The Truth About Gemma Grey by Sophie Ranald

Title: The Truth About Gemma Grey
Author: Sophie Ranald
Publisher: Amazon
Date of publication: June 16th 2017
Source: Review copy courtesy of the author

Summary:

Her boyfriend dumped her. She broke the internet. Now can she mend her heart? 

Life isn’t working out quite as Gemma had planned. Her breakthrough job turns out to involve writing clickbait articles about cats. Her boyfriend Jack is off travelling the world with his glamorous BFF and her mum’s social life puts Gemma’s own to shame.

Then, after a late-night online rant, Gemma’s YouTube channel goes viral and everything changes. Suddenly, she’s living the dream – only it’s not turning out entirely as she imagined.

Gemma realises she’ll have to choose between fame, real love and being true to herself – because she can’t have it all. Or can she?



Review:

Gemma has a new job, a new house share in London, and the perfect relationship. Unfortunately, her boyfriend didn't get the memo, and he's off on a round the world trip with his (female) best friend. The job mostly involves collating cat pictures for clickbait articles, and it turns out her boyfriend and his best friend are slightly more than that. After a late night rant on her vlog goes viral, Gemma finds herself courted by a new media talent agency, with invitations to the hottest parties and lots of freebies to promote on her YouTube channel. But as her star rises, she finds it increasingly hard to separate her "real" life from her vlog, and the real Gemma starts to get lost along the way.

As well as juggling her job with her life as a fledgling YouTube celebrity, she's also navigating the sometimes tricky relationship she has with her new landlords. There's something not quite right about the couple, but Gemma can't quite put her finger on what. And then there's the coffee shop on the corner with the gorgeous barista.

Although on the surface this is a light romantic comedy, it does touch on deeper issues such as domestic violence, urban gentrification, and the nature of celebrity. There has been a lot of watching of YouTube channels in my house in recent months, so it was interesting to read a story about someone on the other side of the screen. If you're a romantic comedy fan, then you could do a lot worse than to pick this up.