one even more. These two characters are so flawed and warm and wonderful. Tried not to devour it and couldn’t help myself — I don’t think it took me more than 24 hours, definitely under 48. Rai has such a great talent for combining the soothing/warm/fluffy aspects of romance with more serious/hard-hitting issues (anxiety, abuse, social media pile-ons and PTSD in this one) and I can’t wait to read more in this particular series.
A slow burn, friends to lovers, romance with lots of heart. I loved watching both Katrina and Jas take ownership of their own life and figure out what they needed to be happy. Radical happiness, indeed.
Kat, whom we met in The Right Swipe, is an intensely private person. Part of the reason for that is she suffers from anxiety and also experienced a traumatizing event that has made her extra guarded and slow to trust. Her immediate circle includes her best friend Rhiannon, Rhiannon’s assistant and Jas, her bodyguard. She’s happy to keep her circle tight and look after them. When her much-valued privacy and anonymity are blown thanks to a viral tweet, she panics and Jas’ protectiveness kicks in. He takes her to his family’s peach farm, far, far away from the prying eyes of the city where she can take a breath and wait it out until the public interest wanes. While Kat escapes the media hounding, Jas comes face-to-face with what he’s been avoiding: his family. His grandfather’s expectation of him and the weight of his inheritance has driven a wedge between them. After his tour of duty, Jas finds it hard to confide in anyone about his experience and the nightmares that torment him. Coming home is almost more than he can handle but he has to keep it together for Kat’s sake.
Firstly, Kat and Jas are hopelessly in love with each other though neither has admitted that out loud. There’s the sensitive employer-employee dynamic and also the fear of being that vulnerable and open to rejection and heartache. They’re ridiculously attractive people and together they’re basically blinding to our mere mortal eyes; we don’t stand a chance. I have to say that I did enjoy the dance they’d do around each other, noticing the little things, being hyper aware of the shift in atmosphere whenever they were close or barely touched. I liked how that tension between them gradually built while they were hiding away from the rest of the world in their own tiny bubble.
Secondly, the social media angle felt to me like Rai was putting into words how I feel about it sometimes. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy scrolling through feeds and seeing all the pictures but I am also acutely aware that most of that is staged. Perfection sells. So do fairytales and these days fairytales are written differently. In this case, they’re live tweeted by people detailing every bit of what they observe is happening in front of them. Now I’ll admit, it can be cute. Who doesn’t want to get behind two people falling in love and witness it happening in real time? But it’s creepy when you think about it. There’s someone there watching you intently, listening in on what should be a private conversation even if you are in public, putting things out there and spinning things into something it may not be. It is a total invasion of privacy. So I completely understood Kat’s feeling about it and how the unwanted scrutiny further fueled her anxiety.
Rai writes some spectacular romances and I like Girl Gone Viral and The Right Swipe for different reasons. Both offer pertinent commentary on social culture as you fall in love with the characters. They’re entertaining reads with gratifying resolutions and I love every bit of them.
~ Bel
(Source: advance e-galley provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review)
Alisha Rai is always an insta-buy for me, and her latest, Girl Gone Viral did not disappoint. Girl Gone Viral is brilliantly plotted, and enmeshed in a lot of history that I previously knew nothing about. Katrina and Jas are three dimensional characters and portrayed in a realistic way. That’s another thing I love about Alisha Rai’s writing… she’s real. The interactions and relationships between the characters aren’t idealized, and that’s what makes them so compelling. Add in the fact that Rai is a wonderfully witty writer, and I’m sold every time.
This is by far one of my favorite books of 2020.
3.5 Stars!!
We are first introduced to Katrina King in The Right Swipe as Rhiannon’s recluse best friend, anonymous investor and ex model. We came to adore her wise advice and beautiful relationship with Rhiannon. She has had a turbulent past and is working through PTSD and an anxiety and panic disorder. This has kept her in the past from being open to meeting new people, but she is finally ready to put herself out there and find love.
