Not your #LoveStory was a genuinely lovely read.

This is a story about a girl who grows up with social media. All positive and negative sides included. This is also a girl who feels trapped in her tiny hometown where everyone knows everything about everybody else. She is constantly subjected to her mother's own fears for her and her grandma and her friends. So there are opinions and advice coming from all directions. The lovely thing about that though, is that it is so very obvious how much everyone cares for each other.

I loved Macy and her love for old movies. I loved her group of friends, who were as chaotic and odd as she was and at a first glance, they didn't even necessarily fit together. But it worked. Paxton was charming through and through and I was just happy whenever he came on. Her mum and grandma and the entire sewing club were just a delight, honestly. The whole town (with a few exceptions) just felt like a community and I loved it.

The thing is this. As positive and amazing the internet is (I mean, I honestly love it for being able to share my love for books alone), it has it's dark patches. One of those is that we're all able to take pictures of anyone at anytime and for some reason it's become acceptable to post these on the internet. Publically. Without consent. (Remember Alex from Target? Imagine having someone take a picture of you at your work and posting it online. For whatever reason. #nightmare).
So I was all for this premise. I was all for being mad and being furious and I loved how this was dealt with. That it's deeply problematic how we as a society get roped into discussing the lives, actions and looks of people who have been photographed without their consent. Our ability to cyberstalk so well that someone will always find their house and their work and their school. It's deeply unsettling and this book dealt with it beautifully.

Because a false claim leads to turning this online love story into a tirade of slut shaming for Macy and it becomes very obvious how deeply she is affected. As she should be. As we all should be.

I think this is a very important book to read. Not only for the adorable love story which I enjoyed very much, but because it makes you think about our online culture in general.

I literally urge everyone to read this. And to have a think about how you personally behave online. It's what I did and I had to face some truths that were a little uncomfortable. So a huge thank you to Sonia Hartl for this unapologetically honest book. What a great read.