Chubby & Charming (Big & Beautiful Book 1) by Mary E Thompson
A Romantic Comedy published by BluEyed Press (11/29/15)
Summary:
Mandy works as a customer service rep. She has a smooth voice and likes her job and helping people. When Xander calls in, Mandy is able to help him out and her voice captures his interest. He asks her out and she says yes. What Xander doesn’t know and what Mandy lives daily with is the fact that she’s not skinny and doesn’t say no to a good cupcake. What will Xander say when he finally sees her face to face for the first time? If it doesn’t matter at first to him, won’t it later on?
Keywords:
Friends, Customer Service, Telephone, Trust, Job, Cupcakes, Meeting Up, Date, Health Insurance Rep, Attraction, Lust
My Review:
The first few chapters of this novel were amazing! Mandy was interesting and different as the main character. Enter Xander, the hottie who wants to meet her. There’s tension. There’s excitement. What will happen?! Then they meet and like each other a lot. The rest of the book is about them being together and the only point of tension is Mandy’s insecurity about being with such an attractive HWP male. It’s hard to build a story around that. I kept waiting for the complication to settle in and the story to pick up. Even the climax was all in Mandy’s head and a complete disappointment and letdown.
Halfway through the book, almost every thought Mandy had was on sex and how hot Xander is. We get it. Mandy likes Xander because he’s sexy. There are paragraphs and paragraphs devoted to her thoughts about his body and I ended up skimming through most of them after the first couple. Mandy spends so much time thinking about herself, Xander, and her worries about her weight that there is no time left for subplots or plot points.
I was disappointed in Mandy and her lack of character development. She is shown as a woman who’s trust has been broken in the past regarding men and relationships. Great place to start, but she doesn’t change. Throughout the book she drops her trust of Xander any time he remotely seems like he might be pointing out the fact that she’s overweight and that he’s not. Mandy never gets over this fear. She never gains confidence in their relationship.
SPOILER:
Mandy acts and thinks like she’s very much in lust/love with Xander and all it takes is something small for Mandy to lose confidence in Xander. Does she really love him, then? Mandy and Xander breakup over nothing (just a miscommunication) like they’re teenagers in high school. The climax scene at Xander’s friend’s house was very high school. There were even fat jokes!
Xander was unrealistic every time he showed up and said or did anything. I wanted more realism from him, not a Stepford Wives boyfriend! Only in his initial pursuit of Mandy did he seem authentic as a person.
This novel was published by BluEyed Press on November 29th, 2015 and is available on Amazon here.
TL;DR Star Rating: 3.00
Links for more information:
Rachel Author Barnard 