Katrina is keeping a secret as she has been crushing on her body guard Jas Singh for months. When she meets a handsome stranger at a cafe and gets thrown back into fame as #cafebae. As the post goes viral and Katrina is looking to escape the media attention Jas takes Katrina to his family’s farm up northern California. While away together Katrina is able to get to know the real Jas, learn of secrets from the past, and meet his family. Alone they are able to begin to explore the feelings that they each have been keeping from each other.
Jas is former military and has a lot more similarities to the anxieties Katrina experiences than he is comfortable sharing. He is working through PTSD of his own and has a lot of issues he needs to work through with his past and family. Jas needed to get away as much as Katrina did and it is getting harder for him to keep his feelings for Katrina to himself and their relationship a professional one.
This is a slow burn romance with two people who have known each other for years but the timing is finally right for the both of them. They understand each other more than anyone else and the chemistry and attraction is evident. Alisha also did a great job at exploring the nature of social media and how you shouldn’t believe everything you read and see online. It was a fun approach to dealing with a serious issues of protecting your online privacy.
My small issue with this book is that a number of issues are left open ended for Katrina and Jas. It would have been great to get an epilogue tying it all together, the end felt a bit rushed and unfinished. I am curious to learn if Alisha Rai’s next book in the Modern Love series will explore Katrina’s roommates Gia’s secret love affair with a man she has yet to meet!!
This is awesome. So current and rings true. I hear Alisha’s voice very clearly in this bodyguard/forced proximity story of Jas and Katrina. It’s soft, slow-burn, sweet with heat. I adore all the zings and the likability of the characters. I love the involvement of friends and family (blood and found). A feel-good read.
To Katrina, privacy is everything. While innocently sharing a table in a cafe, and unbeknownst to her, the couple at the next table has tweeted about it and sent a partial view of her face into the viral internet. Worse, the guy at the table decides to capitalize on it with lots of fake insinuations of their non-existent relationship being real. Prone to panic attacks, she escapes to her bodyguard’s farmhouse hundreds of miles away. Being in close quarter with Jas enables her to see the real him, learn of his secrets from the past, and to meet his family.
Jas can’t believe he didn’t see the other table taking the photos of Katrina and feels responsible for the viral mess. He’s more than a bodyguard, he has real feelings for her, which makes it even harder for him while he’s fighting demons from his own past. Whisking her away to the quiet farmhouse seems perfect till his brother spills to the family. The dynamics, combined with his own PTSD, while guarding Katrina is almost too much.
This is a fantastic friends-to-lovers read!
**received an ARC from Netgalley**
Girl Gone Viral is a cute, sweet read that dealt with serious issues. It delved into invasion of privacy among others. I enjoyed it. It’s very much a romance as well as a bromance and a shemance. It looks at relationships and their dynamics; the relationship between the hero and heroine, Jas and Katrina, the relationship they each have with their friends as well as their families and the relationship they have with themselves. I loved that aspect of it as well as the fact that they were both pining for each other unbeknownst to the other. I found it quite enjoyable and recommend it.
Copy provided by publisher through Net Galley
I adored Katrina King when she was introduced as a secondary character in Alisha Rai’s last book, “The Right Swipe,” so to say that I was excited to read her story in “Girl Gone Viral” might be something of an understatement. Thankfully, this book did not disappoint; in fact, it was even better than I had hoped it would be. It gave me all the feels, making me laugh out loud and tugging at my heartstrings in equal measure.
Katrina was a phenomenal lead character: smart, kind, and incredibly brave no matter what life threw at her. It wasn’t easy, but she kept trying to overcome her fears and get back out into the world, even if she had to take baby steps to do it. Katrina’s bodyguard and love interest, Jasvinder “Jas” Singh, provided a tremendous amount of help and support for Katrina on her journey, even as he battled demons of his own related to his time in the military and unresolved differences with his family. I loved the way Jas was always looking out for Katrina and his other loved ones. He wasn’t always very good at communicating with them, but like Katrina, he genuinely tried to do better.
