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andreaaaoid's review against another edition
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This was not for me.
1. This should not be marketed as a romance. The romance is so completely secondary to the MC’s insecurities and horrifyingly toxic relationship with her mother, that the times it’s featured (while sweet and cute) are almost throwaway.
2. While Perci does ultimately overcome her insecurities, this book dwells waaaay too long on them. Frankly, if you are struggling with accepting/loving your appearance as a fat person I do not recommend this book. Both Perci’s mother and Perci’s own inner thoughts can be extremely triggering.
3. The fact that this book ends with a reconciliation is absolutely baffling to me. Her mother, in my opinion, does not deserve it. She emotionally and mentally abused her daughter FOR YEARS. She routinely sided with others over her daughter (including the scummy man who broke up with her on the radio), constantly micromanaged her clothes and food choices, and went so far as to purchase the building where Perci worked so she could shut it down and force her daughter to be out of work. She deserved the cream puff to the face, and I’m almost outraged that Perci is so desperate for her own mother’s forgiveness. Honestly, fuck that. You should not keep people in your life if they do not treat you well!
If you read this book and thought it was the best plus size romance could offer, I’m begging you to seek out other authors - Julie Murphy and Olivia Dade are both excellent. There are ways to write plus size romance and the plus size experience that do not perpetuate toxicity or overuse triggering language/situations. In fact, there are plus size romances that aren’t even about the character being plus size!
All that being said, there were successful elements of this - what romance their was worked well, characters felt well developed and displayed growth, and the writing itself was excellent. And I don’t blame the author for trying to tell this story (it’s a pretty common one in plus size fiction; “fat girl overcomes insecurities and finds a S/O” is pretty standard), but it could use some work.
1. This should not be marketed as a romance. The romance is so completely secondary to the MC’s insecurities and horrifyingly toxic relationship with her mother, that the times it’s featured (while sweet and cute) are almost throwaway.
2. While Perci does ultimately overcome her insecurities, this book dwells waaaay too long on them. Frankly, if you are struggling with accepting/loving your appearance as a fat person I do not recommend this book. Both Perci’s mother and Perci’s own inner thoughts can be extremely triggering.
3. The fact that this book ends with a reconciliation is absolutely baffling to me. Her mother, in my opinion, does not deserve it. She emotionally and mentally abused her daughter FOR YEARS. She routinely sided with others over her daughter (including the scummy man who broke up with her on the radio), constantly micromanaged her clothes and food choices, and went so far as to purchase the building where Perci worked so she could shut it down and force her daughter to be out of work. She deserved the cream puff to the face, and I’m almost outraged that Perci is so desperate for her own mother’s forgiveness. Honestly, fuck that. You should not keep people in your life if they do not treat you well!
If you read this book and thought it was the best plus size romance could offer, I’m begging you to seek out other authors - Julie Murphy and Olivia Dade are both excellent. There are ways to write plus size romance and the plus size experience that do not perpetuate toxicity or overuse triggering language/situations. In fact, there are plus size romances that aren’t even about the character being plus size!
All that being said, there were successful elements of this - what romance their was worked well, characters felt well developed and displayed growth, and the writing itself was excellent. And I don’t blame the author for trying to tell this story (it’s a pretty common one in plus size fiction; “fat girl overcomes insecurities and finds a S/O” is pretty standard), but it could use some work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Emotional abuse
bookfortbuilder's review against another edition
So the FMC is pretty much her family’s doormat. Which is a trope authors like to use for plus sized characters. And I’m over it. I get that the book should show her growth but I’m 26% percent in and it’s hard to read how pathetic she is. And as a plus sized reader I’m honestly tired of this narrative. Could have done the break up and had it make her angry instead of more of a doormat. And where is the romance? How far do I need to read before I start seeing the attraction? I’m tired of authors using “plus size” to justify a character being a doormat. There are plus sized women who fall in love and a lot of them are not doormats to their abusive families.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse
thefatpaperback's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
arthur_ant18's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Classism and Pregnancy
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Death of parent
aedavison's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-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
4.0
A laugh-out-loud funny novel about starting over, taking chances, and personal growth.
