Title: Girl Online
Author: Zoe Sugg
Genre: Fiction/ YA/ Blog Writing/ Romance
Source: Shop
Rating: 3/5

My favourite quote; “Do you know what an inciting incident is?’ Noah says as he turns off the engine. I shake my head. ‘It’s the point at the start of a movie where something happens to the hero that changes their life forever.’  Noah looks down in his lap, like he’s embarrassed. ‘I think that’s what you might be to me. My inciting incident.’ I glance at him. ‘What do you mean?’ I ask, hardly daring to believe what I think he means. ‘I mean, I think this might be the start of something.’ We sit in silence. ‘I think you might be my inciting incident too,’ I say with a small smile.”

A wonderfully sweet written teenage romance that I knew I would instantly fall in love with. I’m not going to lie, I’m a sucker for teenage romance. Stories told from a young perspective that will make you fall in love all over again.

When I first heard about Girl Online, I knew that I needed to hunt down a copy and read it, but at the time, it was only out in America, and I couldn’t get my hands on it. The fact that it had such amazing reviews from the day it was released, definitely peaked my interest.

Penny is a 15 year old klutz who would rather blend into the background with her camera than be in front of it. As most teenage girls, she has a great level of insecurity that makes her believe she is not worth anything, has unknowingly fake friends, and a crush on the ‘boy-band-meets-athlete perfect’ popular boy. It doesn’t make life easier when she finds herself having occasional panic attacks after being in a car accident with her family.
Writing a blog is the only way she can express any feelings she has from school, friends, family and her panic attacks without feeling like she is being judged for her opinions. It surprisingly takes off, soon providing her with thousands of followers that all relate in some way or another. As Penny begins to feel like she isn’t the only one who suffers in silence, a humiliating video of her tripping up and exposing her underwear goes viral through the internet, her world becomes a bit crazy. Her family and best friend decide it’s best for her to get away to clear her head and she soon finds herself whisked away to New York for the holidays.

Whilst helping her mum on the wedding job that initially took them to New York to begin with, she meets a mysterious stranger playing guitar in an empty room of their hotel, Noah. He’s charming, sweet and has taken a keen interest to find out more about her. They find themselves off on a ‘Magical Mystery Day’ in a mission to get a victorian tiara for the bride, and Penny quickly discovers that she doesn’t have to pretend to be someone else around him.
You can’t help but feel their excitement when they are both told Penny could stay in New York for an extra week over Christmas, and that they get to spend it together.

When it’s time for Penny to finally leave New York and arrives back home, she soon discovers that her Noah is actually a famous singer, who appears to the world to be in a relationship with another famous singer. This puts a heartbreaking halt to the story as she calls it off with him in frustration. As if her luck couldn’t get any worse, Penny also finds that her identity as GirlOnline is leaked and that the world seems to believe she knew who Noah was and that she intentionally went after him for fame and money, knowing full well that he was in a relationship.

Don’t worry though.. of course it ends happily ever after! You’ll just have to read it to find out what happens!

Goodreads Review:
Penny has a secret.
Under the alias GirlOnline, she blogs about school dramas, boys, her mad, whirlwind family – and the panic attacks she’s suffered from lately. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets the gorgeous, guitar-strumming Noah. Suddenly Penny is falling in love – and capturing every moment of it on her blog.
But Noah has a secret too. One that threatens to ruin Penny’s cover – and her closest friendship – forever.