Yes, I do sometimes take a break from dark, twisted psychological type books, and when I do, it’s delightfully refreshing to discover a book like Sharon Dempsey’s My Virtual Life! I can quite easily picture my own teenage daughter watching a film version of this while comparing with her BFF’s who has the most embarrassing mother (I don’t even want to hazard a guess as to how I’d fare in that comparison!)

Single mom Stella isn’t sure what she’s done to incur the wrath of the fashion Gods, but how on earth has she landed up with such a socially inept, un-fashion conscious daughter. Meanwhile, her 14-year-old daughter Tara spends her time being horrified by her mother, blogging about what she eats and basically describing her lonely life hiding out from the ‘popular girls’ while her best friend Matt is all googly eyed about the leader of the pack of ‘popular girls’! While Matt tells Tara how lucky she is to have such a cool mom who’s barely ever home, all Tara wants is a motherly mom like Matt’s who asks how her day was while cooking a lovely casserole for dinner!

But instead, she has … Stella, who’s the fashion editor of a teen magazine, and who models herself as an honorary teen in order to fit into her career role. She’s hilarious, outrageous, cringe-worthy, often ridiculous and definitely not mom material. But it is what it is, and one must make the most of one’s situation so they muddle along with Stella commuting between glamorous work life in Dublin, and home life in Belfast, and she comforts herself in the knowledge that she’s doing her best (as are we all) by her daughter by leaving her in the care of the ‘Wildling au pair’, and putting ‘Skype daughter’ on her daily ‘To Do’ list!

As we all know though, life does have a way of catching up with us. Stella is NOT a teenager – a bit of a vacuous adult, maybe, but no longer the carefree youngster she attempts to portray. Tara, however, IS a teen – and a very bright one at that. She’s often the responsible adult in the room, when only the two of them are around! And it’s because of Tara that Stella realises that she needs to face up to her responsibilities and give her daughter the answers to the many questions she knew were eventually going to come knocking on her door. Your past can’t be ignored forever. No matter how much you want it to stay buried, when your child’s future is at stake you go and get that shovel and you start digging things up!

This isn’t the ‘chick-lit’ (how I hate that term!) you might think it is when you first pick it up. It’s not a frothy, inane read either. It goes a lot deeper than that. It’s about relationships, family bonds, friendships, knowing who you are, finding yourself and your place in the crowd, once you discover exactly who your crowd are.

I loved this book. Dempsey’s characterisation is spot-on and she really delves into the heart of each and every one of her characters – even the peripheral ones. I think this was also one of the reasons why I found myself visualising the book on screen as I went along – it really came to life for me. This gets a resounding, 4.5 glittery, extra sparkly stars from me. It’s a perfect book club choice, and a great holiday read too – what am I saying?? Just read the book!! And while it’s classified as contemporary women’s fiction, if you’re lucky enough to have a teen that reads, then I’d go so far as to recommend this for them too (but what do I know? I’m just a mom … to a teen!)

A uniquely told, on point story about the complexities of the mother daughter relationship👩‍👧

This was a charming and real look into the thoughts of a daughter and mother navigating their way through the teenage years... it was told in diary for so we really got an intimate look into both Stella and Tara’s inner thoughts and emotions.... this was a lovely coming of age story that I think leans a little more towards young adult then women’s fiction...

Tara is a 14-year-old who doesn’t quite fit in, she has a best friend Matt but he is her one and only true friend.... Stella is a single mother who wants nothing but the best for her daughter Tara, although her methods are sometimes a little questionable... Tara feels a disconnect from her mom who is gone half the week, she starts a blog to vent mostly about her mom... her mom is a fashion editor at a teen magazine so when Tara is approached by the rival magazine to publish her blog there is a conflict of interest... we also see Tara navigating her way through the teenage social scene and Stella navigate her way through the dating scene.... some secrets are revealed and the mother daughter bond is tested, but ultimately love prevails!

Tara was a darling character that you just wanted to reach through the pages and give a big hug to... Stella was a little hard to warm up to, at first she appeared very selfish, but as the book progresses you see her true heart... I really thought about what my daughter would say about me if she were venting on a blog when she was a teenager, yikes! The mother daughter relationship is complex and my daughter and I had our fair share of moments... this book was a lot of fun and it put a huge smile on my face.... The ending was perfect and I loved all the little twist and reveals along the way... Tara was a character who definitely deserved a happy ending!

Absolutely recommend if you enjoy a well told coming of age story about mothers and daughters that leans towards YA...

*** A big thank you too Bombshell Books for my copy of this book ***

When I first cracked open My Virtual Life by Sharon Dempsey, I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into. Little did I realize that I would come to really love Stella and Tara’s story. The story is filled with raw emotions, growing up, living with a mother going through her own “teenage” years and a fourteen year old daughter who seems to be the grounded one out of the two.

