Willowdean 'Dumplin' Dickson is a self-proclaimed fat girl and for the majority of her life she's been happy exactly the way she is. But one summer, Will ends up in a romantic englaement with Bo - a hot, athletic newcomer - and suddenly begins doubting herself. Dumplin decided to enter the town's beauty pageant to help boost her self-confidence and prove that fat girls can do it too.

I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this book so I really didn't know what to expect going into ti and I;m actually glad that this was the case as I think it helped me enjoy it a lot more. While there were definitely some aspects of Will that I didn't like and that annoyed me, overall I found the story sweet and enjoyable and I can why it was so easily picked up to become a film. Will is definitely great in her mindset, she knows she's fat and her best friend is thin but so what, that's just the way it is. She could definitely be quite judgey at times about other girls, fat or thin, but aren't we all sometimes? I also totally got the fear she felt the moment Bo touched her and became aware of her body cause I think no matter how skinny you are, when you're that adult moment when you're touched for the first time by someone yo're attracted to and you start feeling those feelings and thinking those thoughts, you suddenly become aware of your body as a whole and how it might appear to that person whose approval suddenly means the world. O think this came across really, really well for Will and it was a personal mountain she had to overcome in the book which I felt she eventually did (though I would have liked more aftermath at the end?)

I was disappointed there wasn't more actual pageant stuff and that Will wasn't as into it as I thought. Being from a country where beauty pageant wasn't even a word until I started reading Meg Cabot and watching MTV, pageants just completely amuse and enthrall me. It's like a whole new world, I was hoping for a bookish Miss Congeniality but it failed me in this aspect. It was like the pageant was the afterthought when the book had been marketed with it as the main plot. I love how the other girls joined in though and how great they were and that they became friends.

I though the crumpling relationship between El and Will was really interesting and I felt it was important. Friendships don't always last and people do become different and drift apart and I think it's important to convey this in books - that your childhood friend may not be your lifelong best friend. So to see how Will and El did become different people and how they struggled with this was good to read.

And can we talk about how cute Bo is for a minute? When he called her Willowdean, I died. He was the only one that called her by her full name and when he introduced her to others he called her Will, because Willowdean was just for him and omg I just loved that!!!!