This is one of the few truly size positive books I’ve read. I’ve seen a couple of reviews at amazon that were super negative about this, and wow, I am unimpressed.
I hated Mandy’s attitude of ‘I’m too fat to be lovable’.’ Mandy was just a whiny b*tch who didn’t deserve Xander, not because of her weight but because of her personality.
The above is a paraphrased summary of a review that really bothered me, because I am fat chick, like Mandy, and I found her insecurity around Xander to be absolutely 100% realistic. She doesn’t believe a hot dude will go for her, and that’s because we’ve all internalised that message. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that whoever wrote that is not now, and has not ever been, significantly overweight.
I’ve been with my partner 13 years. He’s not an OfficialHotDude, and I was still wary of it being a scam when we met. That feeling is real, and it has been drilled into big chicks by the media, by kids on public transport, by years of bitter experience at being the harmless friend on the sidelines. If you’re a big chick and this has not been your experience? Well, I am honestly delighted for you. But be kind to people who have not been as lucky.
Anyway – the book. There’s a meet cute over the phone for our HEA couple. When they meet in person, there’s friction, because of Mandy’s self esteem issues, but they eventually work through it.
I have read about four in the series, and while they occasionally call out weight as a hiding/coping mechanism (which it 100% can be; it is for me), mostly they just call out that their heroines ARE plus size, and deal with any self esteem issues that are a result of that.
The friendship circle is the real winner here, and it was what drove my interest into the next book, and the one after that.