Stella is a fashion writer for a teen magazine and works long hours, often leaving her daughter, Tara at home with Au Pair. Stella doesn't completely understand her daughter and it seems as if her career takes front and center stage. Stella is trendy and keeps up with all the new fashion whereas Tara is the complete opposite.

I really tried to like Stella in the beginning, but she often did not come across as the motherly type. Of course, she loves her daughter, Tara, but I don’t think she completely understands her and often times tries to change her. Stella is a writer for a teen magazine after all and what would people think of her parenting when her daughter Tara is happy enough to wear clothes from two seasons ago. Stella seems to want to change Tara and often tries to do motherly things like take Tara shopping for new clothes much to tara’s dismay.

Tara seems more like the adult and she often wonders what it would be like if she had a “normal” mother. One who cooks and cleans and is home more often than not. Tara often daydreams about mothers on TV wishing her mom could be the same. Needing an outlet to express her thoughts, Tara turns to blogging as she can sort of hide herself behind her words as she does not feel comfortable broadcasting herself via vlogging. Tara is sort of a loner with barely any friends except for Matt. When Tara blogs, it is an outlet for her to express her feelings about her life, friends and mother. When her blog finally gets noticed by a competing teen magazine, Tara needs to decide if she wants her blog to go viral especially since its in complete contrast to what her mother does for a living.

I have nothing but good things to say about My Virtual Life. The story is beautifully written and shows the dynamics of a mother/daughter relationship through its ups and downs. I felt myself really connecting with the story and hoping Stella and Tara could ever find an even ground where they can finally accept each other for who they both were. I really feel like both Stella and Tara really grow as individuals as well as a mother and daughter team. There are a few side plots that really enhance the story. My heart completely melted watching Tara interact with shelter pets as shelters are near and dear to my own heart and I often volunteer at a shelter helping cats become more social. I am a huge animal advocate and I am so glad it was portrayed with such honesty in this story.

My Virtual Life is a charming and touching story told with a sharp insight into the inner workings of a single mom trying to raise her teen daughter the best way she knows how. The story is heartfelt and lends a touch of realism between its pages. This book could not have been any more perfect. If you are a fan of beautifully drawn stories then you definitely need to pick this one up.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book I had a really hard time getting into, from the first chapter I wasn't sure if I should just give up and move on, or give the book a chance. Got to admit it was 50/50, there are so many books to read and I am really trying to be okay with not finishing books I'm not enjoying. I did decide to persevere however as I really liked the premise and I am glad I did!

What initially did put me off the book was the character of Stella in the first chapter, she seems self-absorbed, a bit clueless to the world around her and although there was a strong love for her daughter she didn't really have any other redeeming qualities. We do get to see another side of her as the book progresses and it's great getting to see her character develop throughout. I did love Tara from the get-go, she is independent, strong-willed and filled with a whole lot of teenage angst. It was great to see how she viewed the world in blog form! Nora was a bit of a mystery as a character, it takes a little while before you really get to know her but is an integral part of the story.

The story itself moves at a decent pace, and I think was a great length for what it was, it does explore the relationships between mothers and daughters and does so in a really realistic way which I wasn't expecting but did make for a more enjoyable story. To be honest, at the end of the book I still did not have much love for Stella, while you see another side of her and she does 'mature' I just couldn't find a way to really like her, but hey you can't like everybody! This is a quick read so if you're looking for a quick drama-filled family saga this is the book for you!

Rating: 3.5/5

Would I read again: No

Would I Recommend: Yes

Would I read another book from this author: Yes

Starts off with Stella dancing at a party . She has a teenage daughter she would like to get closer to and help her embrace social media.

“My Virtual Life” by Sharon Dempsey tells a story of the relationship between mother and daughter. I waffled a lot about whether I liked this book or not, and I think it would do better in the Young Adult category as opposed to Women’s Fiction. It’s more about the daughter’s transformation than the mother’s, so if I think about it from a teen’s perspective, it reads better.

Stella is a single mother and a columnist for “Heart,” a typical teen magazine, living in Belfast but working in Dublin, so she leaves her daughter in the care of a live-in au pair. I liked Stella by the end of the book, but I really disliked her through about 80% of it. She comes across as a flake, and while she may be in touch with the teen scene, she is completely out of touch with her own daughter. She and her daughter communicate mostly through Skype since she is in Dublin during the week, and she seems to spend a lot of her time on the party scene while she’s away from home. She struck me as someone who tries to act younger than they are because they think others will view them as cool. In fact, through most of the book, Stella talks like a teenager, and a really immature teenager at that. Stella’s narrations read like diary entries (which is the style of the entire book) and the occasional list of things she likes/dislikes and things she has to do. They often tell us the exact opposite of what we hear from the daughter, which is how we know how truly out of touch she is.

