Happy happy day book friends!
Excited to share with you today my review for this lovely little story! Many thanks to Emma for my invitation to the tour and Sharon Dempsey for her wonderful words!💚❄️
Glamorous lone parent, Stella wants nothing more than to impress her teenage daughter. She has spent her life shielding Tara from her religious upbringing and has never told Tara about her father. But when they move back to Belfast, hiding the past becomes tricky.
Stella lands her dream job as fashion editor at a teen magazine and Tara thinks she will die of shame. Later, Tara starts a blog to pour out her teenage angst and begins working at a home for rescued animals run by the reclusive, enigmatic Nora.
When Tara’s blog takes off, a rival magazine offers to publish it as a column, putting her in a difficult situation.
Will Tara risk hurting her mother in order to achieve her dream of being a writer? Can three generations of one family, who struggle to understand each other, ever develop real bonds?
My Thoughts
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 ***
About Sharon Dempsey:
My Virtual Life is Sharon Dempsey’s second contemporary women’s fiction novel. Sharon is a Belfast-based writer of three fiction titles with four non-fiction health books published. Her crime debut Little Bird was released in July 2017 with Bloodhound Books. A Posy of Promises is the first in a trilogy and published by Bombshell Books.
She facilitates therapeutic creative writing classes for people affected by cancer and other health challenges, and runs a creative writing group for young people, called Young Scribblers, at the Crescent Arts Centre. She is a creative writing tutor at Queen’s University and Stranmillis College. Sharon studied Politics and English at Queen’s University and undertook a newspaper journalism post grad at City University, London. She has written for a variety of publications and newspapers, including the Irish Times. She regularly reviews books for BBC Radio Ulster. Sharon is working on the follow up to Little Bird and a collection of dark short stories.
Sharon’s Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/svjdempz @svjdempz
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thank you for stopping by! Berit☀️✨
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Oooh I loved the way you have said it. I like mother daughter relationship books.. ❤️
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This sounds like a beautiful story! Wonderful review!
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Mother-daughters right up my alley with four of them! Great review, Berit!
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