Perci Mayfield is having a hell of a time. Her boyfriend breaks up with her over voicemail, she's stuck in a job she hates, and her mother is trying to run her life. Sick of feeling stuck, Perci vows to make some changes, to stop trying to please everyone else, and live for herself. Unfortunately, one little lie to get her mother off her back lands her with a fake boyfriend who just so happens to be her next-door neighbor and... Oh no, she might have caught feelings.
Perci is a delightfully relatable character. I think we have all been stuck in life at some point and, at times, felt like we didn't measure up. The Do-Over has us sit with Perci and those feelings and takes the reader on a journey towards self-acceptance and joy in every aspect of life.
I loved that Perci felt real and tangible—all of the characters did. Everyone was beautifully flawed. They were allowed to make mistakes, endure the consequences, and learn from them.
Peterson's novel was brought to life by the wonderful and talented narrator, Elise Roth. Her voice truly embodied Perci and made a wonderful story even more perfect.
This novel has wonderful representation of a plus-sized character and deals with topics of body image and weight loss in a very realistic and gentle way.
Perci Mayfield is having a hell of a time. Her boyfriend breaks up with her over voicemail, she's stuck in a job she hates, and her mother is trying to run her life. Sick of feeling stuck, Perci vows to make some changes, to stop trying to please everyone else, and live for herself. Unfortunately, one little lie to get her mother off her back lands her with a fake boyfriend who just so happens to be her next-door neighbor and... Oh no, she might have caught feelings.
Perci is a delightfully relatable character. I think we have all been stuck in life at some point and, at times, felt like we didn't measure up. The Do-Over has us sit with Perci and those feelings and takes the reader on a journey towards self-acceptance and joy in every aspect of life.
I loved that Perci felt real and tangible—all of the characters did. Everyone was beautifully flawed. They were allowed to make mistakes, endure the consequences, and learn from them.
Peterson's novel was brought to life by the wonderful and talented narrator, Elise Roth. Her voice truly embodied Perci and made a wonderful story even more perfect.
This novel has wonderful representation of a plus-sized character and deals with topics of body image and weight loss in a very realistic and gentle way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Death of parent
mx_virg's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
This book was a lot of fun and has a lot of heart. If it weren't for the ending, I would have given it 5 stars.
I don't know how to categorize this book. It's in the romance section, and while there is some romance there, it's not the center of the story (it doesn't really even start until the half-way mark), more like something happening in the background (still very sweet, I enjoyed it a lot). This book is all about the MC's, Perci, journey to self-acceptance and happiness. This is more a coming-of-age-for-adults book. Does anyone know how to categorize such a book, what genre it is ?
✅ Mimi is the best. Everybody should have a Mimi in their lives. I'll for sure go back and write down some the Mimi-isms at the start of each chapter, most of them are golden.
✅ Perci is a great MC, I certainly could relate to her (sometimes painfully so). I loved her journey of self-acceptance and transformation, and how gradual and imperfect it was.
✅ I loved Mathias, if only for that anti-resolution list. Might make one of my own. I also loved his friendship with Perci, how genuine they were with each other.
✅ Great plus-sized representation ! You have Mimi who owns her body, of course Perci's journey with hers. And even Brent kinda does it too(it was a nice touch to see him on a date with someone as curvy, if not more, as Perci) .
✅ I liked the writing, it was a joy to read.
⛔ As much as I love Mimi, her deliberately calling her daughter by a name she doesn't like is wrong. Every time she called her "Bobi Jo", I cringed so hard. Perci's mom even changed her name legally to Roberta, asked her mother to use her preferred name, and Mimi just says it's the name she gave her so she's going to keep using it. Big yikes.
