Review: Out with the Ex, In with the New

Out with the Ex, In with the New by Sophie Ranald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Gemma thinks getting a job at Clickfrenzy as a junior writer is the start of all her dreams coming true. Finally she'll be able to leave home and get a place in London with her long-term boyfriend Jack. BUt when she breaks the good news to Jack he tells her that he's resigned his job and is going to travel the world with his friend Olivia. Suddenly all Gemma's hopes and dreams are left for dust in Jack's wake, made even worse when he dumps her via email and announces that he and Olivia are an item.

Gemma tries to make the best of things, vlogging about hair and make-up to her small group of followers, coming up with imaginative posts about cats for work, and feeling desperately alone in a house-share in Hackney, until her tearful rant about being dumped by Jack goes viral and opens up a new world as a minor celebrity vlogger. Soon she's dating another vlogger, visiting the latest cocktail bars and endorsing products from carefully selected partner brands. But is the social media butterfly lifestyle any more fulfilling than meeting her mates down the pub? And when Jack comes home with his tail between his legs will Gemma choose her old life over the new?

This is a bit of a bildungsroman, Gemma starts out as a naive young woman, her hopes and dreams are all built around her life with Jack and her unrealistic expectations that once she got a job she would be living like a character from Love Actually or Bridget Jones. Then she gets swept into the artificial world of vlogging, whilst doing her day-job, but the quest for posts at the expense of integrity feels false. Is Jack's return a wake-up call? Will Gemma choose celebrity romance with fellow vlogger Charlie or normality with Jack? Or is there a third way?

I enjoyed this novel, I liked the side plots and stories, in fact although there is romance it is definitely subservient to Gemma's voyage of self-discovery, the romance is almost an afterthought.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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