book review: Girl Online

most beautiful cover
predictable, cute and funny story

I was very excited when the book came out and I finally held a copy of it in my hands. Needless to mention why I had to have the hard copy in my life.. Well, I’ll do it anyway. THE COVER is so beautiful. In my oppinion the book benefits a whole lot from the incredible cover.

But enough of that, let’s get to the book itself. After trying Zoe's product line Zoella Beauty, I had an idea what to expect and she didn’t fail me. The question is whether that is a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, I think writing a novel is amazing and brave. The book is well written, but I am - again - definitely not the targeted (teenaged) audience so my opinion might differ from someone this book was “written for”. I would recommend the book to 12 to 16 year old girls.

I have red about the ghost writer "scandal" but honestly I don't feel like I am in the place to have an oppinion on it. Writing a book all by your self, page by page, without anyone helping you at all is extremely difficult, I suppose. And she will have had her reasons to do whatever she did. I have never written a book by myself and therefore I am in no position to judge.

The story: (no spoilers, I promise!)
Penny lives in a quite perfect world. Well, she is not the most popular girl but we need some "problem" to start the plot. She has nice parents, gets along with her brother, her best friend lives next door and fortunately he is gay so there won’t be any problems with her starting a romance with someone else. Also his parents are not that great so he can spend his time being her best friend and hanging out with Penny and her family.

Penny herself reminded me - unsuprisingly - a lot of Zoe herself even though she pointed out that the character was 100% fictional. Well, Penny has anxiety attacks, not that many friends and writes a blog that does pretty well.

Let's make a long story short. Girl meets boy. Boy is good looking, mysterious and a musician. - What else? - They fall truly, madly and deeply in love. Best friend has to leave story so he won’t be left out and feel bad while the lovers spend every single minute together. Expected plot twist happens. Hell breaks loose. Expected happy ending takes place. Book ends.

The  book was a quick read, well written and had some adorable as well as funny parts but that is about it. It started out a little slow, got better but stayed predictable to the end.

Would I read it again? Probably not.
Do I regret reading it? Not at all. It was a good and eays book for the hollidays and I liked it.
Would I buy the book for someone else? Probably not, because I don't know anyone who watches Zoe's videos and therefore they probably wouldn't be interestes in the book. 
Would I read a sequel? Yes, I think so.