😐 The romance was sweet, but forgettable. I liked Nate well enough, loved how he rolled with Perci's weird circumstances. And there are some nice scenes between them. It's kinda sad though that for a book in the romance category, it would have worked almost as well without the romance. We don't spend a lot of time getting to know Nate, or with Perci and Nate as a (potential) couple. The scenes we do have with them though are lovely, I did enjoy the moments we did spend with them.
😐 Perci's sister, Phee isn't a bad person, but she's not really a good one either. I was very hopeful at first, she seemed to be nice and a good sister, no catty stereotype, she didn't gang up on Perci with her mother. I lost all respect for her though when she barely said anything when her boyfriend insulted and humiliated Perci, on multiple occasions. I understand she's herself a victim of her mother's emotional abuse, but I would have appreciated the book acknowledging more her "don't rock the boat" attitude around her mother and Joel, often at the expense of Perci (and Mathias).
Since the book's main focus is Perci's journey to finding herself and self-acceptance, it is tightly linked to her relationship with her mother, and the rest of the family. So even if the book is not really about toxic relationships, it's such a big part of Perci's journey, I wish the book did a better job highlighting those toxic family dynamics.
😒 The ending was a bit too movie like for me, too perfect with everything wrapped up in a neat little bow. Especially stuff surrounding Perci's mom and Nate.
First, Nate being there because of the moms is kinda sad, not romantic. I would have prefered him ging to talk to her and owning up to his feelings and his actions. But that's just my opinion / the way I feel about things, it's super subjective.
What's less so is how Perci and everyone else got very quickly over the fact that her mom bought a building to DESTROY A BUSINESS !! Does she even apologize for it at some point ? She costs someone's livelihood, forces parents to find childcare in a rush, and no one cares ? Seriously ? I know Mrs. Marge is taking it as an opportunity to retire early and move to be with her grandkids, but that does not make it ok. At all.
Also, the fact that Perci is opening her own day-care IN THAT SAME BUILDING. How is she okay with this ? In my head, Mrs. Marge finds out and rues the day she hired Perci. How else could you interpret that chain of events ?
This leads to my biggest gripe with this ending : one of the main points of the book is that Perci's mother is super meddlesome and pushy and rules her daughter's lives, because she thinks she knows best and can't comprehend how miserable her actions are making them. And how does the book end ? By her being super meddlesome in Perci's life, because she knows best, only this time she "gets it right", so it's ok for her to be so pushy. What ?!?
This whole book, Perci is on a journey to discover herself, take her life in charge, and it ends with her not really doing that(Nate is back because of the moms, and her new job has been decided and planned by her parents) . I guess the goal here was to show her family understanding her more and supporting her, but this could have been done differently.
This book spends 85% on the drama and how awful the mother treats her (and her sister), and the resolution to that is rushed, too neat, and thus not satisfying. Roberta was really horrible towards Perci, and the ending only makes it seem like not much has changed, but enough that Perci will stay and endure more of it. Did Roberta even own up to or apologize for her actions at some point ? I don't think so, and worse, it's kind of implied it's not needed because of Perci's own screw up. As if Perci's outburst is at all comparable to a lifetime of emotional abuse. It's like the author wanted a happy, all wrapped-up ending, but also knew someone like Roberta couldn't believably do a 180 so it's on the people around her to, again, take her as she is and not rock the boat.
If I ever re-read this book (which I might, there's lots of good stuff in it), I'll ignore that last chapter, it's more sad than hopeful for me.
I don't know how to categorize this book. It's in the romance section, and while there is some romance there, it's not the center of the story (it doesn't really even start until the half-way mark), more like something happening in the background (still very sweet, I enjoyed it a lot). This book is all about the MC's, Perci, journey to self-acceptance and happiness. This is more a coming-of-age-for-adults book. Does anyone know how to categorize such a book, what genre it is ?
✅ Mimi is the best. Everybody should have a Mimi in their lives. I'll for sure go back and write down some the Mimi-isms at the start of each chapter, most of them are golden.
✅ Perci is a great MC, I certainly could relate to her (sometimes painfully so). I loved her journey of self-acceptance and transformation, and how gradual and imperfect it was.