Tara is Stella’s 14-year-old daughter. Kind of an outcast at school, she tends to keep to herself and spends a lot of time with her best friend Matt, who thinks that Tara doesn’t know how lucky she is to have her mother away so much of the time. Tara’s story is told mostly through her blog. She includes what she eats every day, further demonstrating how on her own she really is based on her diet which includes a lot of crappy snacks. We hear about how she gets treated at school by the popular girls, how much she hates that her mother is away, how embarrassed she is by the way her mother acts, etc.

I believe that the crux of this story is that we are not as alone as we think, that mothers DO pay attention to their daughters even if they don’t appear to be paying attention. The description says that sometimes we are more like our mothers than we think, but in this case, I really think the only thing Stella and Tara have in common is their love of writing. Tara seems much more put together than Stella. She even sounds more like an adult most of the time.

***SPOILERS***

Tara’s journey throughout this story is the discovery of a family she didn’t know existed. Her mother gets her a job working with Nora, a grumpy woman who basically runs an animal shelter out of her home. Tara loves working with the animals and comes to love Nora even before she works out the fact that Nora is her grandmother.

When Tara’s blog gets noticed by Caroline Houston, a new editor at “Kiss,” a competing magazine to “Heart,” we find out that Caroline’s husband Michael used to be an editor at “Belfast News” where Stella used to work and easily make the leap (shortly confirmed) that he is Tara’s father. Caroline and Michael had no idea who Tara was when Caroline decided to pick up Tara’s blog, but I find it hard to believe that they wouldn’t have researched her before offering her a spot in the magazine AND she’s only 14. Can she be published in a magazine without a contract, or can she sign a contract without her mother? I also would have liked to see more content with Michael and his family. The book could have been longer, or we could have gotten to it sooner. Either way, it took a long time to get to that pivotal part of the story and then it was just over so quickly.

One other big struggle I had was when Tara becomes less of an outcast at school when her mother speaks at what seems to be a career day. All of a sudden, the girls who said horrible things about her behind her back wanted to include her and befriend her. I kept expecting it to be a trick, but Tara really did become friends with them. That bothered me, not because they suddenly decided to be her friend because they thought her mom was cool. It’s high school, and that is completely realistic. What bothered me was that Tara just accepted it, and the way they treated her in the past was never addressed. As I mentioned, the whole book is diary style, so there are a lot of gaps in the story, but this one was a huge hole for me. I’m a big believer in giving people a chance, but I would have liked to see some acknowledgement from the popular girl crew that they recognized they weren’t very nice.

I’m giving this one the benefit of the doubt on a rating. It’s a solid 4 if you consider it Young Adult, so if you’re reading it as Women’s Fiction, you will be disappointed. Fair warning.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bombshell Books (an imprint of Bloodhound Books) for a free advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This title is scheduled for publication on December 11, 2018.

I have to admit at first this book infuriated me. Not so much the book as Stella. I have a bit of a hard time with selfish, disinterested, absent mothers. However, this book had a wonderful and realistic story of a 14-year-old girl not only finding her way and her family, but Stella also cane around to finding what her daughter had really needed from her all along—her mother. This story was a nice Sunday read and I’d definitely recommend it.

A perfect mother and daughter story!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author. All opinions are my own.

Amazing book. Loved it from beginning to end.
Well written which kept me captivated throughout.
I will definitely be reading other books by this author

An interesting book regarding mothers and daughters. I did read the book in one sitting. Thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for the honest review.

I received My Virtual Life as an ARC from NetGalley. Tara is a freshman in high school and chronicles her life in a blog. This book was written in the style of a modern day Bridget Jones' Diary. It was a quick read and I found it entertaining. Tara's blog focuses on dealing with her single mom and feeling like an outsider at school.

Stopped reading at about 20% in.

Unfortunately, the plot and characters just didn’t draw me in enough for me to keep reading. I thought I would enjoy this book based on the synopsis, but I just didn’t.

My Virtual Life is a book i could relate to. As someone who had a difficult relationship with my mother, I felt like I could easily relate. It was emotional & thought provoking to read their different perspectives; a great read!

At first it was tough to like Stella as she seemed only to care about herself at the detriment of her child. But once she admitted how much she cared for her child and Tara was the best part of her, I warmed up immediately. All women in the book had great hearts.

The bonds of family the ties the tensions so well written so involving.A well written saga that drew me right in,#netgalley #blodhoundbooks