I don't watch shows like the bachelor because I never see myself (a fat person) on screen. But in this book, a reality show (similar to the Bachelor/Bachelorette) takes on a plus size woman as a contestant! The love story made my heart so happy. I loved the characters. I loved the discussions around fat. The main character often had to stand up for herself by not apologizing for her fatness. Which I love to see! It's great to have a female protagonist not ashamed of her body. There were so many relatable moments for me throughout this book. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrew McMeel Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair review

This guide to learning to love yourself is also a journal with prompts for self reflection. This book is wonderful! It has a topic for each letter of the alphabet, and each topic has an associated journaling prompt. The illustrations and messages in this book are excellent. It makes the self-love journey more easily approachable and accessible. Sometimes, we just need a step-by-step guide on broaching difficult topics, and this is just that for body image and self love. 

This is a wonderful coming of age story, where a teen boy realizes his bisexuality and love for his friend/bandmate.  The look into how the entertainment industry treats LGBTQIA+ members was fascinating (even if fictional) and really made me think on that. I love the friendships in this book. And gotta love the friends to lovers. The book is a little long for my liking, but overall loved it. 

The love story! The steam! The MLM romance! I loved this book a lot, but could have done without some of the toxic masculinity (e.g., "man up" and similar phrases being used). There were also a lot of stereotypical southern attributes to the character from Tennessee, which were annoying. Overall, a very cute, gay romance with some mentions of sports.

 I learned a lot about conversations from this book, especially how I converse with people. There were a lot of takeaways for me from this. I had so many "aha" moments from Celeste's recounting of her personal experiences. I learned better ways of listening, and better ways for responding to those I am speaking with. I have really been reflecting on a lot of the points Celeste makes in this book. Highly recommend for anyone. It is a little preachy at points, but that's self help for you.

“Being a good talker doesn’t make you a good listener. And being smart might make you a terrible listener.” 

 

“A good conversation is not necessarily an easy one” 

 

“Listening to someone doesn’t mean agreeing with them. The purpose of listening to understand, not to endorse.” 

 

In uncomfortable conversation, defaulting to a conversation you are comfortable with: yourself. She uses example of talking about her own dads death when her friend is grieving and friend gets upset. Turns attention to yourself. “Conversational narcissism” shift versus support response. 

 

“The more comfortable you are, the more difficult it is to empathize with the suffering of another” 

 

“If the point of a conversation is to engaged someone else so you can have an effective and enlightening exchange, the trivialities can quickly become counterproductive “ 

 

“We talk to someone because we want to say something, not because we want to hear” 

This book was too long and there were so many plot points that were not well thought out. The whole premise is about two friends who supposedly fall in love, but we never really get to see them fall in love? It is just alluded to that they are falling in love, but we don't get very many scenes with the two of them that make you believe in the love. I loved the story idea for this, but there were just too many missing pieces for me to love this. 

This quirky story told entirely through slack messages in an NYC office was just what I needed. It's such a quick read, but provides so much entertainment. The office drama, magical realism of someone getting stuck in the computer, and an office romance will make you laugh. There's also queer rep! 

Plus size rep! This is a cute romance with great themes of moving your body to feel good, not to lose weight or change your body. I wish the main character had been able to love her body and be confident without changing her body. But topics of disordered eating were handled well and shed light on how sneaky diet culture can be and how disordered eating can present itself.  

This book is such an interesting look into what cults are via the lens of language. Cultish is very informative and opened my eyes to cultish groups and how language plays into them. It shows you how easy it can be to get involved in a cult, and showed me there are cultish aspects to groups I am a part of.