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balletbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
Been on my long list to read forever but Fated Mates finally tipped me over the edge. Loved it, it’s basically a fairy-tale disguised as a rom-com. Would have poisoned all the parents tho, YIKES. (The heroine’s mom is EXTREMELY fatphobic and the heroine has internalized a lot of negative body image so if those things are triggering for you this may be one to skip. But the hero is basically “you’re attractive as fuck just as you are also we should eat good food because eating is pleasure” so I’m down with it)
elee2013's review against another edition
5.0
4.5/5
This was a reread (don’t actually know when I first read this)… Jennifer Crusie is rarely a miss with me. This book is full of food and love and dysfunctional families (both the funny parts and the not funny parts) and groups of friends who all see and experience love differently but come together and mesh into a whole really well. I love the food, Elvis the cat, the shoes, and even the miscommunication! (So hard to do right. But this one gets it.)
This was a reread (don’t actually know when I first read this)… Jennifer Crusie is rarely a miss with me. This book is full of food and love and dysfunctional families (both the funny parts and the not funny parts) and groups of friends who all see and experience love differently but come together and mesh into a whole really well. I love the food, Elvis the cat, the shoes, and even the miscommunication! (So hard to do right. But this one gets it.)
much_ado_about_mothman's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
carobcbg's review against another edition
5.0
This is the third book I've read by Jennifer Crusie. The first left me cold, the second I enjoyed, but this one I loved. In fact, I'd like to see it done as a movie:-) Longer review to come.
riskyduck's review against another edition
4.0
Cute and quirky, with many unique endearing details that help cover up the annoying parts.
It made me crave Krispy Kremes though...sigh.
It made me crave Krispy Kremes though...sigh.
annafieldsforever's review against another edition
3.0
I heard such great things about this book from a plus size forum and was really disappointed. So many one-dimensional characters and lots of “you’re not fat, you’re beautiful”-type rhetoric. Also sooo much build up for one barely smutty scene? Get outta here
claire_loves_books's review against another edition
3.0
It was funny but didn't have that much depth to it. It was pretty predictable- insecure not traditionally sexy woman meets rich, handsome man. Min spends most the book being angst and insecure and than being bitchy that was pretty much the only aspect of her personality we saw for most the book. Cal seemed pretty one dimensional as well. they both really needed their friends as supporting characters- bonnie's romance was really sweet, Liza and Tony were funny, and while some of the family drama was interesting it kind of overpowered the rest of the story. Both of them having horrible families really put a dampener on the story.
Also the whole food thing got really dull- there's only so many times I can read about chicken masala before getting really bored of it. I also thought it was a bit obnoxious that she ate chicken masala from one place, tried a few recipes and then got really snotty about a different recipe, (is chicken masala the same as chicken tikka masala).
I also thought it was unfair for Min to get so close to Cal's nephew- both of them were thinking that they wouldn't really see that much of each other so letting an 8 year old get so attached seemed unfair.
I also don't understand why Cal and his friends were coaching- Harry was the only link they had to the team and he hated it- surely it would have been kinder to persuade Bink and Reynolds to help Harry find a new sport he did like rather than just coach him in one he hated.
Why didn't they just get take out from Emilio's for the reception dinner? Min has just learnt to cook so I can't really believe that she made anything spectacular
Also the whole food thing got really dull- there's only so many times I can read about chicken masala before getting really bored of it. I also thought it was a bit obnoxious that she ate chicken masala from one place, tried a few recipes and then got really snotty about a different recipe, (is chicken masala the same as chicken tikka masala).
Spoiler
I also thought it was unfair for Min to get so close to Cal's nephew- both of them were thinking that they wouldn't really see that much of each other so letting an 8 year old get so attached seemed unfair.
I also don't understand why Cal and his friends were coaching- Harry was the only link they had to the team and he hated it- surely it would have been kinder to persuade Bink and Reynolds to help Harry find a new sport he did like rather than just coach him in one he hated.
Why didn't they just get take out from Emilio's for the reception dinner? Min has just learnt to cook so I can't really believe that she made anything spectacular
kim_chelf's review against another edition
3.0
A good, if predictable, chic-lit book. Nothing terribly new or special, but fun and interesting none-the-less.
hidekisohma's review against another edition
3.0
**Spoiler warning**
So this has actually been my first straight romance book. In the past i've read plenty of book that HAD romance in them, like cozy mysteries, fantasy, sci-fi, etc, but this was my very first solely romance book.
The only reason i gave this book any sort of look is because it was recommended by the childfree subreddit as there aren't a whole lot of books with childfree romances. And after reading it, i can tell you that it was.....um... all right? What might be a little easier to do is explain what's good and bad about this book.
Good: The writing is very fluid. it reads quite well and you can find yourself having read 40 pages by the time you glance back upwards. The descriptions aren't overloaded and it doesn't read like someone was trying to impress webster.
The main characters are both Childfree. This was my selling point. it's very rare to see this and it was a definite welcome change that both characters expressly state that they don't want kids.
Bad: The length: oh my god this book was too long. it REALLY overstayed its welcome. A normal romance book runs about 250-300 pages max. This one ran for 400 pages. By page 270 i found myself going "okay, are we almost done yet? i'm getting tired." and it wasn't as if there was enough going on to WARRANT it to be that long. if you cut out 100 pages i wouldn't even have noticed. Nothing would have been lost. They drew out the romance for really no reason and it didn't need to be that long.
