Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake: A Novel

“I realise I’ve been using other people as my biggest pleasure centre my whole life, to validate me. And I’ve been letting their acceptance or rejection of me dictate my value.”

I absolutely loved this lighthearted, warm hug of a book! This is an adventurous story of Noni, bisexual and recently single. It’s about friendship, love but most of all learning to love yourself.

I really enjoyed the audiobook version and sped through this wanting to find out more about Noni and the next steps on her pleasure quest around Europe. I thought the character development was excellent as Noni learned to put herself first rather than catering for other people’s needs.

If you’re in the mood for something light I recommend this one!

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thatfabchick's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Just absolutely adore this book. I had some flaws very tiny ones with this book. And it really was just the ending. It was too cheesy too movie ending for me. But regardless this is a fantastic book and will be my comfort read.

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decklededgess's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

trigger warnings: sexual content, infidelity, miscarriage, grief, infertility, depression, body dysmorphia

Well this book took me ages to read and I have to apologize because it's really stunning. It's a late quarter life crisis book about a woman in her 30s who decides it's about damn time to live life to the fullest. She yeets herself to Europe to fuck around (literally) reconnect with old flames, and find what gives her pleasure in all senses of the word.

I really loved how chaotic the first half of the book was despite it taking me the longest to get through. Noni's found family were adorable. I also loved the sexual experiences she steamrolled through. It added to the humor of the book and offset Noni's internal growth journey.

The endgame romance was precious and I LOVEDD the conclusion.

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thefatpaperback's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

I can’t believe this book isn’t talked about more!! Noni is a fat, bisexual woman who takes herself on a quest to find pleasure in all areas of her life. She’s felt numb in her life as a teacher, best friend, and aunt, and is searching for happiness. Such a good fat read!! If you loved Shrill on Hulu, you’ll love Noni’s story too.

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mexigingerale's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted 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

2.25

It's a very cute book, but way too smutty for me personally, especially going in expecting a normal romance novel. The romance doesn't appear until over halfway into the book and before then the book consist of quite a few steamy scenes with constant new people. Made it hard to care for what was happening. I especially hated a lot of them, cause it didn't seem like she really wanted them. I will add some mild spoilers for people she sleeps with, that don't affect the plot She sleeps with a boy aged 20 years old, incredibly uncomfortable to me, seeing as she is 36. She also sleeps with a person who has a racist tattoo?

The saving point of the novel and the only reason I didn't DNF before the romance appeared is that Noni is fat representation you don't see often and I enjoyed her character.

Go in expecting a ton of smut, imo unnecessary smut, but if you're looking for that then this book is great. The romance when it does appear is very cute, but I was personally not completely convinced by it. I also do not love most romance books, so I might just not be the best judge for that

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carleesi's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

2.5

I had so many people tell me they loved this book that I went into it with my hopes way too high. It was a fun romantic comedy, but by the end Noni annoyed the shit out of me.

I've realised that I'm sick of reading fictional stories of women letting bad sex happen to them. I know it's something that happens, a lot, but I'm personally done reading about it. I understand that was part of her journey, and could maybe have accepted it but it just all felt like too much. The situation with the principal bordered on kink shaming for me and I really wasn't a fan of the way she was so shocked by him not being into penetration

It seems like her pleasure quest comes to an abrupt end and becomes less about finding herself and more about falling into another relationship. She does amazing work on herself for the whole book then it all seems to come undone by the end and she's back to being neurotic and dependent and relying on someone else to define her happiness.

I was frustrated by a protagonist who uses fat as a perjorative and from the way she speaks about her body and experiences the world, she’s mid size. In an attempt to be body positive this book misses fat liberation entirely.

I really loved the concept of this book but the execution let me down. If you go into this expecting a tropey romance, you'll have a good time.

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miasreads's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

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sara_m_martins's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book talks about a lot of serious topics that i enjoyed seeing represented, including body image/ fatphobia/ miscarriage/ IVF. There is queer rep, with the main character being attracted to multiple genders (no label given), and supporting characters also on the rainbow - however, sexuality isn't a topic.
This is a story about a steamy fling turned romantic relationship, with loads of conversations about what self-love is and how to practice it - if that's your thing, read this book! There's plenty of deep moments (see topics above), accompanied by a bunch of loveable characters and a handful of antagonists. Throughout the book, Noni figures out what her life could be and what life she really wants to live
I really thought this was going to be a 5 star read, but the story was completely different from what I imagined, so while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it.

I was really excited about a travel-around-the-world, figuring-yourself-out, having-fun book. Alas, this was a world tour, the same way most US performers do a "world tour": they do a couple cities in the UK and, if you're lucky, Amsterdam, and that's it. As Europe-exploration was the big pull-in for me, the lack of travel really impacted my enjoyment of it. This is no fault of the book, it just made the book not for me.

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