✅ I loved Mathias, if only for that anti-resolution list. Might make one of my own. I also loved his friendship with Perci, how genuine they were with each other.
✅ Great plus-sized representation ! You have Mimi who owns her body, of course Perci's journey with hers. And even Brent kinda does it too
✅ I liked the writing, it was a joy to read.
⛔ As much as I love Mimi, her deliberately calling her daughter by a name she doesn't like is wrong. Every time she called her "Bobi Jo", I cringed so hard. Perci's mom even changed her name legally to Roberta, asked her mother to use her preferred name, and Mimi just says it's the name she gave her so she's going to keep using it. Big yikes.
😐 The romance was sweet, but forgettable. I liked Nate well enough, loved how he rolled with Perci's weird circumstances. And there are some nice scenes between them. It's kinda sad though that for a book in the romance category, it would have worked almost as well without the romance. We don't spend a lot of time getting to know Nate, or with Perci and Nate as a (potential) couple. The scenes we do have with them though are lovely, I did enjoy the moments we did spend with them.
😐 Perci's sister, Phee isn't a bad person, but she's not really a good one either. I was very hopeful at first, she seemed to be nice and a good sister, no catty stereotype, she didn't gang up on Perci with her mother. I lost all respect for her though when she barely said anything when her boyfriend insulted and humiliated Perci, on multiple occasions. I understand she's herself a victim of her mother's emotional abuse, but I would have appreciated the book acknowledging more her "don't rock the boat" attitude around her mother and Joel, often at the expense of Perci (and Mathias).
Since the book's main focus is Perci's journey to finding herself and self-acceptance, it is tightly linked to her relationship with her mother, and the rest of the family. So even if the book is not really about toxic relationships, it's such a big part of Perci's journey, I wish the book did a better job highlighting those toxic family dynamics.
😒 The ending was a bit too movie like for me, too perfect with everything wrapped up in a neat little bow. Especially stuff surrounding Perci's mom and Nate.
What's less so is how Perci and everyone else got very quickly over the fact that her mom bought a building to DESTROY A BUSINESS !! Does she even apologize for it at some point ? She costs someone's livelihood, forces parents to find childcare in a rush, and no one cares ? Seriously ? I know Mrs. Marge is taking it as an opportunity to retire early and move to be with her grandkids, but that does not make it ok. At all.
Also, the fact that Perci is opening her own day-care IN THAT SAME BUILDING. How is she okay with this ? In my head, Mrs. Marge finds out and rues the day she hired Perci. How else could you interpret that chain of events ?
This leads to my biggest gripe with this ending : one of the main points of the book is that Perci's mother is super meddlesome and pushy and rules her daughter's lives, because she thinks she knows best and can't comprehend how miserable her actions are making them. And how does the book end ? By her being super meddlesome in Perci's life, because she knows best, only this time she "gets it right", so it's ok for her to be so pushy. What ?!?
This whole book, Perci is on a journey to discover herself, take her life in charge, and it ends with her not really doing that
This book spends 85% on the drama and how awful the mother treats her (and her sister), and the resolution to that is rushed, too neat, and thus not satisfying. Roberta was really horrible towards Perci, and the ending only makes it seem like not much has changed, but enough that Perci will stay and endure more of it. Did Roberta even own up to or apologize for her actions at some point ? I don't think so, and worse, it's kind of implied it's not needed because of Perci's own screw up. As if Perci's outburst is at all comparable to a lifetime of emotional abuse. It's like the author wanted a happy, all wrapped-up ending, but also knew someone like Roberta couldn't believably do a 180 so it's on the people around her to, again, take her as she is and not rock the boat.
If I ever re-read this book (which I might, there's lots of good stuff in it), I'll ignore that last chapter, it's more sad than hopeful for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Toxic relationship, and Fatphobia
Minor: Death of parent
sarah_thebooknerd's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
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, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Fatphobia
Minor: Death
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