My Virtual Life

A serious-minded teenager and her self-absorbed, style-obsessed mother struggle to understand each other in this poignant, witty novel.

Single mom Stella wants nothing more than to impress her teenage daughter—who doesn’t share her mother’s interests in fashion, social media, or partying. Instead, Tara can only cringe over the fact that her mother is famous—or at least thinks she is—as an editor at a magazine for “hot teens.”

Stella has shielded her daughter from her own religious upbringing and has told her nothing about her father. But when they move back to Belfast, hiding the past becomes trickier—and the strained relationship expands from two generations to three.

Meanwhile, Tara blogs about her teenage angst and begins working at a home for rescued animals run by the enigmatic Nora. When Tara’s blog takes off, a rival magazine offers to publish it as a column, putting her in a difficult situation—having to risk hurting her mother in order to achieve her own dream of being a writer . . .