The main characters. I honestly didn't like their personality. Min (main girl) started all right. She was bitchy, took no nonsense and was snarky but funny. That quickly went away though as she started falling for the main guy (cal) nearly right away and by the end her entire character boiled down into "i want you, take me." basically losing all sense of her original character agreeing to marry this guy she's known for a month. yep, that's right. he proposed after 4 weeks. of which they were only dating officially for about.......a week? Cal on the other hand is kinda creepy. There's a fine line between accepting someone for who they are and being an enabler. one of the lines he says "some people are just made with butter" when she asked him if he thought she was fat when she was on a diet. Several times in the book she tells him she's on a diet and he says "nope, you're going to eat this donut" and it felt a little controlling at times and a tad creepy. By the end of the book, i really didn't like either of them.
There were a whole slough of side characters, only a few of them being memorable. Some of those being Min's ex and Cal's ex who constantly try to thwart their relationship to the level that they seemed like saturday morning cartoon villains.
You knew where the story was going from page 1 and didn't really make any twists or turns. The only thing that actually DID surprise me was that the two ex's didn't up together. Everything else i could have told you from the beginning.
This was the largest flaw of the book. Nearly 1/4 of the way through the book, the two are already super attracted to each other. Like, they want each other THAT EARLY. Even though Min KNOWS that he was bet $10k to sleep with her. She not only allows him to take her out to dinner, but continually hangs out with him.
They try to make Cal seem like the good guy by going "oh, but he never actually ACCEPTED the bet" because we have to have main guy be super altruistic and nice and can't give him flaws like that.
I REALLY want to give this book a 2.5 but of course i can't, and i didn't dislike it enough to give it a 2. I guess i'll give it a 3 just because it really DID read super well and i read this 400 page book in literally 4 days during my free time.
Body positivity is a good thing, but this book almost felt like it was actively shaming people who want to lose weight by dieting. Which was kinda weird IMO. (the way Cal fawns over her body is kinda uncomfortable at times tbh)
This book was crack. Pure unfiltered crack. You know there's no substance to it, the characters aren't great and the plot is inconsequential and non-existent, but I suppose that's the fun. It's the kind of book you'd imagine sitting in an airport a woman with a sunhat would read at the beach in the bahamas.
Overall, it wasn't great and i'll never read it again, but i can say "hey, i read it" if it comes up in conversation and i can also say that yes, i've read a romance book. 2.5/5 rounded up to a 3 because i'm feeling nice.
So this has actually been my first straight romance book. In the past i've read plenty of book that HAD romance in them, like cozy mysteries, fantasy, sci-fi, etc, but this was my very first solely romance book.
The only reason i gave this book any sort of look is because it was recommended by the childfree subreddit as there aren't a whole lot of books with childfree romances. And after reading it, i can tell you that it was.....um... all right? What might be a little easier to do is explain what's good and bad about this book.
Good: The writing is very fluid. it reads quite well and you can find yourself having read 40 pages by the time you glance back upwards. The descriptions aren't overloaded and it doesn't read like someone was trying to impress webster.
The main characters are both Childfree. This was my selling point. it's very rare to see this and it was a definite welcome change that both characters expressly state that they don't want kids.
Bad: The length: oh my god this book was too long. it REALLY overstayed its welcome. A normal romance book runs about 250-300 pages max. This one ran for 400 pages. By page 270 i found myself going "okay, are we almost done yet? i'm getting tired." and it wasn't as if there was enough going on to WARRANT it to be that long. if you cut out 100 pages i wouldn't even have noticed. Nothing would have been lost. They drew out the romance for really no reason and it didn't need to be that long.
The main characters. I honestly didn't like their personality. Min (main girl) started all right. She was bitchy, took no nonsense and was snarky but funny. That quickly went away though as she started falling for the main guy (cal) nearly right away and by the end her entire character boiled down into "i want you, take me." basically losing all sense of her original character agreeing to marry this guy she's known for a month. yep, that's right. he proposed after 4 weeks. of which they were only dating officially for about.......a week? Cal on the other hand is kinda creepy. There's a fine line between accepting someone for who they are and being an enabler. one of the lines he says "some people are just made with butter" when she asked him if he thought she was fat when she was on a diet. Several times in the book she tells him she's on a diet and he says "nope, you're going to eat this donut" and it felt a little controlling at times and a tad creepy. By the end of the book, i really didn't like either of them.
There were a whole slough of side characters, only a few of them being memorable. Some of those being Min's ex and Cal's ex who constantly try to thwart their relationship to the level that they seemed like saturday morning cartoon villains.
You knew where the story was going from page 1 and didn't really make any twists or turns. The only thing that actually DID surprise me was that the two ex's didn't up together. Everything else i could have told you from the beginning.
This was the largest flaw of the book. Nearly 1/4 of the way through the book, the two are already super attracted to each other. Like, they want each other THAT EARLY. Even though Min KNOWS that he was bet $10k to sleep with her. She not only allows him to take her out to dinner, but continually hangs out with him.
They try to make Cal seem like the good guy by going "oh, but he never actually ACCEPTED the bet" because we have to have main guy be super altruistic and nice and can't give him flaws like that.
I REALLY want to give this book a 2.5 but of course i can't, and i didn't dislike it enough to give it a 2. I guess i'll give it a 3 just because it really DID read super well and i read this 400 page book in literally 4 days during my free time.
Body positivity is a good thing, but this book almost felt like it was actively shaming people who want to lose weight by dieting. Which was kinda weird IMO. (the way Cal fawns over her body is kinda uncomfortable at times tbh)
This book was crack. Pure unfiltered crack. You know there's no substance to it, the characters aren't great and the plot is inconsequential and non-existent, but I suppose that's the fun. It's the kind of book you'd imagine sitting in an airport a woman with a sunhat would read at the beach in the bahamas.
Overall, it wasn't great and i'll never read it again, but i can say "hey, i read it" if it comes up in conversation and i can also say that yes, i've read a romance book. 2.5/5 rounded up to a 3 because i'm feeling nice.