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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
I would give this books a 3.5 ⭐️ 0 🌶
Tropes: single parent, forced proximity (neighbors), fake dating, slow burn romance
CW: alcohol, fatphobia, fat shaming, toxic relationships, emotional abuse by a parent/ controlling parent, diet culture, medical event
I’m this book Perci has always been the non adventurous, overweight people pleaser with a very controlling mom. We see her trying to figure out herself and what she wants out of life. We get to see her confidence improve and some self love. Her neighbor is a single dad and he trying to navigate raising his daughter and is afraid to open up. I did enjoy the build to their relationship and the dynamics with the little girl.
<<<<<< spoiler>>>>>>>
Where I struggled with this book was with how easy the mom had it with being forgiven. She controlled so much of her daughters life from what she wore, where she worked, who she was dating, and about what she ate that honestly I don’t think Perci was hard enough on her and the make up made it seem like she tried her hardest and loved them so much and because she cared and loved them so much she controlled them. That didn’t sit well with me, Perci immediately felt awful for how she handled communicating and the fight but her mom just ghosted her and probably would have forced Perci to come to her if it had not been the meddling Mimi to intervene.
I also struggled with the fat representation. It was trying to be ambiguous in the beginning by calling her curvy which as a fat person is code for good fat or acceptable fat. So honestly, I’m unsure if she is fat or if she just had more curves and would be medium sized representation. A lot of the fat community really does not want it to be ambiguous. We want to know if they are or are not because we have been erased for years.
So I have some mixed feelings on this book as a whole. It has some funny moments and cuteness in it but also just a lot of toxicity with the relationship with the mom so please be mindful of that.
I would give this books a 3.5 ⭐️ 0 🌶
Tropes: single parent, forced proximity (neighbors), fake dating, slow burn romance
CW: alcohol, fatphobia, fat shaming, toxic relationships, emotional abuse by a parent/ controlling parent, diet culture, medical event
I’m this book Perci has always been the non adventurous, overweight people pleaser with a very controlling mom. We see her trying to figure out herself and what she wants out of life. We get to see her confidence improve and some self love. Her neighbor is a single dad and he trying to navigate raising his daughter and is afraid to open up. I did enjoy the build to their relationship and the dynamics with the little girl.
<<<<<< spoiler>>>>>>>
Where I struggled with this book was with how easy the mom had it with being forgiven. She controlled so much of her daughters life from what she wore, where she worked, who she was dating, and about what she ate that honestly I don’t think Perci was hard enough on her and the make up made it seem like she tried her hardest and loved them so much and because she cared and loved them so much she controlled them. That didn’t sit well with me, Perci immediately felt awful for how she handled communicating and the fight but her mom just ghosted her and probably would have forced Perci to come to her if it had not been the meddling Mimi to intervene.
I also struggled with the fat representation. It was trying to be ambiguous in the beginning by calling her curvy which as a fat person is code for good fat or acceptable fat. So honestly, I’m unsure if she is fat or if she just had more curves and would be medium sized representation. A lot of the fat community really does not want it to be ambiguous. We want to know if they are or are not because we have been erased for years.
So I have some mixed feelings on this book as a whole. It has some funny moments and cuteness in it but also just a lot of toxicity with the relationship with the mom so please be mindful of that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Alcohol
Minor: Death
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.75⭐️
A feel good light hearted Rom Com. I fancied a light summer type listen for a change from my usual delves into darkness.
I had the audiobook narrated by Elise Roth who did a great job, she had a good range of voices for the various characters. My fav voice was that belonging to Mimi.
Growing up our main character Percy wanted to grow to be just like her grandmother Mimi, who is fun loving, no messing, brash, loud and doesn’t worry about what others thinks or what she eats. Somewhere along the way she fell into a long standing dull rut of a life until she was 27, with the added hindrance of an overly controlling mother. She is given the tag as a people pleaser, she really needs to channel her inner Mimi.
This is Percy’s story of rediscovering herself and learning to love herself gaining confidence along the dreaded J word (journey)
There are big changes along the way, her boring boyfriend dumping her on the radio. Next to go was the job she worked with the ex and her father, at this point we can see how insular her world was.
As for the characters, I found Percy too much of a drippy pleaser to be truly likeable, she did grow on me as she finally grew a ‘pair’ Mimi was my favourite, her mom on the other hand was a nightmare.
It’s a sweet story, with twists, turns and revelations along the way.
I liked some of Mini’s sayings which were used as chapter headings.
The plot was predictable, as this genre tends to be. I found it light hearted but not funny. It kept me pleasantly entertained.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
I thought that this book was very very funny, but those who have issues with counting calories should definitely avoid this book. The main character Perci is fat and her mother is constantly trying to tell her the calories in items of foods and tell her to lose weight. Apart from being funny, the book is very self-aware, in the book Perci does something really horrible and as I was thinking that she was a B, she called herself one. The romance, while there, does not start really until like 50% of the book which was a little annoying to me and the beginning dragged. I also wish that we got more from Mathias' character because he felt a little 2D. Once Lilah and Nate were introduced it was really easy to like those characters. They were funny and wholesome. Overall, I just feel like the pacing in the book was very off and the main character was somewhat hypocritical and unlikeable. I am rating this book 3.5 stars. Thank you to Bookouture for a free ARC of this book for an honest review.