A review by jessicarenz
Being Brooke by Emma Hart

2.0

Honestly I wasn’t a fan. It was supposed to be a quick read but it felt more like a chore. I didn’t want to leave a book half read so I felt I must push on. The main character, Brooke, was “awkward” and that word was used way too much in the book to describe her which was annoying. She’s apparently “needs to lose a few pounds” when she’s only a size 8 or 10 when the average size for women in the US and UK is a 16. And she’s supposed to be clumsy and terrible at cooking, burning everything she tries to make, but suddenly has amazing baking abilities out of nowhere 2/3 way through the book. I mean a girl who can’t even boil noodles without burning them opens a successful baking business. That doesn’t make sense. I know some people are better at baking than cooking or vice versa but some skills translate to both. If you can’t boil noodles how are you going to melt chocolate over a double boiler (chocolate burns so easily). The book was all over the place but still managed to fall into those overused cliches like the “ugly” girl gets the hot guy from the pretty, model-like girl. I skimmed most of the end just to finish it so I could move onto something else. I mean if you like it, that’s great. It just wasn’t the book for me. I’d be willing to read more from the author, she’s got other books out that seem good, this one just wasn’t the best.