Thank you @netgalley, @victoryeditingngc and @galaxygrlmia for the advanced e-copy ARC <3

'Shy Girl' follows Gia, a 30-year old who is on the verge of being evicted after losing her job a few months prior. She is struggling with loneliness, mental health and OCD. In order to get back on track, Gia signs up for a sugar baby website where she meets Nathan. Nathan offers Gia an unconventional position: to be his pet for 8 hours a day in exchange for her debts to be paid off. Shortly after agreeing on the position, Gia is forced into years of abuse, manipulation and humiliation.

* READERS CHECK CONTENT WARNINGS! *

I could not put this book down. It is a dark story with many layers of violence, however, it is also a story of fighting for you autonomy and disrupting dominance. This story sits heavy because it forces readers to realize that this sort of violence is happening everyday & targets could be anyone from any background.

A great overview of female rage. I think this book is going to be very very popular within booktok when it is published.

im actually speechless… i cannot tell you how many pages this is cause i ran through them! I couldn’t not out this down it honestly didn’t even feel like i was reading. The first half is hell but a familiar hell that many people like myself have had to deal with but the second half! Omg! I guess in a way it’s the same we’ve been there one way or another but god what a great way to tell the story! This was terrifying and not in a fun way! And I say that as a good thing I wanted to throw up and I was scared to look up in the dark amazing!

The blurb for this sounded interesting because I love reading about characters with OCD, and this turned out to be that plus so much more! It was weird, relatable and delightful.

✨REVIEW: 5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

🎀Shy Girl by Mia Ballard🎀

💗synopsis: Lonely, broke and depressed with a serious case of OCD, Gia finds herself at a crossroads when financial troubles lead her to Nathan, a mysterious and affluent man she encounters on a sugar dating website. 🫠

💗my opinion: I started this book around midnight and finished it around 2.30am and it was really worth staying up late. 🙂‍↔️💕

Gia, our main character is going through a really bad time; she can’t get a job and is in debt as hell. Apart from that, Gia doesn’t have much external support, and because of her reserved personality she only has one friend… :/

Finally, things change when she meets Nathan, the man who will help her in exchange for a service. So Gia makes a deal with him, a deal that is completely DISTORTED in a few minutes and then begins an abuse of power, manipulation and humiliation (along with many, many other things). 😩

Many scenes left me shocked, the change of Gia, the very difficult and inhuman transition she has to go through.... Uh, all of that was pretty hard to read, and the narrative while beautiful, still maintained a cruel air.

I don’t want to do any spoilers because it’s a wonderful, ruthless and cruel book...but that’s life sometimes. And I think what struck me the most was that Gia’s story is not too far from the reality of what humans can do. 😕

✨Highly recommended if you✨

🥩Like Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder.
🥩Like cruel scenarios and body horror.
🥩Like revenge.

I would like to thank @galaxygrlmia, @netgalley and @victoryeditingngc for the advanced e-copy. <33