Jas and Katrina were very well matched as a couple, and I loved the slow burn of their relationship development over the course of the story. Katrina needed a partner who was willing to be patient with her and see beyond both her wealth and her panic disorder to the sweet, funny woman inside. In return, Jas needed someone to help him remember to take care of himself, not just those he loves, and focus on the future instead of the past. They truly brought out the best in each other, and I couldn’t wait for them to finally admit that they were in love.
Overall, I loved “Girl Gone Viral” and highly recommend it. I hope that there are more stories to come in this series! It would be wonderful to see Jia (Katrina’s roommate), Lakshmi (Rhiannon’s assistant), and Harris (Samson’s friend from the NFL) get HEAs of their own.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss. All opinions expressed are my own.
Girl Gone Viral is the first book I’ve read from Alisha Rai and I thoroughly enjoyed this story from the very beginning. This story goes to show that dating in the modern age is not always the easiest or what you expect.
Katrina is the hopeless romantic. She is shy, works hard, but loves to do things for her friends. Though she also has her struggles with anxiety and panic attacks. I loved how that part was written in the story. It wasn’t overlooked or romanticized in any way. It was real and honest. Plus Katrina had a great group of friends who were supportive of her. She is a former model, but still keeps a bodyguard with her. A bodyguard that she is also crushing on. But who can blame her? Jas, like Katrina, is also going through his own struggles he is trying to overcome from past events.
This was definitely more of a slow burn romance. Going into the book I really didn’t know what to expect, but I enjoyed this story. The chemistry between the main characters was great and the secondary characters were great and added to the overall story.
Loved getting back into Rai’s Modern Love world & seeing these great characters again, and loved even more the time with Katrina and Jas. They’re both ‘bury those emotions down deep’ people (swoon!) and yet that plays out really differently for each of their personalities. It was great to see how they played off each other even when they were so busy denying that they felt anything for the other. Great romantic tension and super portrait of people behaving with love and respect towards each other, always, no matter what else they were going through. (And there was plenty of juicy external drama for each of them to be dealing with at the same time!)
Totally recommend.
Bodyguard Romance with a dash of forced proximity!
Jas and Katrina have loved each other from afar for years but are both too afraid to risk losing the little bit they have by asking for more…until she needs an escape and he needs to go home. I loved seeing them in the Little House because they finally showed each other their real selves and actually talked!
The exploration of privacy and social media was beautifully handled and something that needs to be talked about, just as the workplace harassment and complications from CTE in The Right Swipe.
One of my favorite things about the Modern Love series so far is that this growing found family is so supportive of each other without being unrealistic. They still snipe and ignore and tease but when it’s needed they are their for each other.
I also really appreciated that this book’s steam and sexy times fit the couple more than what I would normally think of as the “Alisha Rai” brand. If you’ve read past books you know that she can write a scene that will practically set your page/device on fire but with Girl Gone Viral the chemistry and sex felt more gentle, not less sexy just gentle, which I think is what these two characters really needed.
I can’t wait for the next Modern Love book!
I received a complimentary review copy of this book but all opinions are my own.
Girl Gone Viral was both a sweet and light story while dealing with some deep and thought-provoking issues.
Katrina is a beautiful soul. She’s a sappy and friendly romantic who works every day to manage her anxiety and panic disorder. When an innocent exchange in a coffee shop turns into a viral twitter feed, Katrina’s bodyguard whisks her away to his family’s farm so she can keep her identity hidden.
Katrina and Jas’s story is sweet and lovely. Both characters are very selfless and caring, which means their romance is a slow-burn as they both begin to admit what they want. The topic of mental health was handled well, and I enjoyed seeing characters so openly discussing it.
Honestly Girl Gone Viral was a really interesting story that focuses on the subjects of privacy in this modern world of social media. GGV gives the reader some food for thought; how much privacy are we entitled to? What kind of boundaries should there be regarding social media?
Girl Gone Viral was a sweet and cute read and I’m looking forward to more from Alisha Rai.
Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai is the second book in her Modern Love Series, however this is the first book that I have read from this author. The reader definitely does not need to read the first book to follow and enjoy this one, but I am seeking out The Right Swipe now as I truly enjoyed this second book.
This is a special modern-day romance that I think is unique because while the dialogue and plot flow easily, some of the undercurrent of messages concerning anxiety, depression, acceptance, and PTSD which are quite heavy and serious, are also added. The author’s ability to interweave both concepts is impressive, and the reader is left with a great book that is enjoyable and heartwarming, yet is solid and has substance.
I liked Katrina and Jas. I enjoyed their backstories and their complicated pasts added a layer of complexity that made them realistic and honest to me. As a reader, it is important for me to find a connection and feel invested in characters that I feel are like able and believable. These two definitely fit the bill. I also enjoyed that by finding each other, and helping one another work through their own problems and pasts, they were able to help foster the healing process for one another as well. I truly liked the element and base of friendship that was present before the romantic feelings evolved. It just felt more real to me.
I thought the characters had chemistry and were well compatible, and I really liked the collection of secondary characters as well. It definitely sets up the author to have several great options for further installments.
Overall, this is a great read that incorporates romance with serious subject matter to create a realistic and honest portrayal of real-life hang-ups and relationships that anyone should be able to identify with and truly enjoy.
5/5 stars
I absolutely loved this book. It has the best characters in this story and I want so many more books just like this!!
I absolutely adored this book! I was instantly drawn in by the diversity in the characters and the open discussion of mental health issues. Kat, is a former model who has experienced a traumatic event you learn about through the narrative, and suffers from PTSD and anxiety. She is engaged in exposure therapy and actively working on improving her mental health. Jas is her bodyguard, and has been with her for many years, he is quiet and powerful, but he has his own traumatic past as a veteran who was deployed in Iraq. Throughout this novel these two learn how to communicate with each other but also how to become the best versions of themselves and improve their lives. This is my first Alisha Rai book and I was blown away. It is very refreshing to see the increase in diverse narratives throughout the romance genre. I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley and voluntarily give my review
Katrina King just wants to live her life in anonymity, going about her day, her routines, and keep to herself. She has no interest in or need for social media despite being an investor in different apps. When an Instagrammer catches an exchange she has with a stranger in a small crowded cafe it quickly goes viral. Now not only is her picture everywhere without her consent, but the story is also being spun into something it’s not. Jasvinder Singh has been Katrina’s personal bodyguard for years after being discharged from the army for injury while serving in Iraq he couldn’t go home to his grandfather’s peach farm, instead taking a job for Katrina’s then-husband. With Katrina hiding from her father and her current social media popularity, and Jas feeling overwhelmed by his PTSD they decide a trip out of town is in order. The safest place he knows to take her is his childhood home, when his family starts to show up one by one, everyone is forced to face feelings that they’ve been pushing down for a while. Including possible love between Katrina and Jas.
I enjoyed this book, it was a bit of a slow burn, with both characters having plenty of tragic baggage that they’re dealing with. Katrina’s abusive and controlling father didn’t make much of an appearance in the story, but the effects of his actions and words from when she was young were certainly felt. I admired her strength in the face of so much anxiety and being determined to overcome it and live her life, to take up space. Jas felt very typical of someone who has PTSD from having been at war, never talking about it but needing serious help to deal with the aftermath. At the same time, he was so loving and careful with Katrina always wanting to make sure her needs were met first. The main premise of the book is Katrina being hiding from her dad but her “meet cute” going viral threating to expose her location so that he can find her was interesting (and very fitting for current times where it seems like nothing is sacred), it felt like that had little to do with the meat of the story, other than being the catalyst that sent them out of town. While it was a part of the plot, it wasn’t a huge part, it did, however, make a fantastic point about privacy. Overall, I enjoyed this book, it has great characters that are well developed, it’s sweet, slow, and funny. Thank you to NetGalley and Harpers Collins publisher for an ARC.