Title: On the Plus Side
Author: Jenny L Howe
Source: Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Reality TV Romance, Grumpy Lumbersexual x Actual Sunshine.
Trigger Warnings: Fatphobia, online bullying, emotionally abusive parents.
Explicit? Skirting the edges, it does get spicy.
Summary: Everly Winters is perfectly happy to navigate life like a good neutral paint color: appreciated but unnoticed. That’s why she’s still a receptionist instead of exploring a career in art, why she lurks but never posts on the forums for her favorite makeover show, On the Plus Side, and why she’s crushing so hard on her forever-unattainable co-worker. When no one notices you, they can’t reject you or insist you’re too much.
This plan is working perfectly until someone secretly nominates Everly for the next season of On the Plus Side. Overwhelmed by the show’s extremely extroverted hosts and how much time she’ll have to spend on screen, she finds comfort in a surprising friendship with the grumpy but kind cameraman, Logan. Soon Everly realizes that he’s someone she doesn’t mind being noticed by. In fact, she might even like it.
But when their growing connection is caught on camera, it sends the show’s ratings into a frenzy. Learning to embrace all of herself on national TV is hard enough; can Everly risk heartbreak with the whole world watching?
My Thoughts:
It was such a breath of fresh air to hear the word fat and have it not be something negative. To have it just be a descriptor, without the scorn usually placed behind it, making it something ugly and awful.
I used to have a friend, when I said I was fat would say, “No, you’re beautiful.” I never said I was ugly. Just fat. It’s a word, describing my body.
Everly is fat. She is also striking, and kind, and honestly a character I would love to read more of. She is someone you cheer for, that you want to defend and want to be their best friend. She means a lot, to a lot of people.
Logan is gruff, in plaid, kind and maybe hides a little embarrassment of his own about certain aspects of himself, which is not something you usually see in a leading man in a romance novel. And boy is he wonderful.
The show in the book? Seemed like the best idea in the beginning, but in reading the book you might find yourself flailing and almost tossing your book or ereader across the room in anger.
No eReaders were harmed in the reading of this book…
This was a sweet read, cute, and warm and ugh I just want to bathe myself in it. Is that weird? Probably.
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