Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - If the Shoe Fits

A cinderella retelling with a reality TV competition...YES YES YES. I loved this story. I loved Cindy. She was so smart, sweet and driven. I loved all the reality TV references and I adored that the author kept all the integrity of the chacters with the "evil" and mean but not making them generically evil that she loved and that loved her. I loved that Cindy had a family. Highly recommend!!!

Content Warnings

novelsistah's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

criticalgayze's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This one works to confirm my working theory that I will enjoy straight romance, as long as it is written by someone with a marginalized identity, and I was happily surprised to have enjoyed a read I picked on a whim for an obscure prompt on a reading challenge I'm doing with my family.

Let me start with my minor quibbles. I think this book is a little over reaching in what it asks the reader to believe about the television show that makes up the basis for the book's primary setting. The idea that none of these crew members besides the assistant producer know these girls are the show runner's daughter seem overly far fetched. I also find it wholly unbelievable that wouldn't be leaked by a "friend" of at least one of the trio of sisters. I thought the novel waited too long to really have the main character start sneaking around with the love interest, and I think that should have either been downplayed for the female friendships story that makes up most of the book's first half or leant into, as it is for the back half of the novel. Instead, the book sits in this limbo. It was also an odd choice for weight to be a discussion between the main character and literally everyone other than her love interest. Not bad or wrong necessarily, just odd.

While I know that seems like a lot of quibbles, I think Julie Murphy really is a gifted writer, and I was happy to love this one after finding Dumplin' to be just so-so. The writing is fun and sharp and quick and inclusive, and I found this to be a nice little champagne fizz of a story.

Content Warnings

the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This was a really cute read with a really likeable protagonist. My only real complaint is the ending. It came totally out of nowhere, didn't really match Cindy's character and

was a really big dick move. Was there no other outcome besides humiliating your love interest on national television for basically no reason? Why would you just assume none of it was real when he strongly implied it was? It doesn't make sense to me.

Content Warnings

bookcrushin's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Absolutely love this love story of an adult romcom centered around cinderella

Content Warnings

roget's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Cindy was quite likeable. This reads more like a story about her getting back into her creative process as an artist and less like a romance, honestly. There are things about that that I like, but it felt like we needed more from Henry.

We never find out what really drew him to Cindy or vice versa. It just seems weird, given the genre.

Content Warnings

thisreadingcorner's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Content Warnings

ishouldbereading's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I expected SO much from this book, I was so sure this will be a 5 star read. However, this book disappointed me greatly.
First off, they had so little chemistry I almost couldn't believe they should be in love. They had their moments, you could say, but it wasn't something to root for. But to be fair, Henry had zero chemistry with all the girls. Next up, Henry altogether. He was so flatly written, I still don't know who he is. He had no character traits and so many things about him didn't make sense. Especially his decision making, mainly in the end, made no sense.
Now the body positivity part. I really REALLY liked that nobody really cared about her being plus-sized (except Addison, I still want to know what she said) and she seemed confident in her body. I loved the part when she made her own dress and her comments in the show about being plus-sized. I especially loved that Henry didn't make the cheesy comments in most body-positivity books/movies and just seemed to not even realize it. But I feel like we didn't get that big of a respond from public. Yes, the audience loved her, but I wanted to know more. I know they didn't have phones in most of the book but they could add a little more audience reaction, tweets and just women appreciating her.
Now my probably biggest issue with this book: It felt like a copy of Selection. Most of the characters and plot was the same as in Selection. And let me tell you, I liked Selection more, it was better written. The participants were the same and yeah, it makes sense that they were similiar since they're both based on The Bachelor but these similiarities felt too similiar. Addison was a total copy of Celeste, Sarah Claire was Kriss, Anne was Marlee and so on and so on.

But the best part about this book was the retelling. The little details like her having blue dress and those shoes, midnight and all those cute references. It was such a good retelling and I loved that her stepmom wasn't evil. It felt natural and it's my favourite retelling so far.

Content Warnings

More...