Second book out of thirty has now been read! After finishing the first one, I picked out 'Girl Online', written by Zoe Sugg, from the line up and I'm glad I did. Although, this is a slightly...weird one, shall we say, to review after all the recent news on it but I'll come on to that shortly.

I have been a follower of Zoe's blog and YouTube Channel for a while now and really enjoy the stuff she produces, so was excited when I heard she had a book coming out. I actually thought it was going to be an autobiography at first but it was a pleasant surprise that it was, in fact, a novel! 

The plot follows 15 (nearly 16) year old girl named Penny, who also goes by 'Girl Online' on her anonymous blog. Penny suffers from anxiety and starts to get attacks more frequently, but then the opportunity arrises for her and her gay best friend to go to New York, as her parents' are wedding planners. She meets Noah and starts to fall in love, but he has a secret too, which could be the undoing of them and Penny.

The plot line was easy to follow and quite delightful, it also made me feel all warm and mushy inside which is always a good sign when reading a book. I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't put it down and I read it in a matter of a couple of days, another good sign!

So, on to the more tricky side of this review, the recent news about the ghost writer. 

Now, to be honest, I don't get what all the fuss was about over the controversy of Zoe having a ghost writer, I really don't. Zoe made it clear all along that she was going to be having help from Penguin in writing this book and despite being a brilliant blogger, she isn't a fully-formed writer (yet). Of course she wasn't going to be able to write a whole book by herself, as well as, do all the other things she does in her extremely busy life! I couldn't believe all of the online-hate - ironic if you've read this book - that went towards Zoe after the news and name came out because, quite frankly, what did it even matter? The book deals with some very serious issues such as anxiety and homophobia, alongside being a genuinely sweet read, and that's what people should be focusing on. 

When I started to write this review, I wanted to make sure I'd got my facts right and that I hadn't been caught up reading the wrong thing and after a bit of online reading, I found an article that Siobhan Curham (the writer who helped Zoe with 'Girl Online') had written on her blog explaining her point of view. To read this post, please click here and if this interests you at all, I urge you to do so because she makes some extremely valid and relevant points, as well as, gives her side of the story. 

I always wanted to be honest on Amy's Corner and I hope that the above paragraphs do not offend anyone in any way or sparks up any  arguments, this is simply my open and honest opinion on the matter and at the end of the day, the book is a good 'un that speaks about some highly important issues that need to be faced more often, which I think is the most important thing about this all.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and I already can't wait for the second one to come out later in the year to find out what happens next!

Have you read 'Girl Online' and if so, what did you think?